Cleveland 2, Pittsburgh 0.
No it wasn’t a forfeit, that is just the season standings between the two teams after a 55-28 drubbing of the Power which is as sound of a beating as you’ll see the Pittsburgh Power (3-3) take all season.
I spent most of the drive back from Cleveland searching for the perfect word to describe it and about 25 minutes from home my son started blurting out one of his recent favorite words, cattywampus.
Cattywampus is a perfect description of what Power fans saw out of the team tonight. The opening kickoff saw the Power recover a fumble only to see the play overturned because of an offsides penalty and the Power never really did recover their composure. Their night was also marred by penalties, poor quarterback play, dropped passes, and a clear understanding that the Cleveland Gladiators (6-0) got under their skin.
Quarterback Tommy Grady followed up his best performance of the year last week against Arizona with an absolute stinker tonight finishing 29 of 51 for 273 yards, three touchdowns, and an interception. Pittsburgh never did develop any kind of consistent rhythm in this game. It was surprising to see an offense that clicked on almost all cylinders last week against Arizona seem so out of sorts this week.
Aaron LeSue finished with nine catches for 102 yards and no scores. Shaun Kauleinamoku had eight catches for 94 yards and two touchdowns and Rodney Wright and Tommy Taggart both added two touchdowns a piece in the game.
It goes without saying this team missed one of its biggest playmakers from the first meeting between these teams as Prechae Rodriguez continues to sit out with a high ankle sprain and their other top receiving option Aaron LeSue left the game with an injury and will await the results of an MRI later tonight or tomorrow. Here’s hoping Lesue’s injury was only limited to this game because the Power cannot afford to lose another playmaker from this offense.
I’m not going to take anything away from the undefeated Gladiators who have proven themselves worthy of being mentioned amongst the elite teams of the AFL. Marrio Norman, LaRoche Jackson and Dominic Jones were laying some thunderous hits on the Power receivers, especially Rodney Wright who took at least three vicious shots in this game. Cleveland is definitely the bully in the division with a three game lead on the Power plus the tiebreaker, which effectively means a 4 game lead with 12 games to go. It’s going to be up to the Power if they figure out how to fight back before the end of the year.
Life doesn’t get any easier for Pittsburgh this week with division rival Philadelphia coming to town. Kickoff will be at 7 Pm on Saturday May 3rd at Consol Energy Center.
Photo Courtesy of Cleveland Gladiators Facebook
