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| Ohio Glory quarterback Babe Laufenberg is sacked late in the second quarter by Sacramento Surge safety Louis Riddick, leading to a fumble which was recovered by Surge defensive end George Bethune for a 1-yard touchdown. |
Despite
many mistakes in a Week 1 loss at the Orlando Thunder, there was plenty of
positives going into the Ohio Glory’s first home game at Ohio Stadium against
the Sacramento Surge.
The Glory was much more than competitive in its 13-9 loss to the
Thunder, and it was going against a Surge team which, at that point, still was
an unknown commodity despite obvious improvement following a 3-7 record in
1991. Sacramento was coming off a 20-6 opening win at home against the
Birmingham Fire, but it had committed nine penalties and two turnovers in the
victory.
That optimism was buoyed by the opening drive of the game, when the
Glory marched 79 yards in 11 plays and took an early 6-0 lead on running back Amir
Rasul’s 1-yard touchdown plunge.
The beginning of the end to those good feelings amongst the team and
the 37,837 fans in the stands came on the extra point. The first Jerry Kauric
kick was good, but a holding penalty on just-activated linebacker Eric Snelson
led to the second PAT kick being blocked by Surge defensive tackle Nate Hill.
Late in the first quarter, the Glory was burned by a long wide receiver
screen touchdown for a second week in a row. Surge veteran quarterback David
Archer found wide receiver Eddie Brown for a 48-yard catch-and-run score to put
Sacramento ahead 7-6.
The score remained 7-6 until just inside of the two-minute warning of
the first half. On second-and-12 from its own 6-yard line, a play-action pass
was called. Ohio veteran quarterback Babe Laufenberg was a sitting duck in his
own end zone, and Surge safety Louis Riddick came in on a blitz for a
blind-side sack and forced fumble.
Sacramento defensive end George Bethune – ironically the No. 1 overall
pick in the 1992 World League of American Football draft with a choice acquired
from the Glory – picked up the loose ball, scored from a yard out and gave the
Surge a 14-6 halftime lead.
On the next drive, Laufenberg was sacked on a fourth-and-four play from
the Surge 40. That prompted Glory head coach Larry Little to make the move from
Laufenberg to untested National Football League allocation quarterback Pat O’Hara
in the second half.
O’Hara was 13-for-17 for 95 yards in the second half, but the closest
the Glory got to scoring in the second half was a missed Kauric 42-yard field
goal late in the third quarter.
Laufenberg was 11-for-19 for 110 yards, but the late-second-quarter
mistakes cost him his starting job. And in a sideline interview during the ABC
Sports telecast, he showed his displeasure with the play call which led to the
Surge’s defensive touchdown.
“I was against it,” Laufenberg said. “Not my decision. I didn’t like
the play from the get-go. I said so on the sideline. I run what they tell me to
run.”
Wide receiver Walter Wilson caught nine passes for 80 yards, but Rasul gained
just 28 yards on 14 carries and didn’t get many chances in the second half
while Ohio was playing catchup.
Ohio gained just 162 yards on offense after the opening drive of the
game.
“Our first drive was really a thing of beauty,” Little said after the
game. “But it seemed like right after we got that holding penalty on the
extra-point try and then had the next one blocked, we went downhill.”
The Glory defense yielded just 10 points and 228 total yards to
Sacramento’s offense. Ohio had allowed just two touchdowns on defense in the
first two games of the season, and had given up just 3.4 yards per carry
through the first two contests.
Riddick, thanks to his sack/forced fumble, five tackles and a pass
defensed, was named WLAF Week 2 Defensive Player of the Week.
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