Dixie Wooten doesn’t sugarcoat anything when it comes to his football team. He speaks the truth in an east Texas drawl.
Following the Tucson Sugar Skulls’ 67-66 home-opening loss to the San Diego Strike Force this past Saturday, Wooten reviewed the game film.
The final verdict: “This is the worst loss I’ve ever had in my whole career — high school, college, professional football. … The team that we put together, to let our city down in a way like that, this is probably the worst loss that I’ve ever been through,” said Wooten, who is the head coach and general manager of Tucson’s IFL team.
The Sugar Skulls frittered away a 17-point lead in the fourth quarter against the then-winless Strike Force. San Diego scored 30 points in the fourth quarter to rally back and beat their Interstate 8 rival. Tucson scored a franchise-record 66 points, but also coughed up the most points scored by an opponent in a home game.
“We dominated the game all the way until the fourth quarter. Every time we had a chance to put them away, we didn’t put them away,” Wooten said. “When you leave a professional football team lingering around, all they gotta do is make one or two plays and it can change the game.
“Offense did a great job. When you score 66 points, you’re supposed to win any game. Looking back on all the games I’ve ever coached, when we score 66, the other team always had 30-something. Every time. In this situation, our defense didn’t come to play. We gave up a lot in the pass game and we gave up so many third-down touchdowns, it was unreal. As a coach, I look back and realize I’ve never run this much (man-to-man defense) before. I have to put my guys in a situation to be successful defensively, especially on the back end.”
Tucson outgained San Diego 240 yards to 168, but their defensive game plan — pressuring Strike Force rookie quarterback Steve Cluley, deploying linebacker Connor Taylor to pressure him — backfired.
“We were going to blitz him all night, keep him in the pocket, make sure he doesn’t run around and make sure we to get hands on him,” Wooten said. “We hit him every play, but we gave up the route early on the back end and he was able to throw the ball while getting hit, and they were getting wide-open touchdowns.”
With just over nine minutes left to play and the Sugar Skulls holding a 17-point lead, Wooten subbed in backup quarterback Vincent Testaverde for starter Daquan Neal. Three plays later, Testaverde’s handoff to Sugar Skulls running back Mike Jones was stuffed in the end zone for a safety.
“In this league, your quarterback can go down any second. So you want to make sure your backup quarterback gets the time. Testaverde played in the NFL, so we felt putting him in at that time was a good idea,” Wooten said. “Still, that’s two points and it was 60-45. We still have to put these guys away. We had many opportunities, but we didn’t take the opportunity to choke them while they were down. That’s on me as a coach.”
San Diego then scored on the ensuing drive to make the score 60-53. In just over four minutes of game play, San Diego took a two-possession game that needed a two-point conversion and flipped it into a seven-point deficit. However, Tucson returned a kickoff for a touchdown, but back-to-back touchdowns, including one after Neal’s second interception of the game, and a PAT sent the Strike Force back to San Diego with a walk-off win and their first victory of the season.
“We stepped it up, but in the fourth quarter, everybody thought the game was over,” Neal said. “Arena (football) is a quick game, so (San Diego) got the momentum and just ran with it.”
Tucson’s poor passing defense and special teams struggles — the team missed four PATs — means roster changes are bound to happen. Wooten plans on shuffling heading into Saturday’s game against the Duke City Gladiators in Albuquerque.
“We had to make some tough decisions and send some people home,” Wooten said. “If the secondary can match the (defensive) line and the linebackers, we’ll have a championship defense as well.”
The Sugar Skulls’ Benjamin Jones, left, and San Diego’s David Haney lock on to each other’s facemasks on a kick return during last week’s game. Jones was named the IFL’s Special Teams Player of the Week.
Jones earns IFL Player of Week honors
Following an impressive showing as a kick returner, Tucson’s Benjamin Jones was named the IFL Special Teams Player of the Week.
Jones averaged 26.8 yards in eight returns against San Diego, returning one 50 yards for a fourth-quarter touchdown.
Massachusetts Pirates quarterback Alejandro Bennifield was named IFL Offensive Player of the Week, and the Arizona Rattlers’ Devontae Merriweather received IFL Defensive Player of the Week honors.
