Utah lost today against New England Free Jackets, 36-27, with no bonus points. A bonus point would have put them in striking distance of overcoming the Dallas Jackals for the last playoff spot in the Western Conference. But that did not happen.
Remarkable, too, that Utah, who lost to the Seawolves last week, 68-29, came within nine points of the top team in the Eastern Conference. What does that say about the Eastern Conference?
The Seattle Seawolves will have another go at the Sabercats. The best way for that to happen is for Seattle to win three games: against Los Angeles on June 22, against San Diego on June 29 in San Diego, and then again against San Diego in the playoffs on Sunday, July 21. And then the Seawolves return to Houston for the Western Conference finals on Sunday, July 28.
The must-win game in that scenario is the playoff match on July 21. Lose that game and the season is over without the rematch against Houston, which beat Seattle Saturday, 28-25, at Sabercats Stadium.
Three of Houston’s tries started from mistakes the Seawolves made: an overthrown lineout toss, a rare knock-on by Divan Rossouw at fullback and a quick penalty that caught the Seawall defense still in neutral. Houston’s fourth and “you can’t blame me” try came with wing forward Keni Nasoqeqe busting through Seattle’s back line.
Seattle’s offense relied heavily on Mack Mason’s foot. Not just for the conversion and two penalty kicks he made, but for his kicks ahead that resulted in tries for Toni Pulu (who outran the Houston winger to touch down in the corner) and Jade Stighling, who gathered in Mason’s kick right at the try line. Even with the Seawolves at 14 men after a high tackle yellow card on Rhyno Herbst, the Seawolves found a way to keep scoring.
The other Seattle try came from a heads-up play by Sam Matenga, who regained his feet at a goal line ruck, saw the ball in front of him, picked it up and dived over for the score.
That totals 25 points. Houston had 28, winning by a penalty kick that can be blamed on A.J. Alatimu, a former Seawolves, who had two of them in the game.
The surest way to a rematch with Houston is for the Seawolves to win, win, win. That will give the Seawolves the hometown advantage in the first playoff game before heading to Houston for the conference final. Assumption here is that Seattle will play San Diego in the playoffs, which is how the standings now line up. But that could change in the last two weeks of the regular season. Looking ahead:
San Diego plays Chicago Hounds on Monday night, June 17, then Houston on June 23 and Seattle (in San Diego) on June 29.
Besides the Legion on June 29, Seattle plays Los Angeles on June 22 in Seattle.
Besides the San Diego game, Houston plays Dallas, now in the fourth spot in the standings, on June 29.
Besides the Houston match, Dallas plays Utah on June 22.
Utah has to win today against New England and then finish their season at home with wins against Dallas and LA. That would give Utah 12 points in the standings (with no bonus points). If Dallas loses against Houston and Utah and picks up no bonus points, the Warriors would be in the playoffs, outranking Dallas in the standings, 40 points to Dallas’ 39.
Rather be Seattle.
Punkus Arnett, probably noticing that madcapschemes.com needed desperate help in the photography department, volunteered to let us use his photos. This is a big improvement to this blog. Thank you, Punkus.
What was the worry two weeks ago about the Seattle Seawolves being deprived of six players out for the season because of injuries? That the Seawolves might not be able to beat Utah, might not win any more regular season games and miss the playoffs?
Given the 68-29 win over Utah on Sunday night, it seems that Seattle coach Allen Clarke has met those worries and made them go away – at least for now.
It helped that Joe Taufete’e and Sam Matenga came back from injuries. But it was a smart move to start Huw Taylor at No. 8. And mixing in Devin Short, Tavite Lopeti and Andrew Durutalo bolstered the lineup. And this “new” team played remarkably well.
Let’s start with Jade Stighling, who should get his own bonus point for scoring four tries, two of them by intercepting Utah passes. Taufete’e scored two tries off the PKTTLMGT treatment (penalty, kick to touch, lineout, maul, guaranteed try), a tactic never to be criticized in these quarters again. Lauina Futi, another two-fer, was set up by Lopeti after some razzle-dazzle passing for one try, but Futi stole the show for his next one: two fakes, a wiggle and then touching down at the feet of four would-be Utah tacklers.
The Seawolves scored 10 tries (is that a record?) for 50 points, two were under the posts for four more points and Mack Mason converted seven of them for 14 points.
The Seawolves, with three regular season games left to play, have earned a playoff spot.
If there was any disappointment in Sunday’s game it would be those 29 points Utah scored, including a penalty try after Seattle collapsed a maul. That resulted in the second yellow card of the game. Utah received one in the first half for what the TV announcers called a “head-butt tackle,” one more name for a dangerous tackle, a shoulder tackle, a no-arms tackle, a high tackle, etc. In reality, it was no tackle as the Utah player was flattened and the Seawolves’ player continued on, moving the ball to spring Stighling for his first ry.
Including the penalty try, Utah had four tries, enough for a bonus point. The Warriors scored off the side of a ruck in the first half, and midway through the second half, their backs made good use of what looked like broken plays until they weren’t.
When your team is ahead by 40 points, allowing the opponents to score 29 is no big deal. But with the Seawolves playing Western Conference leading Houston at Sabercats Stadium at 4 p.m. on Saturday, June 15, maybe this is something Allen Clarke should worry about.
