Storm Thursday Night Triumphs
(May 19, 2000)

When we last updated the Tampa Bay Storm, the team had just won a Thursday night home game over Carolina. It was the team's first victory after opening the season with three defeats. After another Thursday night home victory, last night against New Jersey, maybe the Storm should play all its games on Thursday.

In between the two victories was a disheartening loss at Orlando. For the longest time the Storm looked as if they were going to pull off the upset. They lead 14-3 after one quarter, 31-17 at half time and 43-31 late in the game. The Predators would score two touchdowns in the final 1:12, the second with nine seconds left, to pull out a 44-43 victory. When asked how he felt about losing a game the Storm had lead for the first 59:51, Tim Marcum responded "Shock would be an adequate word. We let this one get away."

Much could have been written about how big a victory at Orlando would have been. It could have been an indication that the team had turned the corner in the rebuilding process. There would have been some hope for a team, and its fans, who has suffered the worst start in Storm history. Obviously, a 2-3 record would have been much better than 1-4. Which brings us to last night's game. A loss to the Red Dogs, and a 1-5 record, would have been devastating.

James Bowden was the star of a sloppy game. Bowden caught ten balls for 129 yards and added 154 kick return yards to set a Storm record with 283 all purpose yards. George LaFrance, who previously held the record and played six seasons in Tampa Bay, is now with New Jersey. It was not much of a homecoming for LaFrance, who played some in the first half and did not catch a single pass. Storm quarterback John Kaleo was forced to disperse a good number of souvenirs, but had a decent game despite poor pass protection. The crowd would boo, hopefully for the poor blocking, not the fact that the QB had to threw the ball out of play. Kaleo finished 20 of 44 for 229 yards with four TDs, two to Lawrence Samuels, and a pair of picks. It was the 99th regular season victory for Tim Marcum, so the Storm's next victory will make him the first coach in league history to win 100 regular season games. The most important stat was the final score of Storm 40, Red Dogs 26.

While Thursday night games may be good for television, week night games are tough on the fans. The second smallest crowd in Storm history, 8,741, showed up last night. But if the Storm continue to win on Thursdays, the fans may be willing to make the sacrifice. Unless there is schedule switch for TV, all remaining Storm home games are on Saturday nights. They have a chance to keep the Thursday night string alive at Iowa next week, which is the last Thursday night game on the schedule. That is followed by two home games against divisional opponents, Florida (June 3) and Nashville (June 17), with a bye week in between. The Storm needs to find a way to win on the weekend and get on winning streak.