by Halfway through the UFL regular season, the Aviators stand at 1-4, on the outside looking in for any shot at a postseason. The sad part is, despite having 4 losses, they have only been outscored 126-120 as they are right in these games and if it wasn’t for a few costly mistakes, they would be 2-3, 3-2 and maybe even 4-1. They are that close! But, as the old saying goes, close only counts in hand grenades and horseshoes, so, despite the effort, the facts remain, the Columbus Aviators are 1-4.
I spoke today with Head Coach Ted Ginn about how they plan on cleaning up those small mistakes keeping them from victory as they host the Houston Gamblers Friday night, a team they had beat numerous times this past Sunday had it not been for those costly mistakes, time and time again in a 17-14 loss. Ginn had this to say, “Everyone has too look themselves in the face from coaches to players and make sure we are doing everything right while understanding when we do something wrong.”
One very strong factor on the side of the Aviators is their ability to make in game and week of adjustments. We’ve seen it several times this season and this past Sunday was more of the same as after allowing 14 straight points to Houston to start, they only allowed 3 points to the Gamblers the rest of the game.
They have done that several times this season including in their home win a few weeks back in their win over Dallas in which they let up 14 quick points and then shut down the Renegades over the remaining 3 quarters.
I spoke with Tony Fields who led the Aviators with 13 tackles last Sunday versus the Gamblers, on his defensives ability to make in game adjustments, “Our mentality after a score is bend but don’t break. Let’s move on and look over the film in game and make those adjustments. Once we get those corrections fixed, we’re flying around and a fast defense to do everything correctly when the corrections are made.”
This will be crucial as they hope to once again contain a strong Gambler attack that rotates 3 quarterbacks in and out for a variety of attacks. Concentration and focus will be key to a win, Fields touched on that here as well, “We want to help each other, to be honest, we don’t want to blame referees. We have to control ourselves and do our 1 11’s to look down the line and see if someone’s head is on the ball. You have to be able to communicate as well to know and understand the situation. “
The game is set for this Friday night in Columbus at Historic Crew Stadium. The kickoff is at 8pm as the first 5,000 fans in attendance receive Jim Tressel Bobbleheads.
