Valor Bring a Football Championship to Washington

Allow me one post to do my victory lap.  The Washington Valor last night won the AFL championship.   The Valor were the ultimate underdog, a team that went 2-10 in the regular season.  Since coming too D.C. nothing’s gone right for the Valor in terms of player health: they lost their star starting quarterbacks in both of the last two years.  But after firing their head coach midway through their second season and finally settling into things with a new QB in Avril Nelson, the team started to gel during the last few weeks of the regular season.  They were able to get an upset win in the 1st round of the playoffs by beating the Albany Empire, who were led by league two-time MVP Tommy Grady, giving them a shot at the championship in Baltimore.

The Valor came into this game hot. The offense was methodical on most their drives, rarely going after the quick strike 1 play touchdown drives that so many teams fall in love with in the Arena League.  The Valor instead worked the clock on multiple drives with a short passing game, and were positively run heavy by AFL standards.  Nelson alone had 15 rushing attempts. Momentum-wise, the Valor took control of this one in the 1st half with a 35-20 lead..  Washington eventually widened the gap to 22 points in the third quarter, giving them enough of a cushion to hold on for a 69-55 final score.

This game was all about special teams.  Both teams ended up scoring twice on kickoffs. Washington’s Chris Duvalt on an onside kick when he was able to field the ball cleanly and had a clear field in front of him.  The speedy receiver took off, getting around Baltimore’s returner and into the far corner of the end zone.  Baltimore answered in the 2nd half, getting 2 TD’s by Brandon Thompkins, who took a two kickoffs back to the house.  Thompkins is always a threat with the ball and forced the Valor to change their strategy on kickoffs from then on, sticking with onside kicks and line drives for the rest of the game.  When Baltimore was trying to catch up late in the game they attempted an onside kick and Washington’s big man Douglas McNeil took it back for a score.

In the end, the league named Avril Nelson the games MVP for his impressive 8 TD performance, with 5 coming on rushing plays. But the real standout performance came from McNeil, who ended up with 4 TD’s, including an impressive play where he broke at least 3 tackles to pull himself the final five yards to the end zone.