Hotshots rally past Memphis 20-18

Photo Courtesy: Memphis Commercial-Appeal

For almost three full quarters, it appeared the young AAF was about to see the biggest upset in its infancy as the heavily favored Arizona Hotshots, who scored the most points in week one with 38, were held scoreless by the Memphis Express, who were held without a point in the league's opening week.

Then the grinding began as the defense forced a Christian Hackenberg offense to a dead stop, while John Wolford began to move the Arizona offense as he hit Rashad Ross for a 16 yard touchdown pass for the Hotshots first points with barely a minute left in the third quarter.
Memphis responded with their only real scoring drive of the day when Zac Stacy ran 49 yards to move the ball downfield for a drive that would end in a Christian Hackenberg scramble for a four-yard rushing touchdown and an 18-6 Memphis lead.
Looking at a 12 point deficit, Arizona ripped off eight points as Justin Stockton rushed for a 45 yard touchdown that was paired with John Wolford keeping the ball on a quarterback option for a two-point conversion to trim the lead to 18-14.
After forcing a punt, Wolford then hit Josh Huff for a 64 yard gain to the Memphis eight before firing the game winning touchdown to Tim Cook out of the backfield for a 20-18 lead that held up after stopping one drive on a failed fourth down sneak by Christian Hackenberg and then forcing Memphis out on downs on their final drive with seconds to go to clinch the victory.
John Wolford finished with two touchdowns to go with those two early interceptions while Tim Cook's 73 yards rushing led a Hotshots ground game that finished with over 200 yards spread around four backs.

The now 2-0 Hotshots will travel to Salt Lake next Saturday afternoon for a rematch against the Stallions on "Bleacher Report" which is the only Hotshots games all season that will be online viewing only...

Hot off the Grill

1) The victory over Memphis was the first ever victory for a road team in the AAF.
After all four home teams won in week one, Birmingham rallied for a comeback home win over Salt Lake earlier in the afternoon to improve home teams record to 5-0 before the Arizona win.

2) In a ten game season, every game carries importance and it appears that the AAF is going to be a league that home field advantage is going to give a substantial amount of assistance.
The Hotshots didn't play well for 44 minutes of a 60 minute game against what appears to be the league's worst team and was forced to make a late rally to pull out a win.
If home field is going to be that important, every victory that can be pulled out of the five road games will pay even more dividends than usual. Winning trumps looking good.

3) John Wolford's two early interceptions led to ten of the eighteen points that Memphis scored to put the Hotshots into such a hole.
Wolford didn't cross 100 yards passing until the second half, but the fourth quarter passing was what you would hope for, especially on the pass to Josh Huff for the huge gain that would set up the game winning touchdown.
Wolford showed plenty of poise in rallying his team and that was in contrast with the opposing quarterback.

4) And that leads us to Christian Hackenberg, formerly of Penn State and a second-round choice of the Jets a few years back.
Hackenberg threw for just 102 yards, looked rattled against the Hotshot rush in being sacked four times and other than his late run for a touchdown looked more interested in arguing with his coaches.
I always thought Hackenberg was far overrated in his Penn State years and he hasn't developed a lick since Bill O'Brien left Happy Valley.

5) Former Ram running back Zac Stacy finished with over 100 yards against the Hotshots and might be the most impressive back that I've seen thus far.
Stacy's the type of second chance player that the AAF will hopefully be able to build on as the spring league that players will want to play in, going into next season when the AAF will be attempting to recruit players against the XFL.

6) Another big game for linebacker Steven Johnson, who finished with six solo tackles, four of those for loss.
Johnson did make a really dumb play in blasting Christian Hackenberg after he was a yard inside the end zone on his fourth-quarter touchdown run, but that's a play of aggression which while similar plays cannot be allowed to continue, can be excused.

7) Josh Huff finished with two catches for 84 yards and even though, on the first catch, Huff fumbled after a gain. Huff is the deep threat on this team with Rashad Ross as the possession receiver in adding another touchdown to his stats after an excellent opening week.

8) The Hotshots ran for over 200 yards against Memphis with three backs rotating to earn carries.
Tim Cook had the most carries and yards (13 for 73), but when your three backs (Cook, Jhurell Pressley and Justin Stockton) each have long gains for the day of  28, 36 and 45 yards, you are able to rip off huge chunks of ground.

9) Da'Sean Dorsey finished with two of the four sacks against Christian Hackenberg and the Arizona pass rush in a league that seems to be a league plagued by less than strong offensive line play has harassed passers in both games.
Dorsey was among the last players cut by Baltimore and is the type of player that as mentioned above that the AAF will have to show they can develop and put into the NFL if they want to thrive.

10) Next week against Salt Lake might be a game that places the Hotshots in an excellent position after only three games.
Salt Lake is already at 0-2 and would be three games out with seven to go and should San Diego lose today to Atlanta and start 0-2, a 3-0 Hotshot start with two of the wins on the road would bode very well for a playoff berth- even this early!