Huey Whittaker of the Spokane Shock drags Cleveland Gladiators defender Joe Phinisee on route to one of his five touchdowns during the Shock's 62-56 win Saturday night. (Katie Brinager/SportsTalkCleveland.com)
Views and notes from SportsTalkCLEVELAND’s football correspondent, GLENN MOORE, on the Cleveland Gladiators 62-56 overtime loss to the Spokane Shock Saturday night in Cleveland.
Playoffs? Playoffs? – The Gladiators playoff hopes took a hit with their eighth loss of the season, keeping them in the basement of the Midwest Division. Dropping to 6-8 and only two games remaining, Cleveland needs to win their final two games and also get a lot of help from other teams if they want to taste the postseason. The Shock improved to 11-2 and have won nine in a row. They wrapped up the West Division crown with tonight’s win.
Pick 6 – While the Gladiators came back and forced the game into overtime, they couldn’t covert on their first possession in the extra period. Instead, quarterback John Dutton was picked off by Victor Williams at the Spokane seven yard line. Williams then zigzagged to the end zone and gave the Shock the win.
Injury Bug Bites – During tonight’s loss, the Gladiators lost two of their starting wide receivers to injury. Ben Nelson, who was having an outstanding year, and Chris Johnson both exited midway through the game.
“Both injuries could be pretty bad. We’ll have to wait and see what the test shows,” head coach Steven Thonn said after the game.
Nelson left the game with six catches for 72 yards, including two touchdowns. Johnson left with 18 yards on two catches.
Leaders Of The Half – Spokane came into tonight’s game 8-0 when leading at the half. They continued that trend tonight. They held Cleveland to only seven points in the first quarter and 21 for the half. The Gladiators continued their trend of not being able to comeback from a halftime deficit, as they dropped to 1-4 when down at the midway point.
Big Guys Need Love Too – Scoring your first touchdown in any league is special. Scoring your first touchdown as a 6-8, 325 man is even more special. Adam Tadisch took Dutton’s pass at the Shock’s 15-yard line and literally carried five players on the way to the endzone for the Gladiators 2nd quarter touchdown.
Dutton finished the game 27-45 for 294 yards, including five touchdown passes and one interception, which turned out to be the game winner for the Shock.
LeBron James Sighting At The Q – Well, not really. But several Spokane players celebrated touchdowns and key plays by imitating the LeBron James chalk toss. Huey Whittaker was the started the charade, as he was booed from the Cleveland crowd after his team’s first touchdown.
“I just figured I’d pay tribute to a great player,” Whittaker said.
As a side note, no anti-LeBron James videos or pictures were displayed on the Q-Tube during the game.
One To The Next One – The Gladiators will play the Oklahoma City Yard Dogz next Saturday at home. The Yard Dogz entered this week’s play with a 5-7 record. Cleveland and Oklahoma City have not played each other this year.
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Glenn Moore hosts MOORE SPORTS on SportsTalkCLEVELAND.com every weekday from 2-4pm ET.
“We played for thirty minutes”, Gladiators quarterback John Dutton said. “It’s tough when you think you have the game wrapped up, but it was only halftime.”