Monday, Jun. 08, 2009

Penalties adding up, again, for Fever

By Ben Reynolds, Herald staff writer

KENNEWICK -- The Tri-Cities Fever has been through four coaches in less than four seasons.

Players have shuttled in and out of town before they could even unpack their bags.

But there has been one constant for the Fever over the past three seasons -- penalties.

Despite all the coaching changes and personnel moves, Tri-Cities continues to see yellow flags scattered on the field at an alarming pace.

The Fever (1-9) racked up 12 more penalties Saturday night in a 53-37 loss at Stockton. It only cost the team 58 yards, but for the second straight week, a penalty has cost the Fever a touchdown.

For an offense that is averaging a league-worst 32.4 points per game, the flags are becoming a disturbing trend for coach Pat O'Hara.

"We have too many penalties," he said. "We need to clean that up."

The Fever has been flagged a league high 111 times this season in 10 games. Tri-Cities is averaging a penalty every 4.4 plays.

The Fever has the second-most penalty yards with 808 (80.8 per game) in the af2, and two weeks ago set a franchise record with 154 penalty yards in a 60-21 loss to Spokane.

Tulsa ranks last in the league, averaging 84.1 penalty yards per game. But the Talons (9-1) are also scoring a league-best 64.7 points per game.

The abundance of flags the Fever has garnered this season is really nothing new.

In 2007, the Fever led the league in penalties, averaging 76.8 yards per game. Tri-Cities was flagged 186 times -- the second-most in league history -- for 1,228 yards in 16 games.

Last season, Tri-Cities ranked 28th out of 29 teams, averaging 75.5 penalty yards per game. The Fever was called for a league-high 172 penalties -- the fourth most in af2 history.

If the Fever continues at its current pace, it would finish the season with 178 penalties for 1,293 yards.

Those numbers would still fall short of the 2002 Norfolk team that committed a league-record 190 penalties for 1,406 yards.

"You can't do it," O'Hara said.

-- Tomotsuna Inoue passed for 312 yards Saturday night in his first af2 start.

It was the most passing yards by a Fever quarterback since Brian Baker threw for 317 yards against Spokane on July 14, 2007. Baker threw for more than 300 yards six times that season.

-- Saturday night was the Fever's ninth straight road loss, the seventh longest streak in af2 history.

-- The Fever set a season-low for return yards with just 41 on Saturday. The previous low was 103 set against Spokane on April 11. The lack of return yards resulted in poor field position all night for Tri-Cities, which started outside its own 10-yard line just twice. The Fever's average field position was its own 7-yard line.

-- Emery Beckles caught a career-high seven passes for 113 yards. In his previous two seasons with the Fever, Beckles has just 15 receptions for 81 yards.