Fever visits Colorado today

Adam Shackleford swears he doesn’t pay attention to the Indoor Football League standings.

But with his Tri-Cities Fever team off to a struggling start of 1-4, the head coach knows his team needs to start winning soon.

Sunday might be a great time to start, as the Fever visits its Intense Conference rival Colorado Ice for a 2 p.m. kickoff.

“I really don’t worry about the standings,” said Shackleford. “We’re more worried about Colorado at the moment.”

It just so happens, though, that the Ice (3-2) are two games ahead of the Fever in the standings and sitting in the second and final playoff spot in the Intense Conference.

So today’s contest is a pretty big deal for the Fever. It also marks the second game Houston Lillard will start at quarterback for Tri-Cities. Lillard was signed two weeks ago after the team struggled with Dante Warren at quarterback.

Lillard led the Fever to the United Bowl — the IFL’s championship game — in both the 2011 and 2012 seasons.

But he hadn’t played a competitive game since that final title game until last weekend, when the Fever lost 63-43 at home to the Cedar Rapids Titans.

This week, however, Shackleford has opened up more of the playbook for Lillard.

“We had a really good week of practice,” said Shackleford. “Houston is a lot more comfortable with the offense. He got a lot more reps in. We’ve got healthy receivers, a healthy offensive line, and (running back) Keithon (Flemming) is looking good.”

Indeed. Flemming looked good against Cedar Rapids last weekend, scoring three touchdowns.

“We ran the football well,” said Shackleford. “The problem was, when we got down some possessions, we couldn’t run the ball any more and had to pass. We had three field goals in the first half. If you turn those into touchdowns, maybe we give them a better game.”

And the Fever defense, long a strong part of the team the last few seasons, couldn’t stop the Titans.

“You know, the first half we played well,” Shackleford said. “In the second half we played horrible.”

The Titans scored touchdowns on all five of their second-half possessions.

So the Fever defense will have to step it up against the Ice today.

“We have to stop their running game,” said Shackleford. “We want to force their quarterback, Willie Copeland, to throw the ball downfield.”

However, Copeland has had success throwing the ball this season, tossing 19 touchdown passes against just two interceptions.

And the Fever will have to play without star linebacker Boris Lee, who suffered a strain of one of his MCLs last week, and a partial strain of the other MCL.

“He’ll be out for a while,” said Shackleford.

The Fever coach will be looking for someone to pick up the slack against another strong team in the IFL.

“We’ve played three tough teams in a row,” said Shackleford. “This is our fourth in a row (today).”

By the numbers

The Fever’s offense ranks third in the IFL in scoring at 48.6 points a game. Colorado is fifth at 45.8. ... The Ice is fourth in scoring defense, surrendering 38.6 points a game, while the Fever ranks seventh at 54.2. ... Copeland is No. 2 in total offense, averaging 194.6 points a game. He’s also third in total offensive touchdowns with 21 (2 rushing and 19 passing). His 19 TD passes are tops in the league. He’s also third in the league in yards passing per game with 160.2. ... Flemming is averaging 11 points scoring in a game, and that ranks him second in the league. He has seven TDs and a 2-point conversion for 44 points in four games. Flemming also averages 5.7 yards every time he runs with the football. That’s second-best in the IFL. ... Ice kicker Phil Welch is ranked third among kickers in average scoring per contest with 10.2 points. Welch’s nine field goals are tied for second. ... Ice WR Kyle Kaiser’s 8 TD receptions are tied for second in the IFL. ... Fever kicker Brady Beeson is tops among kickers in PAT kicking. Beeson is at 92 percent (23 for 25). ... Former Fever LB Joe Thornton, now with Colorado, ranks fourth in the IFL in tackles with 47. Fever DB Lionell Singleton leads Tri-Cities with 34, ranking him seventh.

This story was originally published April 12, 2014 at 10:58 PM with the headline "Fever visits Colorado today."