Nighthawk plan earns high praise

Omaha's offense in its United Football League opener failed to score enough points to produce a win over the Virginia Destroyers.

But it did score points with one veteran observer.

"They have a terrific, terrific scheme, and I was concerned about our ability to manage it," said Virginia coach Marty Schottenheimer, the owner of 200 National Football League victories. "What they're doing is unique. It's an offense that is fluid, and you're never really sure where it's going.

"They have the ability to take what appears to be a bad play and turn it into a good play. This is the first time I've been confronted with something like this in 30 years of coaching. I give Joe credit because he's got them doing it, and they're doing it well."

However, the Nighthawks didn't do it well enough in the 23-13 loss to the Destroyers to satisfy coach Joe Moglia. Omaha had four turnovers, and penalties wiped out a number of big plays.

But Moglia saw enough good things to leave him encouraged about what the no-huddle, spread attack might be able to do in the season's remaining five games.

"Can we clean up the penalties? I certainly expect us to," Moglia said. "Can we clean up the turnovers? I certainly expect us to.

"The mistakes were our mistakes. I think we should be able to correct those."

Based on unofficial statistics, Omaha managed to gain 389 yards, with quarterbacks Eric Crouch and Jeremiah Masoli passing for 267. Masoli directed both of the Nighthawks' scoring drives, moving the team 62 yards to a second-quarter touchdown and 92 yards for a score in the closing minutes.

But Masoli threw two interceptions, and Crouch added another. Crouch also lost a fumble on a fourth-down play early in the fourth quarter that ended a drive that had moved from the Nighthawks' 19 to the Virginia 32.

The turnovers, as well as the penalties, kept the Nighthawks from building offensive momentum at key times in the game.

"The car was starting to go fast, and then the wheels came off," Crouch said. "The quarterbacks made mistakes; the receivers made mistakes. We just need to clean things up a little bit, and the good thing is that a lot of our mistakes are fixable."

Moglia and his players said they were more encouraged than discouraged by the opening-game performance.

"I'm encouraged because we have some time to work on fixing the things we did wrong," Crouch said. "We need to work on being faster and playing at a little higher tempo. We also need to take care of the football."

The Nighthawks' offensive pace concerned Schottenheimer before the game. Omaha defensive tackle Dusty Dvoracek said postgame discussions with several Virginia players left him convinced the Nighthawks' offense has plenty of potential if it can get up to full speed.

"It was very noticeable that their offense was exhausted by the end," Dvoracek said. "We face them every day in practice, so we know how hard it is. That's going to be hard for teams to replicate in practice.

"I know talking with some of their defensive guys they were gassed. Now, it's a matter of consistently making plays."

That's not limited to the offense, Moglia said. The Nighthawks had breakdowns on defense and in special teams play that Moglia said must be corrected.

• NOTES: All statistics for the game are unofficial. Team officials will review the game tape to try to correct numerous errors made by the statistics crew. Schottenheimer was quick to point one out after the game. "They have time of possession being 50:46 for us and 2:11 for them," he said. "That can't be right." Neither was the minus-294 yards on three kickoff returns for Omaha.

Contact the writer:

402-679-2298, steve.pivovar@owh.com

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