Connor Williams, Beat Writer for the Oklahoma City Orioles, Oct. 20, 2016
Game Recap
It was a hard fought game by the Oklahoma City Orioles on Monday night, but in the end the Virginia Beach Sharks seemed to be a bit too much to handle on the offensive end, with the game ending 156.18-141.46. The difference in the game seemed to be the quarterback play while Eli Manning and Andy Dalton combined for 83 points for the Sharks compared to the 62 that Marcus Mariota and Russell Wilson put up. Although the Oriole’s quarterbacks did produce good numbers, it seems that as usual they are asked to do too much with such an ineffective running game. Mark Ingram and Darren Sproles combined for a lousy 14 points in which they never seemed to show any sort of life running the ball or getting involved in the passing game. Julio Jones did provide some life for the Orioles adding 27.9 points with 139 yards receiving and a touchdown but with such an unbalanced attack by the Orioles, defenses are starting to catch on to them. With no threat to the running game from the Orioles the Cardinals defense was able to drop back into coverage and come up with two interceptions.
Matchup Preview
- The Oklahoma City Orioles look to get back in the winning column this week against the Austin Armadillos.
- The Armadillos recently just executed a trade improving their high powered offense by acquiring Matt Ryan for Tyrod Taylor and DeSean Jackson.
- The Oklahoma City Orioles really need to get their running game in order as leading rusher Mark Ingram only scored 8 points last week.
- Jamison Crowder has been a bright spot for the Orioles the past two weeks scoring 36 points; he will be in an X factor in this weekend’s matchup against the Armadillos.
- The most intriguing matchup again though is going to come down to quarterback play between Marcus Mariota and Carson Palmer. Mariota has been asked to handle a lot of the responsibility of the Orioles and has handled it well, but it is going up against a much tougher opponent this weekend.
- The Orioles are going to need consistency out of Julio Jones this week. He has been very streaky this season and they are going to need him to come up big against a high-powered offense of the Armadillos.
Oklahoma City Orioles Season Notes
- The Orioles stayed steady in 10th place this week after falling to the Virginia Beach Sharks.
- Oklahoma City picked up new Tight End Hunter Henry replacing Jason Witten
- Orioles have gotten away from the injury bug that they faced early on this season, however, they are still waiting on running back Thomas Rawls to get healthy from his ankle injury. He seems to still be a few weeks out.
- James White has been added into the starting running back at running back
- Randall Cobb has also been added into the starting line up at the flex position
- Two young kids were in a tragic car accident around 4 p.m. today. A female child died on the scene and a male teen was transported to the hospital immediately with no life threatening injuries.
- An Oklahoma City police officer was arrested on Tuesday for tipping off a prostitute about a sting.