Danny White is starting to sound like a broken record and he's not too happy about it.
After his Utah Blaze team dropped another nail-biter — this time a 52-49 home decision to the Columbus Destroyers on a last-second 35-yard field goal from Mark Lewis — the Blaze coach grimaced a little as he repeated some of the same old lines about needing to focus harder, make the big plays and stay positive.
"It's, uh, it's starting to become a habit," White said of losing games in the final moments. "We're starting to lose our confidence in the second half. We've got to fix that."
And the Blaze want it fixed fast.
Now staring at an unexpected 0-4 record, Utah is wondering what moves to make next as it seeks to right the ship and make a push toward the AFL playoffs. After three weeks, the Blaze sought to address a problematic defense by making a trade for a veteran defensive back and juggling assistant coaches.
That paid off in some ways, but this time it was the normally potent offense that came up shooting blanks at critical times.
Quarterback Joe Germaine showed what might have been an indicator of things to come when his first pass of the game was intercepted. And though Utah forced a Columbus turnover on the next play — Kelvin Morris picked off Matt Nagy, setting up the first Utah score — Germaine was never truly on target through stretches of the game.
Throwing for 298 yards and six touchdowns was impressive, if not for the two interceptions — one returned for a touchdown in the first quarter — and 19 incomplete passes. Whether underthrown, overthrown, bobbled or stripped, several of those passes were in the end zone and could have resulted in more than enough points to salt the game away for the Blaze.
"We just need a couple more of those — we only needed one more of those today," White said. "We got one of those and it's a different story."
Instead, it's the same old story and the Blaze are tiring of listening to it.
Utah receiver Huey Whitaker had an otherwise splendid night at EnergySolutions Arena. He grabbed 12 catches for 131 yards and three touchdowns. He also took a handoff from Germaine and ran it in from four yards out for Utah's final score of the game — and a 49-42 lead.
But with an opportunity to win the game on third down and 60 seconds left to play, Whitaker allowed Columbus' Sidney Haugabrook to strip the ball out of his hands while he fell backwards to the turf in the endzone.
A play later, and on fourth down needing just three yards for a drive-extending first down, Germaine lofted the ball toward the end zone again. Haugabrook grabbed it, only to have Utah's JJ McElvey rip it out and nearly corral it himself before slamming into the end boards and losing the ball.
"God gave us the abilities to catch the ball. But tonight, sometimes, we didn't get it done," Whitaker said. "We just gotta practice hard and we'll fix that."
White defended the decision to go for the end zone on fourth down by saying the Destroyers' defense took away the first option of a short pass by jamming the Blaze receivers at the line of scrimmage.
"With our big receivers, that's the percentage thing to do," White said. "We just couldn't make the plays."
White now turns his attention to another percentage — the .000 winning percentage his team has this year — as Utah prepares to host Georgia next Saturday.
E-mail: jeborn@desnews.com