Shock win a close one

Spokane ended a trend of nearly two seasons worth of fairly comfortable to absolute blowout wins (read: all by double figures) by edging Arizona 73-66 on Saturday. That made the victory big on two fronts: 1). It came against the best franchise and No. 1 ranked team in the AFL. 2). It came in a close contest. Those have been rare for the Shock, and most of the time the outcome hasn’t been favorable.

The trend should have ended in the season’s fifth game but Spokane gave up a Hail Mary touchdown pass on the final play to fall to Cleveland 52-50. Other than that, Spokane’s other six losses this season were by at least 10 points. Four of Spokane’s five losses last season were by less than 10 points, including the 65-57 playoff loss at Arizona that ended the Shock’s season.

I took a look at the numbers to lead off this week’s Shock notebook . There’s also a few paragraphs on James Ruffin’s breakout season.