National Arena League Football Playoffs:Carolina Cobras host the Massachusetts Pirates Tomorrow Night at 7pm at the Greensboro Coliseum:Take a look back, as DJ Wagner interviews Coach Billy Back

from DJ Wagner with the Carolina Cobras:

The Carolina Cobras host the Massachusetts Pirates on Saturday August 3 at 7pm at the Greensboro Coliseum and we are going to have a Black Out! We want to show the Cobras a lot of love and cheer them on as they take the Road to Repeat. We also want an NAL Record crowd. The current record is 10,464 and the Greensboro Coliseum holds 23,000. Let us tell you how we are going to make this so easy for you to come check out the Cobras and help us set that record.

Just $10 can get you seats in the end zones, and even a lot of the lower bowl as well as the upper deck, almost 91% of the Coliseum seats are available at that price. Just $20 can get you as close as the third row on the sidelines. But to get the best seats you are going to have to act fast, because these seats are selling on a first come, first served basis!! Call 336-455-7232 NOW!!

But you may ask, why should I come to a Cobra’s game?

Action Action Action!

A lot of scoring (the two teams average 100+ points per game combined this season)

You can possibly catch a football, which yes, you can keep!! (except kicks, but we will swap you for an autograph ball)

Family friendly entertainment!
Post-game Autograph Session! Where you and your kids can come on the same field the teams just played on!
Summertime football without the heat!!
Get a seat in the Snake Pit (1st two rows) you may even end up with a player in your lap! Give him back!
Oh, did I mention the tickets are so cheap???

$10 for the end zones, a lot of the lower bowl throughout, and the upper deck almost 91% of the Coliseum seats!!
$20 for the lower lower bowl on the sidelines!!
Our number to beat is 10,464 and we are making it as easy as possible to make that happen. Come out and help us set the new record and watch your Carolina Cobras defend their title!!

Look at the SEATING CHART to see just how sweet these seats are for the price!

Call 336-455-7273 NOW! You can also get these prices on Ticketmaster!

Strike Hard, Strike Fast, Get Tickets NOW, because they aren’t going to last long at these prices!

First Come, First Served, Go Cobras!

Article by: DJ Wagner

*********************************************************************************************************************************************************************The Record Breakers

Now that the regular season is done and the Cobras get ready for their playoff game Saturday night 7pm at the Greensboro Coliseum vs the Massachusetts Pirates it is time to take a quick look at the 2019 regular season and see what NAL and team records were broken in the regular season by the 2019 Carolina Cobras.

Let’s start off with the season NAL records broken by this team, and that starts with WR Jordan Jolly. In a season in which he played most of one game at QB, Jolly is now the NAL record holder for yards receiving in a season with 1,221 yards, beating the previous high of 1,085 yards by Durron Neal of the Columbus Lions last season. He set the record for receiving yards/game with 87.2, beating Rob Brown of Maine in 2018. He also tied the NAL record for receptions in season with 104, and TDs receiving in a year with 31 and certainly should be considered in the MVP race for the end of season awards.

QB1 Charles McCullum, who came into the season having never thrown a 300-yard game in the NAL threw for the NAL yardage record in a game with 346 yards passing at Orlando on 6/30 and over 300 two other times. He also tied the NAL record with nine TD passes in a game vs Orlando on 7/13.

DB Michael Green broke the NAL record for Passes defended with 44.

The team tied the NAL record for rushing defense, allowing only 15.7 yards per game.

Now to the team records:

Charles McCullum is the new rushing leader with 130 yards, beating himself from last season with 82. He also has the most rushing TDs in a year by a Cobra with 8, beating his 7 from last season. Dashawn Johnson is the leader in rushing attempts with 36, beating McCullum’s 29 from last season.

Naturally with all the new NAL records for Jolly, he also holds the team records now of receptions with 104, beating Tyron Laughinghouse’s 70 from last season. His 1,221 yards beats Laughinghouse from last year with 805, and the 31 TDs beats Laughinghouse and Phillip Barnett who both had 21 last season. He is also the new scoring leader with 192 points, beating out Craig “The Leg” Peterson who had 154 last season.

Michael Green is the new Cobras Interception leader with 10 this season, beating out the 8 by Cedric Poole last season, tied the record with 1 interception return for a TD, and has the record for passes defended at 44, beating his 34 from last season.

Cedric Poole has the team lead with 17 kick off returns, beating out Laughinghouse who had 15 last season and tied the team record with 1 kick off return for a TD.

Micah Robinson is now the new Cobra’s sack leader with 10 sacks, beating out Steve Miller who had 9 this year, and Omari Manhertz and Dewayne Beckford who led last season with 6 sacks each. He also holds the new Cobras record in Tackles For Loss with 17, beating out Steve Miller with 13 this season, and Omari Manhertz who led last season with 8.

On the team side, the Cobras Defense was strong, allowing only 431 points after allowing 585 last year, just 30.8 points per game, compared to 39 last season. The scoring margin was 20.6 compared to 19.4 last season and the defense only allowed 2,545 yards, just 181.8 yards per game, compared to 3,412 yards and 227.5 per game last year. The rushing defense tightened up even more, allowing just 15.7 this season to 22.3 last year. Pass Defense Efficiency was 95.4, just 0.1 away from tying the NAL record, beating the 97.4 in 2018. The Pass Defense improved from 205.1 yards per game in 2018 to 166.1 yards per game and they had 13 fumble recoveries in 2019 to 12 in 2018, and the turnover margin went from +11 last year to +17 this one. The Cobras defense also allowed only 216 First Downs, to 228 last season, the third down defense cut a 41.5% success rate against them on third down to just 27.7% this year. The Defense had 36 Sacks this season compared to 33 last season.

The offense didn’t slack off either and were much more efficient. They gained 6.3 yard per play compared to 6.0 last year. Pass yards per completion rose from 10.9 to 12, yards per pass went from 6.5 to 7.1 and they also improved the rushing offense to 18.2 yards per game, better than 16.7 last year. The Cobras ran the ball more, with 92 carries compared to 84, 255 yards rushing compared to 250 and 20 rushing TDs to 16. The offense controlled the ball better too, allowing only 18 Interceptions after throwing 21 last season.

Special Teams didn’t get left off this list either. Improving the FG %, which to be honest is a lot of times used as a punt since there is no punting in the NAL, but the it went up to 29.4% from 28.6% last season. There were 17 FG Attempts, while last season was 14, and they made 5 this year to 4 last year. The Cobras had more Kick Returns with 27 to 23.

In the red zone both sides of the ball flourished, the offense scored on 78.1% of their Red Zone opportunities last season improved that to 84.3% this year. The Red Zone Defense allowed scores on 84.3% of chances last season, but it tightened way down to 62.2% this season.

The 2019 Regular Season ends with the Cobras with a 9-5 record, they went 10-5 last season. In both seasons they were the #2 seed going into the playoffs. Last year the Cobras won the title, and that is certainly the goal for this season too.

Speaking of playoffs, they start Saturday night at 7pm in the Greensboro Coliseum, the Cobras are hosting the Massachusetts Pirates and have we ever got the ticket offer for you. The Cobras want to Black Out the Coliseum and we need your help, so we are going to help you, help us. If I told you the most expensive ticket outside the Snake Pit Section (First two rows on the sidelines) could be had for no more than $20, would it be worth it to come check out a game? What if I said you could get front row in the end zone for just $10, as well as the majority of the coliseum? Don’t believe me? Call 336-455-7232 extension 2 or you can even check out Ticketmaster to get this deal, but hurry, the seats are going fast!

Article by: DJ Wagner

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Talk Back: w/ Head Coach Billy Back

Sitting down Tuesday morning after practice with Coach Back, CarCobras.com had a chance to ask him a few questions about both the regular season as well as the playoff game Saturday night at the Greensboro Coliseum at 7pm versus the Massachusetts Pirates, where you can get tickets to over 80% of the Coliseum for just $10.

CarCobras: Now that the regular season is over, what would you say your thoughts are about it, or is your focus strictly on the playoffs?

Coach Back: Well the season is not over yet, but at the same time this has been the most trying, adverse, season I have ever had. We have six guys on season ending IR (Injured reserved), all six major contributors. Losing Walt (Thomas Jr), losing Joe (Harris), and losing Clayton (Banner), was something we never dealt with before. Then you have the New York incident, you have all this stuff with the suspension, it was my first time missing a game in 10 years. While it may have been the most adverse season, we are still in a great position to defend our title. The highs and lows of this season have been back and forth. It has been the most trying season in my career, but at the same time we are 10-4, and I am going to continue to say 10-4. Our focus is Massachusetts, it has been Massachusetts the last two weeks, we didn’t prepare for Columbus, we prepared for Massachusetts last week. We have one game to get to the Championship.

CC: We haven’t seen Massachusetts since week two. How do you see they have changed, and how have the Cobras changed since then?

Coach: We have both gotten better offensively. The first two games we played both offenses were stagnant, we couldn’t move the ball very well besides blown coverages, they couldn’t move the ball at all. They were just meshing with a new head coach, they also had injuries to their Center, and their Center is pretty good. Our receivers were young and trying to learn, so in reality it was a defensive battle. We got some breaks as we took advantage of a younger secondary. That secondary has matured, they have played an entire season and know what to expect, but at the same time it is going to come down to who wants it most. I feel like our guys are hungry and they have been in this situation
before and I have no doubts our guys are going to be ready to play.

CC: Jordan Jolly sets the NAL record for most yards and ties the NAL record for receptions and touchdowns. What does he mean to this team?

Coach: Jolly is hands down the best receiver in this league, the best receiver in any league to me, because I think the duo of Charles McCullum and Jordan Jolly there are a lot of the things they do on the field that you can’t coach. They just know what point A and point B is on the field and no one else does. If I call a play and it is not the exact route, and Jolly gets open, then it is a great play call. That is what you want for your players, you want chemistry, and that is what we lacked early on. Chuck (McCullum) had that chemistry with Jolly, but now we are getting that chemistry with Von (Pearson), with (Kyrin) Priester, with (James) Summers. Dave Jordan had some good chemistry last week. It is all about knowing where they are going to be on a certain play at a certain time. Our playbook is an idea, we run to green, and if you get to green you are going to be open. With Jolly he is hard to cover, hard to stop, his IQ in this game is high and he has great hands, illusiveness and he doesn’t come off the field other than defense. He is on kickoff, kickoff return, field goal, extra point. He is our most valuable player when it comes outside the quarterback position.

CC: Who do you think would be the player that has surprised you the most during the year?

Coach: Micah Robinson has surprised me. From coming into camp, he has been so dominant. I think Priester has became dominating, and in camp it was we were going to cut him, but we kept him because we believed in him. He has become a player who can be dominant with the ball and make a play with the ball in his hands. But I would say that Micah Robinson has been that guy, coming into camp with guys like Steve Miller, and other guys with names on that defensive line, and then it was like Micah was our best defensive lineman in camp and is still in our top two. It is him, Bill (Vavau), Miller, (SeVon) Pittman, Dante Holmes in a close, close, close, second, 1B. I would take our defensive line over any defensive line in the country, in any league. Just the way they play together, they get after it, they are relentless, but yes Micah Robinson has been a pleasant surprise for us.

CC: Now I know last year the end of the season awards were the ammunition that powered the Cobras into the Championship game. They pretty much overlooked most of our roster. Do you see that happening again this year?

Coach: Jordan Jolly is hands down the Offensive Player of the Year. You look at Quarterbacks in the league, which quarterback has played the entire season and had success. If you look at all the QBs who played the entire season, you simply have to look at the numbers. Chuck had more yards and TDs than any of them. (McCullum had 2,883 yards and 66 TDs, next closest is Sean Brackett with Mass who had 2,523 yards and 57 TDs). So in my eyes, MVP is Charles McCullum and Offensive Player of the Year is Jordan Jolly. Defensive Player of the year would be someone on our defense or someone on Jacksonville’s defense. There is the obvious, and then there is what perception is going to be to who they pick. At the end of the day we don’t play for accolades, we play for rings.

CC: What message do you have for Cobra Nation?

Coach: Don’t miss August 3rd! It Is going to be a game. They are coming in hard, they are coming in ready to play, they have some big money names, Dexter McCluster, (Brandon) Washington, the former tackle of the New England Patriots. So come out on Saturday night, we are going to be fired up. It is going to be a high octane, fast paced game. I put my money on the Cobras. So, make sure you come out and be our 9th man, the Cobras are going to need all your support on this road to repeat. You can get tickets now at Ticketmaster or call 336-455-7232 extension 2. If you have been to a Cobras game before, bring a friend. If you haven’t been to a Cobras game before, come give it a try. Indoor (72 degrees) football, if you think it is hot outside, just wait until you see the heat on the field. This isn’t training camp, this is REAL Playoff Football!

Interview Conducted by: DJ Wagner