It was a rough night all the way around, as the Tulsa Talons season came to an end after a lopsided 68-38 playoff loss to the Tampa Bay Storm in front of 5,964 fans Saturday night. The Talons got on the board first on a 17-yard touchdown pass from Justin Allgood to Donovan Morgan just two minutes into the opening quarter. From there, however, the Storm took over to silence the crowd and hand the Talons their first ever playoff loss in the BOK Center. They finished their first campaign in the AFL with a 10-7 record.

 Allgood connected on just 20 of 43 passing attempts, gaining 242 yards and six TD’s while throwing three interceptions. Tampa Bay went on to convert two of those turnovers into touchdowns while Allgood’s counterpart, Brett Dietz completed 22 of 29 attempts for 263 yards and seven touchdowns. 

Tampa Bay reeled off three unanswered scores after Tulsa’s opening drive score, taking a 20-6 lead with 11:23 left in the second. Tulsa answered back with a two-yard strike from Allgood to Morgan to pull within seven, before Tampa Bay went on to score twice more to take a 34-19 lead into the half.

The third quarter would undoubtedly close the books on Tulsa’s 2010 season. The Storm surged ahead, outscoring the Talons 20-7 while chewing up 7:38 of game clock. The Talons would pull within 14 points on another Allgood to Morgan touchdown connection with just under six minutes remaining.

Unfortunately for Tulsa, the Storm’s Erick McIntosh intercepted Allgood twice on the Talons’ next two possessions. Dietz completed his seventh and final touchdown pass with 12:29 remaining in the fourth, connecting with DeAndrew Rubin on a 38-yard score to make the score 61-26. Allgood answered back on the next possession with a 12-yard touchdown pass to Jeff Hughley.

The Storm added their final punch moments later when Garrett Rivas returned a Marco Capozzoli onside kick the distance to expand their lead to 36. Allgood closed out the scoring with a six yard TD pass to Morgan with 3:43 left.

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Photos by: Kevin Pyle

The Storm now move on to host the Orlando Predators next weekend in the American Conference final. In the National Conference, the Spokane Shock play host to the Milwaukee Iron. A Shock win means that they would host the Arena Bowl the following week.