Lions put 2-0 record on the line against Atlanta

The Columbus Lions return home today, facing another American Indoor Football intrastate rival as the Atlanta Vultures face the Lions in the first of three consecutive Saturday night home games.

Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. at the Columbus Civic Center.

The Lions come into today’s game 2-0, outscoring their opponents by a combined score of 186-42 in two games. After an 86-0 shutout over the Georgia Firebirds at home on March 20, Columbus took to the road for a 90-42 victory over the Central Florida Jaguars.

Lions head coach Jason Gibson says the offensive firepower is a byproduct of the team’s incredible work ethic and drive to challenge themselves play after play.

“I’ve said it before: we’re not playing the other team, we’re really playing against ourselves,” Gibson said. “Guys aren’t looking across the line, they’re looking at each other, making sure they’re running the right routes, making the right blocks, and doing what they can to win.”

Because of the incredible sense of pride the Lions have coming into this season, some may think the 42 points given up to Central Florida is motivation for the team to step up the defense heading into Saturday’s game. Gibson disagrees.

“It is what it is,” Gibson said regarding the 42 points allowed in their last game. “I got a lot of guys playing time and our offense was still clicking. I could have nickel and dimed it down the field, taken some time off the clock, and we would have won the game 70-something to 28 or something like that.”

The Lions’ opponent this weekend is somewhat of an enigma. The Vultures enter the game just 1-0, a 40-38 road win at Georgia, despite having three scheduled games prior to Saturday. Two of the games, both home contests at the Georgia International Convention Center located in College Park, just a few minutes from Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, were not played.

The Vultures’ Facebook page posted a message on March 20, the date of the first cancellation, stating “the astro-turf the team received was unacceptably deficient and in the interest of safety, we were forced to make the decision to forego playing under less than prime conditions…all March 20th tickets will be honored at our next scheduled game on April 3rd.”

However, the April 3 game was also not played, with “the leagues (sic) rescheduling following the mishap of March 20th” given as the reason on the team’s Facebook page. The message also noted “we look forward to seeing everyone at our May 1st home game.”

No rescheduled date has been listed on the AIF website for the cancelled home games against the two opponents, the Savannah Steam and the Florida Tarpons. Moreover, all evidence of both cancelled games has been removed from the league’s website.

“That’s not a Columbus Lions issue, that’s a league issue,” Gibson said when asked about the Vultures’ home scheduling woes. “We can only worry about what happens with our team. That’s for the league to handle.”

The Lions do not play a road game at Atlanta. In fact, they only have two remaining road games: a rematch with the Georgia Firebirds on April 30 in Albany, and the final game of the regular season May 23 at Myrtle Beach.

In other news, the Lions welcomed back two key pieces of their championship run last season in defensive end Kendrick Washington and kicker Lindsey Wolfe. Washington began the season in the Arena Football League with the Tampa Bay Storm, while Wolfe was one of the premier kickers in the PIFL the last two-plus seasons with the Albany Panthers, Georgia (Rome) Fire, and the Lions last season.

Quarterback Darren Daniel, a local product from Central High School in Phenix City and a member of last year’s championship team as well, also will play his first game this season on Saturday. He replaces Mason Espinosa, who signed with Billings of the Indoor Football League last week.

Gibson says despite the Lions’ early success, the re-tooling of his team will continue.

“I won’t stop until I have the best 21 players possible on my roster,” he said.

This story was originally published April 8, 2016 at 9:39 PM with the headline "Lions put 2-0 record on the line against Atlanta."