One the LFL’s best 8th Man fan base packed Sears Centre Arena in hopes of celebrating their beloved Chicago Bliss taking sole possession of 1st place in Western Conference. The league’s designated ‘Rockstar’ Heather Furr, Deborah Poles, Tasha TANK Pryor along with emerging star Shannon Rene did not disappoint, posting a team record 28 first half points.

Furr solidified her role as starting quarterback to the LFL’s Ferrari-like offense that includes a balanced attack. However, before the Bliss offense could even take the field, Furr fielded the opening kickoff and took it to the house giving Chicago an early 6-0 lead, erupting the home crowd and shell-shocking the San Diego Seduction team into reality. San Diego came into the game with confidence posting wins against Dallas at the Cotton Bowl and Seattle at home.

The league’s Cinderella team never recovered from the opening kickoff, appearing simply out-coached, out-played and bullied.

Furr & Co. continued to roll in the first half when former starting quarterback now a converted to receiver, Stacey Jarrett took a reverse for another score going up 14-0. The Chicago offense was well-balanced with a brilliant game plan by offensive coordinator Ryan Matha which followed the Jarret score with a Deborah Poles run up the middle for another 6pts to up the score to 20-0 and the route was on. San Diego’s vanillla offense was well-scouted, coupled by horrible blocking led to drives stalling with only a 20% 4th down conversion percentage providing Chicago’s offense with short-fields. San Diego’s heralded quarterback Kindra Myers looked very uncomfortable in the pocket and when she had an opportunity to look down the field, the passes appeared sloppy. Myers’ lacks the experience needed for a December into January Playoff run.

San Diego’s offense was desperately missing two of its off-season free agent pick-ups in wide receivers Shannon Petersen and Britanie De Garbott. While San Diego struggled on both sides of the ball to develop any momentum, the Chicago offense, defense and special teams were clicking. Despite a rough start to the season for the Chicago secondary being exposed by Dallas and Seattle, they showed up tonight. A potential All-Fantasy player in safety Shannon Rene completed a league-record 3 interception night to lead the league with 4 INTs. Along with Rene, the face of the LFL – Danielle Moinet looked great at corner not only being effective against the pass but coming up to stop the run as well.

Furr finished off a brilliant 1st half of football for the Bliss with another touchdown run to go up big, 28-0 at halftime.Outside of an Audrey Latsko interception, neither the offense nor the defense for San Diego showed any emotion or intensity.

After a halftime tongue-lashing, San Diego did orchestrate a nice drive which was kept alive by a Moinet pass interference call leading to San Diego’s first score on a Tamica Estrella run to make the score 28-6. Estrella started out the season strong against Dallas and Seattle but has been a non-factor since. San Diego’s score was answered, when Furr scored on another touchdown run to go by 34-6. San Diego’s Myers finally got comfortable in the pocket guiding an impressive drive to follow the Furr score, capped with a touchdown pass to Latsko to bring the score to 34-12. Latsko is starting to become a respected force on both sides of the ball in the league.

Not one for humility, especially when point differential can become a factor in the 2011 Playoff picture, Chicago coach Matt Sinclair instructed offensive coordinator Ryan Matha to keep his foot on the throttle, continuing to call an aggressive offensive game plan. Furr’s MVP night ended with another touchdown run followed by a touchdown pass to Poles to run up the final score to 50-12.

Following the win, Chicago has placed itself in the driver’s seat being 3-0 and an incredible point differential of +74. Los Angeles is now forced into chase-mode with Chicago and will have to run the table to unseed Chicago from 1st place and home field advantage in the Playoffs. It appears the ‘Road to Las Vegas’ will have to go through the ‘Windy City’. Chicago does have to finish the season strong having to travel to the famed Los Angeles Coliseum in front of one of the toughest crowds in the league and beat the 2010 LFL Champs on Jan. 7th.

For San Diego, it still controls its own destiny if the Seduction can beat Los Angeles on Jan. 1st at home. With a win and assuming loses one of its three remaining games, both teams would be 3-1 but because of the first tie-breaker being head-to-head, San Diego would get the No.2 seed. This loss to Chicago could end up being the saving grace for San Diego’s season, considering the reports of complaceny and over-confidence at San Diego practice leading up to the Chicago game. Better to lose a regular season game and understand you have work to do rather than coast through the regular season and lose the BIG win..just ask the 2009 Chicago Bliss.

Photo Credit: © Eddie Perlas/LFLUS.com

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