Turnovers, mistakes prove costly as Orlando Storm lose second straight game

TL;DR

Orlando Storm lost to the Birmingham Stallions 20-14, marking their second consecutive defeat. Key mistakes included three turnovers and missed tackles that hindered their performance.

Key points

Orlando Storm lost to Birmingham Stallions 20-14
Jack Plummer had his best passing game of the season
Orlando committed three turnovers during the game
Two turnovers occurred inside the red zone
The loss marks the Storm's second consecutive defeat

Orlando StormBirmingham StallionsJack Plummer

(Chris Hays/Orlando Sentinel/TNS)

Jack Plummer had his best passing game of the season and the Orlando Storm had every opportunity to take control of their game against the Birmingham Stallions at Inter&Co Stadium on Sunday night.

But they didn’t.

Mistakes spelled doom for the Storm. Orlando turned the ball over three times — twice inside the red zone — and there were also untimely penalties and numerous missed tackles as Orlando lost for the second straight game 20-14.

Orlando had an opportunity to make things interesting with 3:03 remaining and facing a 4th-and-2 situation at their own 48-yard line. Coach Anthony Becht, however, made the decision to punt the ball and hope his defense could hold and give the offense one more shot.

Birmingham, led by former Orlando quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson, made enough plays to run out the clock and the Storm never got another chance.

“I put my trust in the defense,” Becht said. “I wanted to see if my defense could hold true. We punted, we had three timeouts left. … I don’t second-guess that move. We just needed to get a stop … we weren’t able to do that.”

The Storm also spotted a team a two-touchdown lead to open the game — Birmingham led 14-0 — for the second straight week, and again, they did not have enough to recover.

“There is something about our team right now … that we’re not living up to the expectations that we need to be,” Becht said. “We’ve got a lot of good players, a lot of talented guys in that locker room, but right now we’re all taking turns with these mistakes.

“We had three fumbles today, two of them were snaps … both in the red zone. They were critical, tragic and I felt like we were moving the ball at will and then we just couldn’t finish the deal.”

Plummer had a terrific game throwing the football, completing 26-of-37 passes for 324 yards and two touchdowns, but it was his two fumbles, both on the center-quarterback exchange, that ultimately created the Storm’s play-from-behind situation.

“Yeah it definitely is a weird feeling when you walk off the field and you feel like you played a good game and you feel like you helped the offense move the ball down the field but then it just doesn’t show up on the scoreboard,” Plummer said.

Plummer even had time to throw, as the offensive line held up in protection and kept the quarterback upright then entire game. Receivers also gave him better targets from last week, especially KJ Hamler, who returned to the lineup after missing two games with a hamstring injury to catch 8 balls for 113 yards and a touchdown.