BLOOMINGTON - Kenton Carr was hoping his defense would build on momentum. Instead, it took a step backward. Now the Bloomington Extreme is searching for answers. | Extreme page | Photo gallery | Video

"You bet," the first-year coach said. "We really are."

Plagued by tackling woes Friday night, the Extreme was unable to make key defensive stops in a 43-23 United Indoor Football loss to the Colorado Ice in front of 4,545 spectators at U.S. Cellular Coliseum.

"It boils down to JFL tackling," Carr said. "We preach it and preach it and preach it. We've just got to do a better job tackling. That's all I've got to say about that. That's just horrendous."

The Ice made it difficult to tackle. Colorado (1-2) kept the Extreme defense off balance with 26 passing attempts and 23 rushes.

"That's sort of what our goal is," Ice coach Collins Sanders said. "We don't really say we're trying to be even, but we try to be as balanced as we can. I think it makes defenses play more honestly."

It forces defenses to constantly guess, too.

"I think they kind of got us into a position where we didn't know what to do," Bloomington defensive back Dion Brown said. "We tried to make some adjustments on the field. But it just didn't seem to work."

Smart decisions by Garrett Mehl made adjustments difficult. The 6-foot-1 quarterback made perfect reads and let the game come to him. Even though he was making his first professional start, Mehl tallied 166 passing yards with three touchdowns and 48 rushing yards.

"He's a smart kid and he's very athletic," said Sanders, whose team had 273 yards of offense. "For a guy making his first start ever in an indoor game, I'm pretty impressed with him."

Bloomington looked sharp early. The Extreme scored on its first two possessions to grab a 10-3 lead after one quarter. Despite the lead, Bloomington allowed the Ice to score all of the second quarter's 23 points to head to halftime down 26-10.

The Extreme sliced the deficit to 26-17 midway through the third after a 45-yard interception return by Brown. With momentum swinging in its favor, Bloomington failed to make key defensive stops. Colorado scored on its final three possessions of the game and held the ball for more than half of the fourth quarter.

"Defensively, there's got to be more people making plays," Carr said. "We're just not doing it."

The Extreme was 19-of-34 passing for 167 yards and ran 12 times for 49. To make matters worse, quarterback Dusty Burk left the game in the third quarter with what the team is calling a bruised rib muscle.

"They shut us down," Carr said. "They did a good job. … They came in and kicked our butts."

The Extreme now begins a two-game road trip to Wichita and RiverCity. With a critical stretch of games over the next month, Carr believes the team may take a different view in order to turn the season around.

"We might need to make some changes," he said. "This is professional ball and sometimes you've got to do that."

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Summary

AT U.S. CELLULAR COLISEUM - BLOOMINGTON

Colorado… 3 23 7 10 - 43

Bloomington… 10 0 7… 6 - 23

Scoring summary

First Quarter

10:18 BLO Raymond, Andre 5 yd run (Christofilakos, kick) 6 plays, 35 yards, TOP 4:42

05:06 COL Yaussi, Deric 16 yd field goal 8 plays, 30 yards, TOP 4:55

00:57 BLO Christofilakos, 42 yd field goal 6 plays, 4 yards, TOP 3:53

Second Quarter

13:35 COL Yaussi, Deric 51 yd field goal 4 plays, -1 yard, TOP 2:16

08:49 COL Hill, George 44 yd pass from Mehl, Garrett (Yaussi, Deric kick) 3 plays, 45 yards, TOP 1:24

05:23 COL Gallas, Justin 29 yd pass from Mehl, Garrett (Yaussi, Deric kick failed) 1 play, 29 yards, TOP 0:32

00:04 COL Hill, George 18 yd pass from Mehl, Garrett (Yaussi, Deric kick) 8 plays, 41 yards, TOP 2:26

Third Quarter

05:27 BLO Brown, Dion 45 yd interception return (Christofilakos, kick)

02:44 COL Smith, Thomas 1 yd run (Yaussi, Deric kick) 4 plays, 37 yards, TOP 2:34

Fourth Quarter

13:21 BLO Raymond, Andre 2 yd run (Christofilakos, pass failed) 7 plays, 37 yards, TOP 4:03

05:55 COL Yaussi, Deric 16 yd field goal 10 plays, 48 yards, TOP 6:33

00:47 COL Smith, Thomas 3 yd run (Yaussi, Deric kick) 6 plays, 34 yards, TOP 2:33

YARDSTICK

…CI…BE

Total first downs…21…13

Net yards gained …273…216

By rushing…107…49

By passing…166…167

Passes attempted…26…34

Completed…13…19

Intercepted by…2…2

Fumbles-lost…0-0…1-0

Yards penalized…23…66

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING - Colorado: Mehl 7-48, Smith 9-27, Reed 4-23, Hill 2-7, Jones 1-2; Bloomington: Burk 5-26, Ray 2-14, Raymond 5-9.

PASSING - Colorado: Mehl 13-26-2-167; Bloomington: Burk 15-22-2-127, Ray 4-12-0-48.

RECEIVING - Colorado: Hill 4-74, Gallas 3-39, Sump 2-24, Jones 2-14, Smith 1-11, Reed 1-5; Bloomington: Raymond 7-34, Walton 5-53, Powers 4-34, Graham 2-50, Washington 1-4.

INTERCEPTIONS - Colorado (2) - Goltston, Frye; Bloomington (2) - Brown, Temple.

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