Soul loses in Kirsch's debut at quarterback

Brandon Kirsch was starting his first game as a professional quarterback. Now, this is normally a tall chore, regardless of the level of football.

But his task last night was even more difficult considering he hasn't been in college since 2005. And it became downright Kilimanjaro-esque when his star wide receiver was ruled out by doctors because of a shin injury.

The result of his outing was as predictable and almost as ugly as to what happens to congressmen who use Twitter to show off their weiners.

And, amazingly, the Soul still almost won.

Kirsch threw three first-half interceptions and the Soul dug a hole it couldn't get out of in a 48-42 loss to Tulsa at the Wells Fargo Center.

"Today was maybe a reality check for me," said Kirsch, a Purdue product. "This is pro football. This isn't the flag football league that I play in back home. It's tough when you go out there and set high expectations for yourself and don't achieve them."

The indignity wasn't limited to just the losing. Justin Allgood threw six touchdowns and no interceptions in his second consecutive strong game for the Talons. Allgood started the season with the Soul before a midseason trade sent him to Tulsa and opened up the roster spot for Kirsch. Allgood just couldn't get comfortable in Mike Hohensee's Soul offense.

"Words can't really describe how much this game meant to me and how excited I am to get it," Allgood said. "I wasn't overly great, but I didn't throw any interceptions, which was my goal. I did what I had to do."

Ryan Vena, who had started the previous seven games, came off the bench and kept the Soul in the game throughout the second half. Vena was 11-for-14 and led the Soul to four touchdowns before the final drive ended with a fumble. The Soul blocked what would have been a game-clinching field goal with 34.1 seconds left to give it that unlikely last chance.

"I was unhappy that I didn't get the start, but I understand that we're trying to get a spark in the last couple of games," Vena said. "I just wanted to get in there and give us another spark like I've done in the past. We came close. If I get that [final] snap, I think we'd win the game."

The Soul was without Donovan Morgan, who leads the team with 32 touchdown receptions and leads the league with 1,614 receiving yards. Morgan injured his shin in last week's loss at Spokane. Defensive back Mike Brown moved to wide receiver and the Soul leaned heavily on Keith Stokes and Syvelle Newton, who caught four second-half touchdown passes from Vena.

Brown hasn't been a regular receiver since 2006. He had six catches for 108 yards and two touchdowns. But moving Brown to offense created a vacuum in the defensive secondary, which is having its own injury problems. The Soul couldn't stop Tulsa wide receiver Troy McBroom, a 6-3, 240-pound beast who had 10 grabs for 152 yards and three scores.

"We had to play vanilla out there [without Brown]," Hohensee said. "When you give Justin exactly what he thinks he's going to get, he'll be OK."

Interceptions are what cost Vena the starting job. The most damaging of Kirsch's picks was the one J.C. Neal returned the length of the field for a touchdown. Another came immediately after the Soul's defense forced a fumble.

The loss dropped the Soul to 5-9 and put a serious crimp in its playoff hopes. (Insert clip of Jim Mora incredulously asking "Playoffs??!!") The Soul are four games back in the loss column for the final wild-card berth (and division race) with four games left.

The decision to start Kirsch was an attempt to try to shake things up heading into the final stretch. But did Vena do enough to go back in as the starter?

"As of right now, I would think so," Hohensee said. "I was hoping Brandon would be a little more consistent and when things weren't there I was hoping he'd throw it in the stands like we talked about. Sometimes when you're 5-8, 5-9 now, you want to try to make something happen and you try too hard."

Donovan Morgan expects to be back in the lineup for next Saturday's home game with Arizona (11-2), the best team in the National Conference . . . Kurt Warner heads the nominees for this year's AFL Hall of Fame class, the first the league will have since 2002. Eddie Brown and Barry Wagner, considered two of the best arena football players ever, also are finalists as is two-time Ironman of the Year Hunkie Cooper . . . Soul kicker Jon Striefsky (Delaware) went six-for-six on extra points.