The 1-3 Tampa Bay Vipers traveled to Dignity Health Sports Park to take on the 1-3 LA Wildcats. Taylor Cornelius and the Vipers look to continue the momentum after last week’s big win over DC.

It didn’t take long for the Vipers to take charge as DB Robert Priester picked off the Wildcat’s quarterback Josh Johnson on the first play of the game. Tampa Bay would capitalize with an Andrew Frank field goal to take the 3-0 lead.

The Wildcats Patrick Vahe had a bad snap to QB Josh Johnson, the fumble was recovered by Vipers DT Sean Bowman with 2:17 left in the first quarter. Tampa Bay QB Taylor Cornelius would execute a fake handoff and run the ball in for a 2-yard touchdown run to the right side of the endzone. De’Veon Smith would pick up the 1 pt conversion, putting Tampa Bay up 17-0 with 14:00 left to play in the second quarter.

The LA offense would put six on the board with a DuJuan Harris 1-yard touchdown run. During the next drive, the Vipers would punt the ball away to LA’s WR Tre McBride. Viper’s FS Micah Hannemann would knock the ball out of T.McBride hands, causing a fumble that was then recovered by Tampa Bay’s LB Emmanuel Beal on the LA 27. The Vipers would capitalize on a Taylor Cornelius 16-yard touchdown pass to Jalen Tolliver in the back of the endzone. The Vipers would come up clean with a successful 1 pt conversion to put them up 24-6 with 6:28 left in the second quarter.

The Wildcats would turn off the Vipers momentum and would take the lead LA 27, Tampa Bay 24 with two touchdowns just before halftime and a big scoring drive in the third quarter taking the lead.

The Vipers would tack on 10 more points with an Andrew Frank 25-yard field goal, a Taylor Cornelius passing touchdown to WR Reece Horn, and a De’Veon Smith 1 pt successful conversion; but it was too late. LA had found their niche and continued feeding off each other’s energy after taking the lead in the third quarter.

Quarterback for Tampa Bay Taylor Cornelius would throw 22-34 with 300 yards passing, he had 2 passing touchdowns and 1 rushing touchdown. Unfortunately, Cornelius would throw two interceptions and one being picked off in the endzone with 37 seconds left in the fourth quarter that could have helped the Vipers to a win.

The Vipers had 40 rushing attempts for 142 yards. De’Veon Smith would lead the team tonight with 69 yards rushed after Jacques Patrick left the game with an injury. Patrick had 23 yards rushing and 1 touchdown.

The Vipers have now fallen to a record of 1-4 with a final score of Wildcats 41, Vipers 34.

The Tampa Bay Vipers may have seen some light at the end of the tunnel just as hopes for a successful 2020 season started to come to a close. The Vipers went into week 4 with zero wins on the season against Cardale Jones and the DC Defenders but struck first scoring which then leads to a start to finish momentum that drove the Vipers to their first win with a shutout score of Vipers 25, DC 0.

The Vipers had two rushing touchdowns; one being runningback Jacques Patrick who picked up an 8-yard touchdown on a handoff in the 1st quarter and QB Taylor Cornelius who scrambled to the right side and ran the ball into the endzone as he powered through a defender to put the Vipers up 13-0 in the 3rd quarter.

The Vipers had one passing touchdown as Taylor Cornelius found #80 TE DeAndre Goolsby for a 13-yard touchdown pass in the 2nd quarter. Goolsby had 3 receptions on the day for 41 yards.

Tampa Bay’s kicker Andrew Frank made 2/3 field goals on Sunday night. The missed field goal was a 31-yard field goal that missed wide right.

Defenders quarterback Cardale Jones completed 9 of 22 passes for 72 yards with a completion rate of 41% and threw 1 interception that was picked off by Vipers CB Tarvarus McFadden.

The Vipers defense managed to put a hold not only on Jones passing game but also on the Defenders running game. DC rushed the ball for a total of 46 yards in 13 attempts during Sunday night’s game (before week 4 DC averaged 30.3 rush attempts per game).

DC has now dropped 2 straight road games to winless teams and may have to reconsider how they prepare for road games. DC has a record of 2-2 on the season and things aren’t looking good as head coach Pep Hamilton and the Defenders travels back home to face the talented 3-1 St. Louis Battlehawks in week 5.

The Vipers offense was much different than what we’ve witnessed in the previous weeks. QB Quinton Flowers was listed as inactive (roster exemption) and Aaron Murray was listed as active but is still coming off of a knee injury; giving Taylor Cornelius the start again at quarterback. Cornelius completed 24-31 passes with a total of 211 yards and 1 interception. Cornelius constantly threw the ball short and let his receivers get the yards after the catch. This worked well for the passing game for the Vipers and they cut down heavily on miss throws. Taylor Cornelius also used his feet to move the ball on 4 rushing attempts for 36 yards and 1 touchdown.

The Vipers running back duo; Jacques Patrick and De’Veon Smith showed their talents once again as they raised the bar with a combined 230 yards rushed. Patrick ran for a total of 108 yards and 1 TD on 21 carries. Smith carried the ball 122 yards on 24 attempts.

Tampa Bay defensive standout was DE Obum Gwacham who had 1 sack, 2 tackles, and 1 blocked field goal that was recovered by the Vipers FS Micah Hannemann.

Tampa Bay needs to keep the momentum going on the road as they travel to LA this week to face off against the Wildcats. Both teams are 1-3 on the season and the Vipers look to have found some team chemistry and hope to finish better than how they started this season.