The Cleveland Browns of arena football, the Iowa Barnstormers have come off the worst season in franchise history. They have fired their head coach, and their best players have scattered to the winds. Now new head coach Andre Coles and his rebuilt squadron must pick up the pieces and restore honor to this once-proud franchise. Their mission: Win more than one game. Two weeks ago, they completed Phase 1 and won their first game. Tonight, they attempt to complete that mission as they face the only remaining winless team in the IFL. This is the Indoor Tank Bowl. This is...

OPERATION: BARNSTORM

DATE: MAY 17, 2026

LOCATION: PRESCOTT VALLEY, ARIZONA

TARGET: NORTHERN ARIZONA WRANGLERS

The Barnstormers are flying high. After a brutal two rotations on the merry-go-round of misery, they beat a dysfunctional Quad City Steamwheelers at home under the dual rushing/passing attack of new quarterback Dante Aviles-Santos. Now the Barnstormers have gotten a bone for the first time this season: a primetime Sunday night game against a winless Northern Arizona. In many ways, NAZ is a mirror image of the Barnstormers. They too, entered a downward spiral after firing Les Moss as head coach and are coming off of one of their worst seasons in franchise history. Also like the Barnstormers, they're at the bottom of their conference. In fact, they're the only team ranked below the Barnstormers in the IFL Coaches Poll. The Wranglers are also playing a new quarterback in his second start in Anthony Garrett. However, unlike the Barnstormers, the Wranglers' losses have been close, with last week's loss against the San Antonio Gunslingers coming down to a single point and a 4th Quarter Goal line stand. Iowa cannot underestimate this foe. If any lesson can be taken from the win over the Steamwheelers, it's that no road victory is guaranteed.

Last time against the Steamwheelers, kicker Jonah Edwards overcame his first half woes to come in with a clutch field goal to give the Barnstormers the lead for the rest of the game. His reward was getting released two days later. Kicking off this game for the Barnstormers is ... Trevor Spaulding? The few that read these posts may remember that the Spaulding previously played one game for the Barnstormers against Fishers Freight in Week 5. He was signed two days before that game on April 9 and released five days after the game on April 16. Apparently deciding that maybe all the blocked kicks weren't Spaulding's fault, the Barnstormers have given him another chance, re-signing him a day before tonight's game. Edwards wasn't the only one to get the axe on May 4. The IFL's transactions page also reveals that former starting QB Ivan Corbin was suspended for reasons unknown. Since then, the Barnstormers have also picked up a new backup quarterback in Clifton McDowell, who threw for over 2,000 yards and led Montana to the FCS Championship game in 2023 before transferring to McNeese the following season. McDowell served as backup for the Tulsa Oilers earlier this season.

Anyway, onto the game. Once again, the IFL's live stats have completely shat the bed (the website still thinks the game is in the second quarter), so I'm once again relying on the almighty eye ball. Unfortunately, my eyes were not pleased.

The game starts off about as expected. NAZ scores a quick touchdown as the Iowa defense has no answer for the combined passing/rushing attack of running back Benjamin Omayebu and quarterback Anthony Garrett. Omayebu asserts his dominance on the opening kickoff with a 25-yard return and scores the opening touchdown on a short rush.

The Barnstormers' first drive likewise goes about as expected. After an incomplete deep pass to Demonte Martin that bounces off a defender's head, Dante Aviles-Santos and running back David Elder alternate rushes to make it to the 1-yard line. Unfortunately, two of Iowa's deadbeat college roommates have returned to crash on Iowa's couch and raid their fridge. Their names are penalties and turnovers. A false start penalty (I lost count how many of these there were) sets the Barnstormers back five yards, and a surefire touchdown turns into an interception. Barnstormers are down 0-7.

The following Wranglers drive lasts all of one touchdown pass. 0-14. The Barnstormers appear to have figured it out with the next drive with another series of rushes from David Elder and Dante Aviles-Santos followed up by a short Kurtis Ravenel touchdown run. Spaulding hits the extra point (at least Spaulding seemed to prove that the Fishers game wasn't his fault and hit all of his PATs tonight), and the game is 7-14.

One NAZ drive ending in an Omayebu touchdown run later, and the Barnstormers have the ball back down 7-20 (Nestor Manuel Higuera missed the PAT) with 10:25 left in the first half. A 25-yard return from David Elder is boosted by an offsides penalty on the Wranglers, setting up another blitz of rushes from Elder and Santos, culminating in Santos diving over a defender to reach his arm into the endzone and secure the touchdown and shorten the gap to 14-20. The following NAZ drive, a miracle happens. Iowa's defense overwhelms the Wranglers, causing Garrett to pass the ball backwards on what would've been a sack and setting up third and long. The Wranglers' attempt at conversions fail, leading to a missed field goal from Higuera. The first half is almost over now, and the Barnstormers have the opportunity to take the lead.

And then it all fell apart. It starts with another long David Elder run that stops just short of the goal line. Or it did before NAZ successfully challenged the play for a missed false start. Barnstormers try again with a short toss to Elder, which he drops for a fumble that the Wranglers recover. And then the Wranglers score a touchdown in the closing seconds of the first half. What was a golden opportunity to take the lead now sees the Barnstormers down 14-29 at the half after a successful PAT and the first of several deuces from Higuera, who despite his early misses was on fire during this game.

The second half only got worse. On the one hand, Iowa had a commendable rushing attack as David Elder fought through defenders like and tanked tackles like he was made of steel, and Aviles-Santos proved equally difficult to contain. On the other hand, the passing skill that Aviles-Santos displayed two weeks ago has seemingly evaporated. The few times this game that Aviles-Santos actually passed, the ball tended to go wide of his intended receiver, was tipped, or (for a second time) intercepted. While Santos does make a deep touchdown pass to Kurtis Ravenel late in the game, the passing game was otherwise nonexistent. While the Barnstormers still scored on most drives thanks to a career performance from David Elder, the combined efforts of the previous turnovers, a turnover on downs, a failed two-point conversion, and a failed onside kick seal the Barnstormers' fate. It doesn't help that Iowa's defense has returned to form. Despite the Wranglers' best efforts (while Anthony Garrett was having a much better passing day than his first start, he was still throwing many wild passes wide of his receivers, and the Wranglers were almost constantly committing false start, holding, and unsportsmanlike conduct penalties), Iowa's defense is incapable of stopping their passing and rushing attack, with some long passes for first downs being completely unguarded. Before you know it, Iowa is down 30 points to what was thought to be the worst team in the league with just over a minute left, and Iowa is waving the white flag and putting in Clifton McDowell. Iowa does manage to score one more time, and the Wranglers secure their first victory of the season with a score of 33-57.

MISSION FAILED

AFTER ACTION REPORT

I hate writing stuff like this. After the Steamwheelers game, I was looking forward to writing about the Barnstormers completing their mission of surpassing last season and setting a new goal for what's left of the season. Instead, it looks like Iowa may not complete their mission at all. This was Iowa's most winnable game on their schedule, and it gets a Hell of a lot worse from here. Iowa's being thrown back into the Eastern Conference meatgrinder, and with Tulsa looking much stronger than their record, Iowa won't have a remotely winnable game until the final week of the schedule against San Antonio, and who knows what they'll look like at that point.

It wasn't even that the Wranglers put on a great performance. They put on a decent performance, and Iowa couldn't stop shooting themselves in the foot. Iowa left three touchdowns on the table with those turnovers (not to mention all the false start penalties), wasting David Elder's best game of the season. At least the kicking seems to be fixed with Trevor Spaulding back in the position, though we didn't have an opportunity to see Spaulding kick a field goal, and Coles seems to be firmly against going for the deuce despite Iowa's special teams consistently allowing long returns anyway. This performance is once again reminiscent of last year, where the Barnstormers' commanding victory over the Freight thanks to rookie QB James Cahoon was followed by a 31-point loss to the Jacksonville Sharks. Speaking of James Cahoon and the Sharks, the former is leading the latter in his return to Des Moines on Friday. The Sharks are currently undefeated in conference play with victories over Fishers and Orlando. Their lone loss came at the hands of the defending IFL Champions Vegas Knight Hawks. Yeah, this won't go well. The road only gets tougher, next time on Operation: BarnStorm...

Okay, it was pretty funny when you scored 4 runs in the second inning and then blew a 5-1 second inning lead to lose 7-10.

But scoring 4 runs in the third inning and going up 5-2 in the fifth inning only to never score again and give up 12 unanswered runs to lose 5-14 in the very next game is just priceless.

Maybe the Hawkeyes should always play in Des Moines (as long as they're not facing top-25 teams).

Griff II was a constant presence at Drake basketball home games and Arch Madness (this is therefore basketball-related).