Machine face Orlando - First playoff birth since 1999

The Montreal Machine finished the second half of the season strong, going 5-2 as they finished the season with a 9-5 record, second best in the American Conferences Western Division. The previous best team record was 9-5 as well. The 1997 Machine finished second in the ACWD and went on to lose their Wild Card game to San Antonio 14-16. The franchise career record in the playoffs from 1997-2003 is 0-2.

American Conference Divisional Playoffs 9-5 10-4

This Machine team however is much different then the Machine of 1997. The team of 1997 featured a strong running attack with Elroy Harris and Ricky Johnson, a passing attack of Chris Miller and Will Cadore an a strong Defense with Rollin Putzier and Dan Murray. Six years later, and a 19-50-1 record between 1998 and 2002, the Machine are once again a team to be dealt with. Stacked with a lot of young talent, the Machine don't look to fade off into the cellars of the American Conference as they did before.

To make matters interesting, the Machine will enter the game in Orlando with a small dilema. Will second-year QB Danny Wuerfful make the start at QB or Rookie Michael Bishop. Wuerfful sprained his ankle week 13 against Raleigh-Durham and sat out their week 14 game in Sacramento. Bishop had a strong showing against Sacramento, passing for 201 yards and two touchdowns in a 19-14 road victory. Wuerfful has a 13-13 career record as a starter in games he finished,

Machine sign Bishop

With an injury to second year QB Danny Wuerfful, the Montreal Machine (8-5) enter the last game of the season with a matchup against the Sacramento Surge (10-3), winners of the American Western Conference. Since the Machine have only been carrying two quarterbacks the past four weeks, they were in need of a backup as they signed rookie free-agent QB Michael Bishop.

Bishop (6'2, 215) was drafted by the Sacramento Surge 2nd in 4th round (56th overall) in the 2003 Draft.

Michael holds numerous records in the CWL which include most passing yards in a season (3,117) and in a game (480), most touchdowns in a season (23) and in a game (5), highest completion rate in a season (71.8%) and in a game (91.3%), and highest QB rating in a season (125.2) and in a game (157.1).

Bishop lead the East Coast team to a 7-3 record in the CWL in 2002, only to not make the playoffs due to a tiebreaker between Great Plains. Rookie Machine QB Scott Milanovich was the starting QB for Great Plains in 2002, losers of the CWL Bowl to Canada 47-15.

He spent only one season in the CWL. His best game was on 10/13/02 where he was 30 of 39 for 480 yards and 5 touchdowns in a 50-43 loss to Canada. Bishop also posted a record setting 21 of 23 performance for 255 yards and 3 touchdown on 10/06/01 in a 35-3 victory against Australia.

Michael was a 4-time MVP of the game for East Coast in 2002, and won player of the week once. Bishop was voted to the All-Pro team of 2002 as well as the All-Rookie team.

To make room for Bishop, the Machine have released veteran Guard Ron Florine.

Bishop does not expect to start, but with only one game left in the season and nothing to lose for the Machine, Bishop might have something to prove against the team that drafted him but decided not to hold onto him.

Wuerffel Snaps Back

The number one pick overall in the 2002 draft by Montreal, and with good reason, was QB Danny Wuerffel, and for good reason. During the 2001 CWL season, Wuerfful led the Japan team to a CWL Title over Great Britain 30-27 while also earning League MVP and Eastern Conference Offensive Player of the Year.

"Michael Bishop can talk all he wants", said Wuerfful. "The CWL in 2002 was the equivalent of the 'Juiced-Ball Era' in Baseball. It seemed like every single Offensive record was being broke because of the rule changes on Defense. The Defenses weren't what they use to be. He was drafted 56th and I was drafted 1st overall for a reason".

The numbers show Bishop had a better percentage (71.8 to 68.5), better yardage (3,117 to 2.409), Touchdowns (23 to 15) and Rating (125.2 to 109.1). The numbers don't lie, but when you compare this to what other records were broken, it is obvious it had to do with the change. To show how lopsided the offensive numbers were, the worst CWL team in 2002 was Great Britain (1-9) which finished with 2,685 passing yards and 17 touchdowns, both more than Wuerffel's 2001 performance.

Other records that were broken during the 2002 CWL season was the Receiving Yardage record as WR Tony Simmons finished with 491 more yards and 4 more receptions than the pevious record holder. Simmons and two other Receivers also finished with 13 touchdown receptions, 7 more than the previous record holder. If you thought it was just receiving, not true. Also broken was the rushing record as HB Michael Green finished with 1,649 yards and 24 touchdowns, which breaks down to 277 more yards and 10 more touchdowns than the previous record holder.

"What if all comes down to is the Championship. I helped my team win a Championship, and Michael didn't. Any guy can go out there and put up numbers, but being part of a team, playing like a team, and winning like a team is the formula for being wanted at the professional level", said Weurffel.