One of the greatest faceoff men of all time is swimming in uncharted waters.
Following a 13-28 performance against Trevor Baptiste, we anticipated Ierlan would snap back to reality against a perceived lesser opponent in Connor Farrell.
We spent months promising you the Chaos would be feel the impact of their NLL athletes returning to play.
Ierlan is coming off his first season in the NLL where he took 392 regular season faceoffs and 92 playoff face offs.
On top of that, he also spent time as a volunteer assistant with Syracuse. Ierlan joined the Redwoods this season more physically and mentally drained than he did in 2021.
Farrell didn't have to experience any of that prior to this PLL season.
And at 6'2" 240lbs, Farrell was able to out muscle the much smaller Ierlan all afternoon. Farrell won 12 of 18 faceoffs. The Chrome improved to 2-0. The Redwoods fell to 0-2.
Ierlan is now 20-46 (43%) in 2022.
Ierlan had one regular season game last year at less than 50%. He has two so far in the 2022 schedule.
Atlas 13-28 46%
Chrome 7-18 39%
If heavy weight faceoff men have a further advantage against the smaller and tired Ierlan, the Chaos should feel good sending out 215lb Thomas Kelly this coming weekend. Kelly by the way looks much bigger than that this summer.
Have you ever been on a team with an elite faceoff man?
It is a huge security blanket.
Losing faceoffs when you know you're going to be at a disadvantage isn't as bad as losing faceoffs when you anticipate having the better unit. For a Redwoods group that suddenly can't stop anyone and can't score on anyone, not having TD Ierlan be TD Ierlan must be very unsettling.