The Storm gave their fans plenty to appreciate on Saturday with by far their easiest win of the season, 57-27 over visiting Cleveland at Amalie Arena.
Tampa Bay (10-3) forced five turnovers with Alvin Ray Jackson accounting for four personally. Even with the fact that two of Cleveland's scores came from its own defense, the Storm still allowed the fewest points all season in Arena Football.
A season-high crowd of 10,567 turned out on Fan Appreciation Night. The next home game will be a playoff contest Monday, Aug. 14.
Randy Hippeard threw for five touchdowns, two each to Joe Hills (10 catches, 121 yards) and Kendrick Ings and also capped off an eight-minute drive to close the first half with a 1-yard TD run to lead 28-13.
Jackson, who had earlier moved to DB after Cortez Stubbs was injured and came up with a pick-6 shortly thereafter for 14-0, had another interception on Arvell Nelson's second offering of the second half. A 27-yard TD pass to Ings followed, then Jackson recovered the ensuing kickoff leading to a 41-13 advantage.
The final score was set to be 57-20, even after a fourth quarter with no offensive touchdowns -- Mark Lewis nailed a 39-yard field goal and Michael Lindsey took a bounce off the net on the next kickoff for a 4-yard score. But backup Storm QB Chris Bonner, on a play designed to run out the clock, fumbled and Cleveland got a 25-yard recovery TD.
The Storm are off next week and finish up at Philadelphia (11-1). The teams are locked into the top two spots for the playoffs. Cleveland (4-9) next plays Washington, which despite being 2-10 kept its postseason hopes alive with a last-second victory over Baltimore (4-8).