Sanders receiving cheerful encouragement from Clint Dolezel.

Dallas, Texas - In his first week as full-time offensive coordinator, injured Dallas Desperados quarterback Clint Dolezel hardly tweaked his game plan for backup Chris Sanders.

Sanders' opening-drive touchdown run in Friday night's 46-36 win over Columbus - a head-first landing into the end zone seats at American Airlines Center - was anything but Dolezel-esque, however.

"I'm a quarterback, but I'm a linebacker at heart," the stocky 5-11, 195-pound Sanders said. "That was pretty stupid. But I've gotten popcorn and beer on me before, but nothing at home."

Nothing but a warm hometown reception from the 12,432 who watched the former Marcus High School legend lead Dallas (2-0) past its bitter division rival with 268 passing yards and four touchdowns - a strong opening act for what should be a month-long stand-in for Dolezel, who suffered a grade-three shoulder separation in last Saturday's regular-season opener.

Sanders (21-of-34) completed passes to six different receivers, including a game-high eight to Marcus Nash for 112 yards and three touchdowns. Friday's win improved Dallas' record to 2-0 for the third straight season and avenged last year's shocking divisional-round playoff loss to the Destroyers (0-2).

"He played great. I probably could've called a little better game for him," said Dolezel, who called plays to Sanders from the sideline via headset. "They guessed right on some of the things I called but he put the ball where it had to be. The two times we got stopped (on downs), it was more us shooting ourselves."

Columbus couldn't capitalize because the Desperados maintained a two-score edge throughout the game, first taking an early 14-0 lead after baiting the Destroyers into a pair of missed field goals.

Bobby Perry, the Desperados' starting Jack linebacker, also prevented another Columbus score by picking off quarterback Matt Nagy in the end zone just before halftime. Perry had a game-high nine tackles playing defensive back Friday night.

Those takeaways helped Sanders operate almost exclusively with a sizable lead. Starting receivers Will Pettis and Anthony Armstrong also combined for 69 yards and a touchdown.

"When you put the ball up and those guys have chances to make plays, they come down with it 99 percent of the time," Sanders said. "It's going to take a while for them to get on the same page as me. There's a couple things throwing-wise that I'm not as good as Clint, so I'm trying to get them to adjust to me. And once we get to that, hopefully we'll complete more balls."

The Desperados signed Sanders as a free agent last November, confident his four years of AFL experience would be useful if Dolezel went down. His 17th career start proved he's capable of manning the offense while Dolezel sits at least the required four weeks on Reserve/Injured.

"How hard he plays, the intensity that he has in the game, that's something that we feed off of," McClay said. "And for him to grow and mature as a quarterback, we've got to continue to do the smart things with the football."

Sanders said he received between 60 and 70 ticket requests from friends and family, and the Desperados organization gave 100 tickets to Marcus High students in nearby Flower Mound, where the 30-year-old once led the Marauders to a Class 5A state championship game.

But aside from some first-quarter jitters, Sanders wasn't sidetracked by his long-awaited homecoming.

"My second year in the league I had a game where I started and some family was there and I didn't do very well playing," Sanders said. "A lot of that was I was distracted, looking in the stands. I was young. My experience has definitely helped me with that."