AFL: Conference Championship Match Ups

The Arena Football Conference Championship games are set and both are shaping up to have some great story lines.

First off, in the National Conference the #1 Philadelphia Soul (14-3) will play host to the # 4 Cleveland Gladiators (11-7) on July 12th (ESPN 1pm ET).

The Gladiators who I have been sporadically reporting about over the season since they have just made the move to my beloved sports town, are an unlikely squad to be sitting one win away from the Arena Bowl. This is mostly due to the fact that last year they posted a relocating 2-14 effort. As I had said earlier, the key to the Gladiators postseason success was going to be an offense that continues to click as well as implementing a running game that is of second priority in the AFL. Coach of the Year Mike Wilpolt has done a tremendous job thus far in constantly changing up his offensive looks, and creating mismatches on every drive. In the second round of playoff action Philyaw proved once again that he should be recognized as one of the top QB’s in the league throwing what proved to be a game winning TD with a little over a minute to go against the Force for the 73-70 victory. See those highlights here:



It is hard to get a closer game than a three point margin, but the Philadelphia Soul were able to do it in round 2 versus New York. The soul came into the playoffs as a majority favorite to head to the Arena Bowl, but have stumbled showing their weakness against the Dragons.

Looks like a St Louis Ram’s situation only 1 yard closer.



Remember 17 Total Teams:
The Gladiators Post #3 Rushing Offensive going against the The Soul’s 15th Ranked Rush Defense.
The Soul and Gladiators are #1 and #2 in Pass Offense respectively. On the the pass defense Philadelphia sits at #5 and Cleveland at #15. These teams met twice in the regular season with the Soul taking both 67-55 and 62-61.


In the American Conference we will see defending Arena Bowl Champion #2 San Jose Sabrecats (12-5) host the #6 Grand Rapids Rampage (8-10) July 12th (ESPN 3:30 pm ET). The Rampage are without a doubt the story of the playoffs year, and are moving into a conference championship after knocking off top seed Chicago. We have to give much respect to Tucson Native and former teammate to Matt Randle “el”, QB James MacPherson. Against the Chicago Rush MacPherson did everything a QB could possibly do on his own to solidify a W. When all was said and done he completed 33 of 39 attempts for 326 yards and 6 touchdowns. Check out this highlight of him gunning a TD while laying down:



We here are the Bear Down now Support our GrandRapids/Tucson Boy, and thus will not be recapping San Jose’s efforts. Watch the highlights:



Team Comparison:
Passing Offensive: Rampage #6, SabreCats #7
Passing Defense: Rampage #10, SabreCats #3
Rushing Offense: Rampage #2, SabreCats #16

Grand Rapids and San Jose met only one time in the regular season during week 1 where the SabreCats came out on top 66-58.


What To Hope For: Grand Rapids vs. Cleveland in the Arena Bowl

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Cleveland Gladiators Year In Review

The Cleveland Gladiators have finished their Inaugural season by clinching a berth in the 2008 AFL playoffs. Finishing with a 9-7 record in regular season play they have locked the 4th seed in the National Conference. The Gladiators started off strong going 3-0 to start the season with some good momentum. The great start is especially noteworthy considering the previous year the Gladiators, then playing in Las Vegas, finished their season with a 2-14 record. Head coach Mike Wilpolt might have had a lot to do with it, but he had a helping hand from a good squad that continued to play above expectations all season.

After the big start Cleveland would drop their next three games moving back to .500. These losses included one to a good Dallas Desperados team (3 seed in National Conference), and a match up that was hyped as Bernie Kosar’s Gladiators versus John Elway’s Colorado Crush. After splitting the next two games ( Win against LA Avengers and Loss against New York Dragons) Cleveland saw another three game winning streak. Moving into the final 4 weeks of the season Wilpolt’s squad was sitting at 7-5 in the Eastern Division which is undoubtedly the toughest in the AFL. This is how the Gladiators finished out their season:

Vs. Dallas Desperados: 3rd in National Conference, 2nd in Eastern Division (12-4): L 68-52
Vs. Chicago Rush: 1st in American Conference, 1st in Central Division (11-5): W 65-44
@ Philadelphia Soul: 1st in National Conference, 1st in Eastern Division (13-3): L 62-21
Vs. Columbus Destroyers: The Battle of the Buckeye State, Last Years Runner up in Arena Bowl (3-13): W 47-35

It bodes well for the Gladiators that they finished out strong with a couple key wins to clinch a playoff spot. The most important of the final weeks coming from the victory over the Rush who is the American Conference’s top team. Equally as important was the effort against the Soul on the road in which one point was the difference against the best team in the AFL.

The Key to success will be an offense that has been very fluid all season. Raymond Philyaw has been great behind the helm posting the second best passer rating this season with 124.5. He threw for 4287 yards on 358 completions (68.2%) for 83 Touchdowns to only 10 interceptions. As always his two favorite targets will be Robert Redd and Amey Otis who both cracked the top ten in receiving this year with Otis claiming the top spot in touchdowns with 50. One of the most unsung heroes for the Gladiators will be Marlion Jackson who claimed the AFL Rushing title with 356 yards on the season. The running game is one of the most overlooked aspects of the fast paced Arena game, and Jackson will be a huge asset during the playoffs.

On the defensive side of the ball DB Brandon Hefflin will have to come up big. In his third year in the league he posted a team high 110 tackles, 89 of which were solo along with 2 INTs. He will without a doubt have to step up in a leadership role for other defensive standouts such as Rookie DB Alex Teems who posted the second highest tackle numbers with 82.5.

Monday June 30th will see the Gladiators (9-7 3rd in Eastern Division) moving into the first round of Wild Card play against the Orlando Predators (9-7 2nd in Southern Division). These teams met one time during the regular season where the Gladiators came out on top 62-43.

Quick Match Up Rankings (Overall in AFL)

Defense: Gladiators 2nd, Predators 10th
Rushing: Gladiators 3rd, Predators 8th
Passing: Gladiators 2nd, Predators 10th
Kicking: Gladiators 8th, Predators 10th


All in all the Gladiators match up well on paper, but I would not be looking to the next round just yet. It should be a good game and you can catch it on ESPN2 a week from today.

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AFL Update: Rattlers Money Back Guarantee Pays Off

So I think I made it to week three of AFL recaps before losing sight of my goal to become a legitimate Arena fan. That being said I am sure most of you skimmed over those articles anyways and forgot about it all together. That is why with about two weeks to go in the season I’ll give you a quick update for Arizona’s own Indoor football team.



As you may recall the Rattlers organization made a guarantee to their fans that they would give a 100% refund to their season ticket holders if they didn’t make the playoffs. Well they can breath a sigh of relief as they have clinched a berth with an 8-6 record with two left to play. They are currently sitting in 2nd place behind the defending arena bowl champion San Jose Sabrecats (10-5) in the American Conference’s Western Division. Besides the pressure of the wager and the fact that it is Head Coach Kevin Guy’s first season the Rattlers were sitting on a record of 4-6 with the playoffs seemingly out of reach. Then all of a sudden something sparked and the squad started closing out the close games they had been dropping all season. They were coming off back to back losses when they faced the Dallas Desperados (currently 12-3 and tied with Philadelphia Soul for best record in the AFL) where they came away with a 55-54 upset. Next up was a sub par Grand Rapids Rampage team who they also narrowly beat out 52-48, followed by a 60-53 win over a good Orlando Predators team. Then last Sunday (Jun 8th) the rattlers faced the Kansas City Brigade and a chance to clinch a playoff berth. Arizona showed up in a big way setting records for most point in a half (49) and most points in a quarter (36) giving them their biggest margin of victory all season with the 73-34 win.

The Rattlers are heading in to the last two games of their season with some serious momentum and are facing match ups against Colorado Rush (4-10) and Utah Blaze (5-10). Arizona should be able to take both of these games if they keep on their game. If that is the case, and San Jose loses their final game to the Georgia Force (10-5) they will be tied for the top spot in the western division. Not too shabby for a team that had a long way to go to make a playoff spot.

Later this week I will give a run down on the Cleveland Gladiators season and playoff chances before giving a playoff preview so check back.

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AFL Week 3

Week 3 action in Arena Football saw the Arizona Rattlers going up against defending Arena Bowl Champion San Jose Sabrecats as well as The Cleveland Gladiators facing off against the Columbus Destroyers for “The Battle of the Buckeye State Trophy”.

The Arizona Rattlers Still competing with themselves on the season ticket bet with their fans fell to 1-2 against the Sabrecats after tonight’s loss (63-43). The Sabrecats were in control for most of the game putting a 20 point hurting on the Rattlers. Turnovers were the story of this game as the Rattlers lost three fumbles as well as Smoker throwing 3 interceptions. With the win San Jose moves to 2-1 and the rattlers fall farther away from winning their playoff bet.

Next Week: March 21st vs. New York Dragons

In the Battle of the Buckeye State the surprise of the AFL continued to shock and awe as the Gladiators won a nail biter against the Columbus destroyers 59-57. It came down to the wire as Destroyer’s QB Nagy connected on a 33 yard pass with 20 seconds left to put the score at 59-57. They failed to convert the two point conversion, and after Cleveland recovered the onside kick it was all over. Philyaw behind the helm for Cleveland connected 19 of 28 passes for 209 yards and 5 touchdowns. On the receiving end Redd posted 7 catches for 74 yards and 2 touchdowns, while Amey had 6 catches for 71 yards and 3 touchdowns. With this big win over last year’s Arena Bowl Runner Ups Cleveland has moved to 3-0 and knocked Columbus down to 0-3.

Side Note For all of you Buckeye fans out there who are still wondering what happened to Justin Zwick: He is currently backing up Destroyers QB Matt Nagy. He didn’t exactly pan out the way we thought he would did he?

Next Week: Friday March 21st @ New Orleans VooDoo

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