Philadelphia Soul Nation

Soul hope to tame      Rattlers in 2014 season opener

The back-to-back American Conference champion Philadelphia Soul will kick off their 2014 season at 9 p.m. Saturday, March 15, in a rematch of the past two Arena Bowls against the two-time defending world champion Arizona Rattlers in Phoenix, Ariz.

Philadelphia will look to end the franchises winless drought against the Rattlers, as they have never beaten Arizona in the team’s ten years of existence and sit with a 5-0 record against them. The most notable losses have been the four games the teams have played between each other in the last two seasons, two of were Arena Bowls and two were regular season losses last season.

 Arizona walked into Arena Bowl 25 in 2012 as heavy underdogs in the game, but walked away with the Foster trophy easily in a 72-54 victory over Philadelphia.

The following season, the two teams met up in similar fashion in the season opener, with the Soul hoping to wash the bad taste out of their mouths and defeat the football team they were heavily favored over in the championship game. The Rattlers were able to close out the Soul 66-52, as a Dan Raudabaugh interception in the final moments of the game sealed the win.

Three months later, the teams met in Philadelphia where Philly was hoping to use their home crowd advantage to finally get past the Rattlers. It appeared as if the Soul were going to do just that, as the Soul were capitalizing on turnovers from the reigning Arena Bowl MVP quarterback Nick Davila and had the game in hand, until a late surge from the Rattlers gave them another heartbreaking win over the Soul.

The teams would meet again in an Arena Bowl rematch on August 17, 2013, with the Rattlers a favorite heading into the game. The lead went back and forth throughout the game, and when Arizona looked to ice a victory and go up 13 points in the final minute of the game with a sure-touchdown, Arizona fumbled the ball at the one yard line giving the Soul the ball and the opportunity to steal the championship away from Arizona. The Rattlers proved to be the better defense in the game, and stopped the Soul once again and wear the crown of the world champions of Arena Football.

This match is nothing new to the Arena Football world, and it’s one featuring arguably the two best teams in the entire game. Philadelphia will look to Raudabaugh and see if he can lead the Soul to their first victory against Arizona of all time, while at the same time proving to the league that they can battle with any team in the league.

Raudabaugh is coming off a 2013 season that saw him post 96 touchdowns with 14 interceptions, completing 390 passes on 573 attempts, good enough for a 122.37 quarterback rating. Raudabaugh will be accompanied by the game’s all-time rushing leader, fullback Derrick Ross “The Boss,” who last year ran for 542 yards and scoring 35 touchdowns for the Soul. In the air, Arizona will have to watch out for Soul wide receivers Anthony “Tiger” Jones and Ryan McDaniel, who are returning from last year’s squad. Tiger put up 2,121 yards in 2013, scoring 37 touchdowns, while McDaniel finished with 819 yards and 21 touchdowns, all while missing six games due in the season due to injury.

The Soul have parted ways with receiver Andrae Thurman, who was the second receiver on the team last year putting up 1197 yards and 38 touchdowns. Thurman was traded to the expansion Portland Thunder for future picks.

               

  The Soul will have to try and hold back quarterback Nick Davila, who threw from 4842 yards and 110 touchdowns last season and led his team to the last three Arena Bowls, winning the two most recent. Davila is accompanied by wide receiver Rod Winsor, who leads the Snake’s receiving core coming off a 1,585 yard, 42 touchdown receiving season.

Limiting Davila’s game is the key to shutting down the entire Rattlers mojo. Defensive tackle Bryan Robinson for the Soul will try and get to Davila all night long, as he did in 2013 where he finished fifth in the league with nine sacks on the season. Defensive back Rayshaun Kizer was in the top ten players in 2013 with interceptions as he finished with nine, which were good enough for 96 yards.

Defensive back’s Marquis Floyd and Arkeith Brown have been threats for the Rattlers in their recent championship years, and have been known to tear apart Raudabaugh’s game plan in recent matches. While Arena Football is a game of offense, these two teams have proven that defense still wins championships no matter how great your offense may be.

While the Soul have been getting closer to beating the Rattlers in each match, it will certainly be a tough task defeating the champs in their home snake-pit, where they haven’t been challenged much at home for almost two years. AFL experts such as the respectable folks leading ArenaFan have already begun predicting Arizona will host the Arena Bowl, put up record setting numbers with an MVP quarterback and nearly predicted a third straight title for the Rattlers. A win would propel the Soul as serious contenders if they have not already reached that level in the minds of many. A loss would not end the Philadelphia season, especially with the American conference searching for a team to contend with Philadelphia again this season. It would, however, be huge for the team to finally defeat this roster that has certainly had their number the last few years, instead of hoping that they can somehow pull out a win against them in the sixth meeting in August.  

The 9 p.m. kickoff on Saturday, March 15, 2014 can be seen on ESPN 3.