Raudabaugh finding his game, earns weekly honors

           In Arena Football, it’s no secret that the most important position is the quarterback. And for the past three seasons, Philadelphia has greatly benefited in having one of the league’s elite quarterbacks, Dan Raudabaugh.

      

      Raudabaugh’s performance in the Soul’s 60-55 win over the Iowa Barnstormers on Sunday, April 27 earned Raudabaugh the league’s Russell Athletic Offensive Player of the Week award for the second time in three weeks. Raudabaugh was 26 for 35 on his passes Sunday, throwing for 283 yards and nine touchdowns in the victory.

After throwing a tipped interception on the first play of the game, Raudabaugh showed his resilience by constructing a near-flawless performance throughout the remainder of the game.

The Soul offense had an answer for nearly every situation that was thrown at them in the second half of Sunday’s game, trading touchdowns with the Barnstormers on every possession and the lead on each score. The game came down to the final two drives of the game, and Raudabaugh was handed a golden opportunity to win the ball game when the Soul defense forced the Barnstormers to kick a field goal, giving Philly the ball down by one point.

        

      In the final minute of the game, Raudabaugh was able to lead his offense 32 yards down the 50 yard field, and hook receiver Tiger Jones up with a six-yard touchdown with three seconds remaining to win the game.

      Despite the recent success on the Soul’s three-game win streak, it’s been far from a perfect season for Raudabaugh and his team. After the first three games of the season, Raudabaugh had the worst quarterback rating of all 16 starting quarterbacks in the league, and his team was winless to start the season. However, the following week Raudabaugh made AFL history against the Orlando Predators, setting the highest quarterback rating for a single game at 154.36 as he completed 20 of 22 passes for 254 yards and seven touchdowns, earning him the Russell Athletic Offensive Player of the Week that week as well.

It’s no secret that the Philadelphia Soul go as Raudabaugh goes, as the success of the team’s leader has reflected the wins and losses of the team dating back to early 2012.

The former Miami Redhawk quarterback joined the Philadelphia Soul in 2012, along with a cast of players and coaches from the Dallas Vigilantes when the club folded at the conclusion of the 2011 season. Raudabaugh has brought the Soul to the past two Arena Bowls, looking magnificent more often than not on his paths to the championship games. The one argument that naysayers have brought up against Raudabaugh’s play has been his inability to seal the victory in the championship game, as his Soul have come home empty handed from the Arena Bowl the past two years. But there's no question that Raudabaugh has the ability to perform in the playoffs, as his 4-3 record in the playoffs shows he has the success to win against tough opponents. If Raudabaugh continues to lead his team to Arena Bowls, he's bound to finish the task and quiet those who may be critical to his game.

    The Soul still has a lot of work to do if they are going to return to their third straight championship game, but the turnaround of Raudabaugh and his teams play is a great sign of optimism for this team moving forward. They've proven their ability to make it through an 18-game season and reach the playoffs, and their performance in the postseason makes them a viable threat to any opponent they meet in August. The American Conference is tighter than ever this year, with the Cleveland Gladiators sitting atop the East division at 6-0, the Orlando Predators leading the South division at 5-2 and three teams tied with the Soul in the wildcard race with three wins.

There’s still 13 weeks left for Raudabaugh to lead his team to another Arena Bowl push, and despite the struggles we've seen from this team and the scrutiny it has received, it’s clear that the team is finding their game and a way to string together some wins. If this continues, I’ll take my chances on the arm of Dan Raudabaugh than any other quarterback in this conference the rest of the way.