Soul fall to Tampa Bay, remain winless to start season

                                                "No Touchdown" 

The Soul weren't going to get a break down in Tampa on Friday if they caught one in mid-air and ran it into the end zone. When everything seems to be going against you in a game and you add a few turnovers to the mix, the game is going to get really ugly, really fast.

And that is exactly what happened to the Philadelphia Soul, who fell to the Tampa Bay Storm 63-49 on Friday, April 4 at Tampa Bay Times Forum in Tampa Bay, Fla.

On the opening drive of the game, it seemed that the Soul were going to be handed an opportunity to take control of the game early on, as Carlos Martinez’s kick bounced off the uprights and landed onto the field of play, where the ball was recovered by a member of the Philadelphia kicking team. However, after further discussion it was determined the ball hit the wall before the Soul recovered it, giving possession to Tampa Bay.

The Storm capitalized on the break by scoring a touchdown moments later as quarterback Randy Hippeard found receiver Samuel Trunks on a 26 yard touchdown. The Soul would march down the field trying to equalize the score, but a fumble by Derrick Ross inside Tampa’s 10 yard line gave the ball back to the Storm.

The teams would exchange touchdowns throughout the first half, and the Soul trailed Tampa Bay 35-21 heading into the locker room.

The Soul would open up the second half with a Tiger Jones touchdown from Raudabaugh, making it a one possession game. The Soul would not get any closer in the contest however, and would turn the ball over numerously in the second half to lose 63-49.

The only defensive stop for the Soul came off a Joe Goosby interception in the fourth quarter.

Raudabaugh played his best game of the season, completing 32 of 47 passes 335 yards, six touchdowns and one interception.

            The bottom line for this team’s inability to put a good performance together for a full game and bring in their first win of the season is sloppy play, that’s getting numerous calls against them, with a sub-par defense thrown into the mix.

The stats sheet isn't going to show you how many infractions the Soul actually committed in this game, but the mental mistakes caused the team to turn the ball over on downs time and time again, along with giving the Storm offense extra-yardage and get closer to the end zone.

The defense has had many other problems this season, as they have kept their team out of contention in most of these three losses with the inability to make stops in games or generate turnovers. Goosby’s interception, which was the only stop in the entire game, was the first for any member of this team on the season. Ted Jennings has the Soul’s only fumble recovery, while he and Brandon Perkins have recorded the only two sacks in the first three games. This team has not played well on defense, and needs to make some major adjustments moving forward.

Now that we have established that the Soul single handedly lost this game by themselves, we can take a look at the touchdown Tiger Jones scored in the third quarter of the game, while his team trailed by two touchdowns, but was taken away after further review..

                     

To be honest, I can't say I have the AFL rule book in front of me, but I can tell you that the NFL rule book states:

A touchdown is scored when: 

(a) the ball is on, above, or behind the plane of the opponents’ goal line and is in possession of a runner 

 who has advanced from the field of play

(Section 2, Touchdown plays)

We've seen this play a million times in all football on every level, where the ball has crossed the plane and it's a touchdown, regardless of what results after it has crossed.

This is not the infamous 'Calvin Johnson rule', where a player must catch the ball and maintain possession as he lands on the ground and stands up; Tiger already had the ball, and was running in the end zone, which he did and earned his six points. 

Basically, it was a touchdown, and everyone involved but the officials knew it was. Even the Tampa Bay announcers, Jack Harris and Darek Sharp (who referred to Tiger Jones as a “sphincter” during one of his touchdowns in the first quarter) were in disbelief when the touchdown was taken away from Jones, who clearly crossed the plane with the ball, but had it stripped after leaving the end zone. Head coach Clint Dolezel waited for the referees to review the video tape outside of the end zone at which it was being reviewed, and turned around running as fast as he could in anger away from the officials (probably best for their safety) once they told him it was ruled a fumble.

There was controversy on the Soul’s next possession, where Ryan McDaniel appeared to score a fourth-down touchdown as he stretched the ball over the plane of the end zone, but after further review, the officials determined he was shy of the white stripe, another call that Harris and Sharp along with their guest Adam Markowitz, the AFL guru from the great ArenaFan.com, all disagreed with.

The Soul will get two more chances at the Tampa Bay Storm this season, as they host the Storm Saturday, May 17 at the Wells Fargo Center, and will travel back to Tampa to finish the season series on Saturday, June 7.

But this team has a lot to work on this week as they prepare to take on the Orlando Predators at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 10 at CFE Arena in Orlando, Fla. The Soul will remain in Florida this week to prepare for their fourth straight road game to start the season, and hopefully the lighter travel will be beneficial for this club. I’m not sure if anyone envisioned this team starting the season 0-3, and with Cleveland (3-0) and Pittsburgh (2-1) staying strongly above them in the standings, they need to figure their game out quickly if they plan on competing in the playoffs for the third straight season. It’s certainly going to be an interesting night in Orlando and South Philadelphia this Thursday.