Philly bitten by turnovers in loss to Sharks

The Philadelphia Soul opened their season play at the Wells Fargo Center the same way they ended it back in August, with a heartbreaking loss to the Jacksonville Sharks.

This time, the desperate Sharks topped the home team Soul 59-41 to earn their first win of the year.

The name of this game was turnovers. After generating 27 points on turnovers last weekend against Cleveland, the Soul could not generate one turnover on defense this week, but gave the Sharks four possession-changing turnovers which Tommy Grady and his Sharks took advantage of to take control of the game.

There were some questionable calls against the Soul in the first half, and there was no doubt about it. From an offensive pass interference on Jacksonville that was called on both offense and defense, which came on fourth down none the less, to early push offs that got the attention of our own Jaws, which got him in the refs ear, there certainly were some questionable moments in the second week of the season for both the players and the officials.

Jacksonville flopped and drew some calls and made the league look bad at times, and their head coach Les Moss had the audacity to call out the refs on national television.

But calls were not the story of the game Monday night.

Raudabaugh didn’t look like his MVP form in the clutch against their conference rival, giving Jacksonville just enough chances to top the Soul in a crucial early season matchup.

Jacksonville capitalized early in the first half with a pair of turnovers. Raudabaugh threw an interception to on his first drive of the game. In the final minutes of the half of a tied match, Raudabaugh missed a wide open Ryan McDaniel in the end zone, forcing a fourth down they could not convert on which turned the ball over on downs.

Later on with 1:32 remaining in the third quarter and trailing 31-34, Raudabaugh threw another heartbreaking interception to Jacksonville's Greg Reid at Philly’s own 12-yard line for Raudabaugh’s second pick of the night.

The turnover would only result in a field goal, which still extended Jacksonville’s lead to 45-34 in the opening seconds of the fourth quarter.

The turnovers continued on the next drive with a McDaniel fumble at 13:48 left in the game for their fourth turnover of the match to silent the crowd.

Stevenson had the opportunity to pick off Grady with 12:40 left in the game for Philly’s first turnover, but he couldn’t grasp the ball going through his hands which symbolized the difference between the two teams in the match.

After another Jacksonville touchdown, Jacksonville’s LaRoche Jackson made an interception off a Raudabaugh pass along the boards and returned it to the house for a pick six, but the refs (who struggled with calls all night) blew the ball dead. But the refs made the wrong call again, and gave the Sharks the ball even though it was blown dead before Jacksonville gained possession . With the Soul trailing the game by three scores in the final minutes of the game, it’s hard to make an argument that Philly had a reasonable chance of a comeback, but we will never know after some inexperience shown by the officials.

Grady closed the game out with a touchdown to Roger Jackson which sealed the game.

Darius Reynolds led the Soul in scoring with three touchdowns in the match. Raudabaugh was 24/36 in passing with 306 yards, three touchdowns and three interceptions.

Grady finished the night with 326 yards and seven touchdowns for the Sharks. Joe Hills finished with 154 yards with four touchdowns. Former Soul Tiger Jones earned 126 yards and two touchdowns on the night.

Also former Soul Derrick Ross had a quiet night with just six touches. He finished the game with four whole yards, and the only time we really heard his name was on a three-yard run which earned him a touchdown.

Jacksonville entered the game 0-1 against a 1-0 team they knew they would be competing with for homefield in the playoffs in four months, and they certainly played like the more desperate team.

At times the Soul looked just as, if not better than the Sharks, but scoring just once in over a 16-minute stretch in the second half is not going to cut it against most opponents in this league.

TAKEAWAYS:

It was the second week of the season for both the players and officials.

The Soul, especially Raudabaugh, have room to clean up their turnovers. The refs clearly didn’t understand the rulebook at times, but hey, they have 16 more weeks to figure them out.

Jacksonville was a desperate, but good team.

It sucks seeing your former players kill you. It sucks even more seeing someone like Derrick Ross have little contribution to the win, but he gets to run his mouth on and off the field in your house once again.
Jacksonville’s offense did not turn the ball over once. They are good at what they do. There’s a reason they were in the Arena Bowl last season. Tommy Grady is a good quarterback, Tiger Jones is still one of the premier receivers in the league, and they have a cast around them that can compete and win them most games they play.

Philly needs a quick turnaround.

This team needs to put this loss behind them. Philly will have another chance to get revenge on their current biggest foes on June 4 in Jacksonville and possibly the playoffs.
Until then, they have a week to think this one over. The Soul will have another late game this week when they host Portland at 4 p.m. on Sunday, April 17 on an even bigger stage, ESPN 2. There are 16 more weeks in the Arena Football season, and as much tension might lay between Philly and Jacksonville’s franchises, this matchup is not the entire season.
The offense will work out their problems, and the defense will get their defensive challenges figured out. Just take it one week at a time.