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So there is a Soul game going on this weekend where a team four games over .500 (Soul) will be facing a team that’s 5.5 games under .500 (Tampa Bay).
We’re not going to undercut any game in the Arena Football League, as every game has great meaning to the Soul this season and not showing up for a game could hurt you (see week nine).
After all, it was looking over the Gladiators in that said matchup that has the Soul looking for some help now.
But as long as the heavy probable happens, there is a game Monday night that very well could end up being the biggest game of the season for Philadelphia, and they aren’t even playing in it.
The Orlando Predators will be traveling to desert’s snake pit to face the Arizona Rattlers, who are the hottest team in the AFL at the right time.
First, take a look at the AFL standings. Keep in mind that the league is throwing out the conference playoff format of the past, and is just reseeding the league by all eight teams, with the top seed playing the eighth seed and so on.
1. PREDATORS 12-2
2. RATTLERS 11-3
3. SOUL 11-3
4. GLADIATORS 7-7
5. KISS 6-7
6. SHARKS 5-8
7. STORM 1-12
8. PORTLAND 1-12
It’s pretty tight atop the first three seeds. Philadelphia has the current tiebreaker over the Orlando Predators, and have a chance in week 18, the final week of the regular season, to put the nail in the coffin and straight up pass the Predators in the standings, as long as Philadelphia wins this week.
And despite winning the first match of the season against the Arizona Rattlers, the snakes handed a beating to the Soul last month and clinched the tiebreaker over the Soul in overall points scored.
So we know the Soul will need to finish with a better regular season record than Arizona to avoid taking another trip to the desert where their season was wounded.
All three teams have their bye weeks next week and will be idle.
As we stated earlier, the Soul and Predators will face off in the final week of the regular season.
The Rattlers close the regular season at home against the 7-7 Cleveland Gladiators.
A Philadelphia win plus an Orlando win would make week 18 a winner-take-first-place match up. An Arizona win win of any kind would need an overall points tiebreaker to decide if Arizona or Orlando would get first place, but any Rattlers win would pretty much secure Philly unable to pass them this regular season.
Here’s what we’re getting at: THE SOUL DO NOT WANT TO GO BACK TO ARIZONA. THE ONLY WAY TO AVOID THAT IS BY ORLANDO WINNING IN ARIZONA THIS WEEKEND.
Could the Gladiators win next weekend in Arizona? Sure, it’s very possible.
But consider this: The Rattlers are undefeated in their arena this season, and have lost just two games at home the last four seasons. One of those losses came last year against the 20-1 San Jose Sabercats, and the other was against the Chicago Rush, who folded in 2013.
Teams don’t play well in Arizona.
And the Soul found that out this year, when Raudabaugh threw two picks and his team suffered a few more turnovers to get their doors blown off for the majority of the game.
At the same time, the Soul handled the Rattlers at home pretty easily for the majority of the first matchup two weeks ago in Philly. That goes to show you how different this matchup could be based on venue.
It’s very possible that the Soul could go to the Talking Stick Resort Arena in August and capture an Arena Bowl championship of the Rattlers’ home turf.
But the confidence would be much greater if the game was held in a building the Soul could call home, whether it be the PPL Center or the Wells Fargo Center.
So we need a little bit of a miracle to be pulled off Monday night.
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