Arenafootball.com
Nothing has come easy for the Philadelphia Soul in their 2016 campaign, and sealing home field advantage through the American Conference playoffs in Saturday’s regular season finale in Orlando might have been their toughest obstacle yet.
Philadelphia got stellar play from their fifth-year starting quarterback Dan Raudabaugh, who’s entering his sixth straight AFL postseason appearance, and in the Soul’s 12 wins before Saturday night, an elite performance from Raudabaugh was enough to end the game with a win.
Raudabaugh looked like his 2015 AFL MVP form once again in Orlando, achieving a near perfect game completing 21 of his 29 passes for 335 yards and 10 touchdowns, earning a 150.14 quarterback rating.
The important number in Raudabaugh’s stats line was zero interceptions. In the 12 games this season in which he excelled, the team ended the game with solid wins. However, in the three games Raudabaugh struggled in the most with numerous turnovers, the Soul suffered their infrequent losses.
But for the first time this season, a successful Raudabaugh performance wasn’t quite enough to walk out of the Amway Center with a slam dunk win.
The Soul defense came together at the perfect times to bail out teammates on the other sides of the ball to keep momentum out of the hands of the Predators all throughout the game.
Tommy Frevert missed three extra point attempts in the game, which opened the door for the Predators to gain control of the match. After Frevert missed his second attempt in the first half, keeping a close back-and-forth score at 26-21, he attempted to make up for his mistakes with an onside kick. The Predators special teams read the play from the moment they stepped on the field, and defenders on both teams chased the ball all the way into the Philly end zone, which Orlando recovered to give the home team their first lead of the game, 28-26.
The special teams unit looked very troubling for a first place Soul team, as they did not appear to know when onside kicks were coming whether it was Freevert kicking off or the Orlando unit staring them down 10 yards apart.
After Orlando’s first successful onside recovery, they ran one of their very own and recovered the ball at midfield in the final minute of the first half.
Philly’s defense shut the door on any attempt to go up by two scores however, and Orlando’s kicker Mark Lewis nailed a rare field goal to put the Predators up, 31-26.
With their backs against the wall knowing Orlando would get the ball to start the second half, Raudabaugh put together an important drive in the closing seconds of the first half, which ended with a 14 yard touchdown pass to Darius Reynolds to give Philly a 33-31 lead heading into the locker room.
On the very first drive of the second half, Orlando veteran quarterback Bernard Morris tried to force a deep pass against the boards, which didn’t fool Philly’s James Romain who came up with the game’s first and only interception of the night.
Raudabaugh led his offense onto the field for their first drive of the second half, and moments later they capitalized on their gift with a 27 yard touchdown to Duvalt.
But Freevert continued to struggle at times, and special teams continued to come up short.
It all set up a thrilling fourth-and-long situation late in the fourth quarter that set the tone for the season, in a play that could propel playoff momentum.
In the final minute of the game, the Soul offense attempted to run out the clock with a 60-59 lead and take the close-knit victory. However, a Jermaine Richardson stack at the line forced a 4th-and-goal from the 13 yard line with 38 seconds left and no timeouts remaining. A turnover on downs would give Orlando plenty of time to march down the field and earn any kind of score to win the game.
But Raudabaugh’s call for a near-hail-mary with all receivers in the endzone fooled the Orlando defenders, giving Darius Reynolds room to break free on the left side and catch a launched pass from Raudabaugh in the endzone and extend their lead, 67-59.
The defense once again stood tall in the closing seconds, not letting the Predators send the game to overtime and instead head back to Philly for at least the next two weeks.
The only perfect performance in the match came from Raudabaugh, who showed us his best stuff in the game and gave his team the great chance to win. Mixed in with the clutch efforts from the defense, with the exception of a two-point conversion attempt that was completed due to a Soul penalty, the Soul went into the jungle with a mission in mind to clinch first place, and that’s exactly what they did.
But the special teams have been a sore on the 13-3 Philadelphia Soul all season, and their struggles continued Saturday. No lead is safe with this Soul team if the special teams cannot recover a healthy amount of onside kicks, and they cannot afford to let that determine an outcome from here on out.
With the win, the Soul tie Arizona from the National Conference with the best record in Arena Football at the conclusion of the regular season, with the Rattlers holding the tiebreaker if they meet in the Arena Bowl.
It takes two wins to reach the championship stage, and it will all start Sunday, August 8 against the 2-13 Tampa Bay Storm at the PPL Center in Allentown.
We will bring you more Soul playoff coverage throughout the week.
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