Wildcard playoff picture: Taking a look at the opening round matchups

The road to Arena Bowl XXIX starts this weekend, with all eight teams competing in the opening wildcard round and hoping to reach their conference championships. While we’ve already dissected the Soul’s matchup with the Tampa Bay Storm this Sunday, let’s take a look at the other three matchups that are slated for this weekend.

Jacksonville Sharks at Orlando Predators

7 p.m. Saturday, August 6th

This is probably the most intriguing matchup of the opening round, and has the most immediate significance for the Soul.

The defending conference champion Jacksonville Sharks have struggled all season long, just as they did last year before going on a two-game playoff run that brought them to the Arena Bowl.

They’ve taken their losing ways to a new level this season though, resulting in the firing of the franchise's first and only head coach, Les Moss, in the tail end of their 7-9 season. Since his firing however, the Sharks have won two straight games.

With talented names still on the roster such as Tommy Grady, Derrick Ross, Joe Hills and Prechae Rodriguez, can lightning strike twice in Jacksonville and send the Sharks to another conference title game?

They’ll have their hands full Saturday night in the Jungle, facing a Predators team who’s had problems of their own as of late.

Randy Hippeard appeared to finally be playing like the quarterback Orlando’s been long awaiting for through the first 12 weeks of the season, as he led his team to a 9-2 record in the span. However, a season ending injury against these same Jacksonville Sharks in week 12 didn’t cost his team a win that night, but the Predators have been just 2-2 since Bernard Morris took the starting job in week 13. Morris had the opportunity to silence the critics and clinch the top seed over the Soul last week, but B-Mo just didn’t look the same as Hippeard at any point at the end of the year, costing them a chance to host the entire playoffs.

That said, Morris’ two losses came against the top two teams in the league, with the first being against the Arizona Rattlers and the other against Philly. Morris has two playoff victories in his career, both coming during the opening round of the playoffs in 2012 and 2013.
Both teams are limping into the playoffs, but Orlando has to be feeling better of the two when they walk into the Amway Center come Saturday night.

Winner of the match will head to Philly next week for the conference championship, as long as the Soul can also take care of business against the Storm.

Portland Steel at Arizona Rattlers

10 p.m. Saturday, August 6th

Every team outside of Arizona is cheering for the Steel Saturday night, and we’ll all be hoping we can believe in miracles when the 2-14 Steel travel to the 13-3 Arizona Rattlers.

Playoff miracles are not out of the question in Arena Football.

n 2007, the Columbus Destroyers finished the regular season 7-9 and found themselves facing the greatest regular season team in AFL history, the 15-1 Dallas Desperados, who were led by hall of fame quarterback Clint Dolezel. The Destroyers wrote their name into the history books with a 66-59 win over the Desperados, handing them their first home loss of the season.

Even looking back at the Rattlers earlier this season, they were upset at home by the Tampa Bay Storm in week nine. That was, however, their last loss of the season, as they’ve won seven straight and have captured control of Arena Bowl homefield. All you need to know is Nick Davila and coach Kevin Guy are stepping on the field, and you know Portland will more than have their hands full.

Cleveland Gladiators at Los Angeles Kiss

6 p.m. Sunday, August 7th

This might be an overlooked matchup, especially considering it’ll be kicking off at the same time as the Soul will be.

Nonetheless, it’s still a historic game for the league in that it’s Gene Simons’ and Paul Stanley’s first playoff game, and they’ll get to host it at the Honda Center in L.A.

The Kiss won both matches against the Gladiators in the regular season by less than one score, which proved to be enough as both teams finished the regular season under.500 at 7-9. One of the two teams will enter the conference championship next week just one game under the .500 mark.

Pete Thomas has taken the nod at quarterback in L.A. from Nathan Stanley, and has put together a quarterback rating just under 103 compared to Stanley’s 95 rating.

Donovan Morgan is the best receiver on either team heading in, who’s scored 41 touchdowns on 113 receptions.

The Kiss have lost two straight heading into the playoffs, while the Gladiators hit the road for a seventh straight week and are losers in their last three games.

Arvell Nelson is taking the snaps at quarterback for the Gladiators, with a 59.5 completion percentage and a 113.28 quarterback rating.

With a probable trip to Arizona for the conference title game next week awaiting the winner of this matchup, we’ll see how much the Gladiators have in them to try and earn their eighth straight road trip.

And that’s what the playoffs look like this weekend. All eight teams are in, and four will be left standing and will be knocking on the door of the Arena Bowl.