Week 2 Power Rankings

Well it was a crazy week 1 in the AFL. Some teams were crisp and ready to play. Others not so much so. Here are this weeks rankings from around the league:

AFL Fanpoll Rankings

1. San Jose SaberCats
2. Philadelphia Soul
3. Arizona Rattlers
4. Orlando Predators
5. Chicago Rush
6. Jacksonville Sharks
7. Spokane Shock
8. Tampa Bay Storm
8. Utah Blaze
10. Cleveland Gladiators

Coaches Poll

1. San Jose SaberCats
2. Orlando Predators
3. Arizona Rattlers
4. Philadelphia Soul
5. Spokane Shock
6. Chicago Rush
7. Georgia Force
8. Jacksonville Sharks
9. Pittsburgh Power
10. Tampa Bay Storm

As for my own rankings:

1. San Jose SaberCats
2. Orlando Predators
3. Philadelphia Soul
4. Arizona Rattlers
5. Chicago Rush
6. Jacksonville Sharks
7. Spokane Shock
8. Georgia Force
9. Cleveland Gladiators
10. Tulsa Talons
11. Tampa Bay Storm
12. Pittsburgh Power
13. Utah Blaze
14. Iowa Barnstormers
15. Dallas Vigilantes
16. Milwaukee Mustangs
17. Kansas City Command
18. New Orleans VooDoo

YouTube Tuesday - March 15, 2011

Well it was a tough loss this week, but there was a tougher loss for another former af2 team. To cheer us up, I thought we could use a look at Spokane's week 1 loss:

Despite some late game heroics, new-look Talons fall short to Georgia, 53-47

At the end of last season Mitch Allner had one thing on mind. Improved size and talent. While last season's team was definitely talented, they lacked the size defensively to truly compete against improved opponents. Allner went on to sign a team with only three individuals with previous arena football experience. However, the team had loads of size and talented individuals. It was known the Talons would experience troubles in their first few games as players began to adjust. That is what we saw today.

From the opening kickoff, QB Brett Elliot had all kinds of time to work with. Elliot was able to be patient and wait for his receivers to get open, then pick apart the Talons secondary. After a seven minute drive to start the game, and a valiant goal line stand by the Talons, Georgia went ahead 7-0.

The Talons offense came out rather strong to start the game. Rookie QB Bobby Reid was sharp most of the day. On the Talons first drive Reid went 2-3 before Reid scrambled for one of his multiple rushing touchdowns of the day. Kicker Juan Bongarra failed his first arena football extra point to leave the Talons behind 7-6.

After a quick score by Georgia, Tulsa began to drive again with some great underneath passes. However, before the Talons could complete the drive, Reid broke a long scramble down to the 14 before being stripped with Georgia recovering. Georgia was then able to capitalize on busted coverage to extend their lead to 20-6, which they never lost.

The nail in the coffin was the start of the second half. After back-to-back sacks by the Talons defense to keep Georgia scoring for the half, the Talons offense makes mental mistakes to back the team up and then Bongarra's field goal attempt was blocked. Georgia took a shot and caught the Talons secondary off guard, increasing their lead to 33-17.

All day the Talons secondary was unable to maintain coverage and Elliot made them pay every time. This was compounded by the Defensive line's inability to get to the quarterback. For the Talons to be competitive, they will need to improve in both areas as the season continues.

Simply put, Reid was fantastic for the most part. His ability to pull the ball down and run is something that no team in the league could do last year (at least to the ability Reid brings). Combined with his feet, Reid's arm was sharp. He was making the right decisions and throwing the ball away when he needed too. The only problem was that it seemed that Reid had a receiver picked out when he left the huddle. Better defenses will be able to read that and make him pay.

However, if the team can grow and adjust to the indoor game, their talent should make them a strong team. At this point though, things may be rough for awhile. Next week the Talons travel to Dallas to take on the Vigilantes at noon CST on Saturday March 19.

Headlines - March 13, 2011

Today's starting QB is still unknown: "Bassuener battled in training camp with former Oklahoma State starter Bobby Reid, who has never thrown a pass in the indoor game. Who starts Sunday? Allner said he wouldn't disclose his choice until just before kickoff. 'That doesn't change how you prepare," Bassuener said. "You have the mentality that you're going to be out there.'"

Allner is concerned about lack of experience: "Only linebacker Jamar Ransom returns from Tulsa's inaugural Arena Football League season in 2010. Allner has several players who had never been exposed to the indoor game until going through training camp, which ended last weekend."

Arena Pigskin has Tulsa ranked at 17th: "Tulsa lost it’s best QB-WR duos, possibly the best the AFL has ever seen. Can the Talons recover?"

AFL Insider has Tulsa at 12: "A lot of people will have Tulsa low on the rankings as their roster is filled with a bunch of unknowns to Arena Football. However, Head Coach Mitch Allner is extraordinarily high on the roster, believing that he has two recievers that are better than former star wideout Donnovan Morgan. There are a lot of question marks here, but this team could be very dangerous if everything comes together."

The Talons did not make it into the Top 10 of the Coaches Poll

The Talons offer a Q&A with Bobby Reid: "What game are you looking forward to most this season? BR: I'm looking forward to the PLAYOFFS!"

Arena Pigskin picks Tulsa to win: "I’m not which sure of which way to lean. Both teams aren’t appetizing picks. Tulsa does return FB/LB Jamar Ransom and head coach Mitch Allner which will help. Not sure who Georgia will have at the quarterback position. Tulsa should be able to prevail fairly easily."

Looks like the Arena Bowl will be at the highest seed again: "Answering a question from the public about whether the league is considering holding the ArenaBowl at a neutral site, rather than at the home of the highest-seeded team in the championship game, Kurz said that ownership decided to leave things the way they have been. Neutral sites take time to put together, and home field advantage is something for players to work for and for fans to be excited about."

An interesting article on last year's duo: "Last season for the Tulsa Talons, Allgood threw for 4,359 yards for a league-leading 109 touchdowns. Morgan was the recipient of 52 of those touchdowns."

Donovan Morgan on last year: "Last year, I ventured off to somewhere else, and I really didn't like the situation I was in. Coach Honensee gave me a call when the free agency period came, and it was all over after that. Once he called, I knew this is where I wanted to be."

By the way, interesting stat from Friday night's game: Justin Allgood threw all his touchdowns to Donovan Morgan.

How to Deal

So its a new season. But something doesn't feel quite right. It's still arena football. Fast paced action. Hard hits to the wall. But it finally hit me. It's the players. Gone are Justin Allgood, Donovan Morgan, Jeff Hughley, Carlese Franklin, Odie Armstrong, Brett Rayl, Terrance Carter. They are what made we fall in love with the Talons. They were the team. The players are the reason a lot of people fall for their own team.

This summer DailyThunder had a post on this specific subject. In the post about how to get your girlfriend/wife/significant other to like the Thunder, Royce said of his wife's love of the team:

She loves the players. She doesn’t care so much about basketball per se, but she cares about the team, if that makes sense. So I would pander to that emotion. See if you can get her to connect to KD, Russ and Jeff Green. Have her watch some Broingtons videos. My wife just loves how together they are. The NBA itself isn’t necessarily a ton of fun to someone that doesn’t love basketball. But I’ll go see a movie with Harrison Ford in it even if it’s a chick flick and I know I’ll hate it, just because I’m a fan of his.

So what will season be like without me and my friends shouting "ODIE!" every time Odie makes a great run? Will touchdowns be as exciting when we can't do the spiderman webslinging hand gesture? Only time will tell. But this is still Tulsa's team. Mitch will still recruit great talent and put the best team he can on the field for the city. Oh, and Jamar will still make opposing teams laugh when trying to line up on offense.

Week 1 Picks

Tampa Bay at New Orleans: NEW ORLEANS. The Storm have lost a lot from last season. Quarterback. Coach. Everything else. They are basically a shell of the team they once were. This could be a very tough season for them. The VooDoo has quietly put together a solid team that could surprise some people. Of course, I could just be hoping for my old Talons to do well!

Philadelphia at Pittsburgh: PHILADELPHIA. This matchup offers something interesting. Terrance Carter v. Justin Allgood. Teammates for years finally face off. Philadelphia has put together a championship caliber team, but still have to prove it on the field. Pittsburgh has a strong defense (which should make the town proud) but offense is still questionable.

Spokane at San Jose: SAN JOSE. The Sabercats make their return to the AFL to take on the defending champs. This should be great motivation going into the game. The Sabercats are well balanced on both sides of the ball and should impress people. The Shock, while retaining a lot of talent from last season, have lost some stars.

Kansas City at Dallas: DALLAS. Dallas was one of the biggest disappointments of last season (partially due to their opening loss to the Talons). Coming back with Dallas hero Clint Dolezel as head coach should help inspire them to an opening victory over the Command.

Jacksonville at Arizona: JACKSONVILLE. Jacksonville was last season's darling franchise. They should continue that this week against a strong Arizona team. Jacksonville has one of the league's best defenses and has added offensive threat Jeff Hughley. However, Arizona does have one of the best fullbacks in the league, Odie Armstrong.

Tulsa at Georgia: TULSA. Georgia seems somewhat in disarray at this point. There are big questions as to who will be at quarterback. Tulsa on the other hand had a great showing at a scrimmage against Dallas last week. This should be a great learning game for the Talons along the way to a victory.

Chicago at Milwaukee: CHICAGO. Really nothing much to say here. Chicago is still in recovery mode after Coach Ho left. However, Milwaukee, while being more successful in promoting the team, has had a less than stellar offseason.

Power Rankings - Week 1

It's been quite an offseason for the league! A lot of rosters shakeups. As such, really any rankings out there are probably nothing more than speculation at this point. Here are this weeks Fanpoll rankings (the AFLWA has yet to release rankings):

AFL Fanpoll Rankings

1. Spokane Shock
2. Philadelphia Soul
3. San Jose Sabercats
4. Orlando Predators
5. Jacksonville Sharks
6. Arizona Rattlers
7. Cleveland Gladiators
8. Chicago Rush
9. Kansas City Command
9. Utah Blaze


As for my own rankings, not much discussion to be had here. Until we start to see teams on the field its really hard to judge where teams really are. But none the less here we go:

1. Jacksonville Sharks
2. Orlando Predators
3. San Jose Sabercats
4. Philadelphia Soul
5. Spokane Shock
6. Arizona Rattlers
7. Chicago Rush
8. Tulsa Talons
9. New Orleans VooDoo
10. Cleveland Gladiators
11. Georgia Force
12. Pittsburgh Power
13. Kansas City Command
14. Utah Blaze
15. Iowa Barnstormers
16. Tampa Bay Storm
17. Dallas Vigilantes
18. Milwaukee Mustangs