Page 49 - Fl Stats News Today

Last season, the Philadelphia Soul marched on to ArenaBowl XXV by beating the snot out of the Jacksonville Sharks 89-34, the biggest blowout in a playoff game in league history. Now, the two teams are going to meet once again with a spot in the ArenaBowl on the line in Jacksonville on Saturday night in a game that is sure to be one for the ages.

Last season wasn't exactly a banner year for quarterbacks around the Arena Football League. It was the first time in the AFL v2.0 era that only two men threw for more than 100 touchdowns, and it was the first time since 2002 that no one completed even 68 percent of his passes.

A quarterback at any level of football is meant to be the leader of your team. Now though the first half of the 2013 season, the Chicago Rush have had three different starting quarterbacks.

The San Jose SaberCats successfully came out on top against Spokane on Saturday night with a relieving victory that dramatically skyrockets the chances of their first division crown since 2008. With a 9-4 record, San Jose now has a three-game lead in the National Conference Pacific with just five left to play, as well as the critical head-to-head tiebreaker over Spokane due to winning the season series 2-1 after initially trailing 1-0.

Grand Rapids is not one of the former AFL teams that will be joining the AF1 this year. Rampage owner Dan Devos and Chief Operating Officer Scott Gorsline are all that remain of the team that won ArenaBowl XV in 2001 before a national TV audience.

Everyone thinks that they got screwed by the officials on a game in, game out basis. And it's true, the Tampa Bay Storm probably should have had one more play to run in the 57th edition of the War on I-4. But there's nothing to say that, even with one more play, that Tampa Bay would have beaten the Orlando Predators.

The Albany Empire open up a four-game home stand this Saturday night to face the Washington Valor on (6pm, TV: CBS Sports Network; Radio: ALT 105.7 (Albany)). The two teams are no strangers to each other as the Empire have taken wins in both of their meetings this season.

The Arizona Rattlers are winners of ArenaBowl XXVI. Lindholm's field goal proved to be the clinching scoring, making it a two-score game. Philadelphia put up a tremendous effort, but it wasn't enough to beat the Rattlers, who have won their fourth ArenaBowl in franchise history and their second straight by the count of 48-39.

The Washington Valor (0-4) lost 53-42 on Friday night inside of Capital One Arena against the Albany Empire (2-2) in front of 9,037 fans.

I'm not saying that the Spokane Shock are anywhere near like the New York Jets of 1969. It is pretty clear that QB Kyle Rowley is one of the best indoor quarterbacks in the AFL or any other alphabet league, and the Shock are clearly a fantastic squad that took it to the best in the league all season long. This clearly wouldn't be an upset at all.