Philly Soul - Week 6

I really like the sport of Arena Football. There are a lot of blatantly obvious things about it that differ from the NFL, but the more I watch it the more I get a feel for the nuances that truly make the AFL its own sport... for one thing, the scoring pace makes it much more akin to basketball in terms of clock management, turnover management, etc.

Because I like the AFL, I really want to see the Philadelphia Soul do well. But it's going to be very difficult to keep people interested if they keep losing games to teams from rival cities like Dallas and New York.

Last week, after going up 14-0 in the first quarter, the New York Dragons did EVERYTHING they could to give the game away to Philly.. but every time they'd make a mistake, the Soul would make one even worse. The entire game for me could be summarized by one series late in the game: the Soul had the chance to take the lead for the first time after a huge defensive stop. Graziani throws a pass to a wide open Marcus Knight in the end zone... who drops it. Graziani promptly fumbles the snap on the next play.

Incidentally, Graziani hasn't played a full game yet in a Soul uniform without committing a turnover (although he didn't throw an interception for the first time this season).