The Philadelphia Soul did not win last Sunday due to a variety of reasons, but this post will focus on the Time of Possession battle which proved to be the Soul's worst enemy.
After three games Soul fans should realize that this team does not hold onto the football long enough. The Soul rank dead last in the AFL through Week 4 in time of possession. The Soul's average of 25:53 is 1:23 less than the second-to-last ranked Arizona Rattlers squad (27:17) and 8:43 less than the New Orleans VooDoo (34:37), the league's leader in that category.
Granted you don't have to hold onto the football for very long in this league to score points, but when you have an underachieving defense that doesn't stop anyone, then you're giving your opposition possessions with more game clock to work with than usual.
The Soul held onto the football for 25:01 while the Gladiators (ranked 3rd at 33:09) time of possession sat at 34:59. You might be thinking what's the big fuss since the Soul only lost by 6 points after having the ball for 9:58 less than the Gladiators. But this is becoming too familiar of a pattern for a Soul squad with some alarming flaws.
First off, the Soul are the AFL's top scoring offense at 69.7 points a game and they're always the bright spot for the team. Their scoring defense on the other hand is a sharp contrast to the offense's success. The Soul rank 15th in scoring defense allowing 63.0 points per game. It's going to be really challenging for the Soul to contend for a championship if they don't improve that number because right now the Soul are giving points away to whoever they face regardless of the opposition's offensive strength.
The Gladiators were only able to put up 39 points (Loss at Force) and 49 points (Win vs Command) in their first two games of the season. Then they walk into the Wells-Fargo Center and inconceivably turn into the greatest show on AstroTurf.
The Soul's secondary is very talented with DB's Rayshaun Kizer, Micheaux Robinson and Kent Richardson, but they can't fully utilize their skills if the defensive line and linebackers don't create pressure on opposing QB's. The Soul have just 2 sacks on the year thus far. If the defensive line and linebackers don't improve then the Soul should really look into other options because right now this unit isn't performing how it should.
The Gladiators had 13 drives against the Soul. They scored a TD on 10 of them, committed a turnover on one and had 2 other drives end at each half. Besides DB Kent Richardson's 47-yard INT return for a TD, the biggest threat to stopping the Gladiators attack was the clock.
The Soul had 12 drives scoring TD's on 9 of them and QB Dan Raudabaugh committed turnovers (1 INT and 2 fumbles) on the other 3 drives.
The Soul finished with strong numbers offensively yet again, but the turnover situation is really getting out of hand. They lost 2 fumbles Week 1 as the VooDoo did not commit any turnovers. They lost 3 fumbles and threw 2 INT's in Week 2 and they were fortunate to force 6 Pittsburgh Power turnovers (3 INT's and 3 fumbles). Now the Soul gave away 3 more possessions (1 INT and 2 fumbles) while the Gladiators QB John Dutton only threw that one pick.
The Soul's turnover margin is horrific and inexcusable at -3 tying the Tampa Bay Storm for the 4th worst ratio in the league. Raudabaugh can really deliver the ball to his receivers, but if he doesn't clean up the mental mistakes, the Soul are going to struggle every game at creating separation from their opponents.
To sums things up, it's fine to have a team that strikes fast and rarely wins the time of possession battle, but when that team has a porous defense and a turnover prone offense, allowing the opposition to run off valuable time due to inefficiencies just isn't acceptable.
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