Jaws' Soul: Players to Watch

Cleveland Gladiators:

Phinisee has accounted for half of the team's 6 turnovers thus far this season having intercepted 2 against the Georgia Force and 1 against the Kansas City Command. He's spent his entire 3-year AFL career with the Gladiators and has shown time and again his usefulness at the DB position. If Soul QB Dan Raudabaugh wants to improve upon his 2-interception performance last week, then he should take care to notice where Phinisee lines up on each and every play.

Brown is leading the Gladiators in tackles (12.5) and pass break-ups (3) along with registering 1 interception. Brown was named to the AFL's All-Rookie team back in 2008 with the defunct New York Dragons and has spent the past 3 seasons with the Gladiators. He had his best season last year as a professional registering 135.5 total tackles, 5 INT's, 14 pass break-ups and 2 forced fumbles. Brown has all the ability to be that shut-down DB for the Gladiators and the Soul definitely should take notice of this defensive duo.

The Gladiators offense, though limited, distributes the ball very well between three receivers. WR's Thyron Lewis, Dominic Goodman, and Robert Redd have 18, 16 and 14 receptions respectively for 211, 141 and 122 yards. The bigger plays result from Lewis as he leads his fellow receivers with 5 TD's, but Goodman and Redd both have 2 TD's apiece. For a defensive backfield that's been struggling a bit, it may be more difficult for them to cover three guys that all have the potential of being on the recipient end of passes than having to defend a "go to" receiver.

Philadelphia Soul:

Probably the Soul's most important weapon come Sunday, Morgan does it all. He leads the team in receptions (20), receiving yards (198), and TD receptions (6) along with rushing yards (47) on just 6 carries. The Gladiators are great at preventing big-play scores from happening having allowed 13 of of their opponents 80 points out of the red zone; that's only 16% of their points given up. To compare, the Soul allowed 73 of their opponent's 121 points outside of the red zone; that's 60% of their points given up. Which brings me to the next player...

This game will come to down progressing the offense through a possession minded mindset. The Soul won't be able to execute as many "big plays" and will need to adjust to a more down-to-down style if they want to neutralize the Gladiators top-ranked defense. The Soul rank last in the AFL in time-of-possession at 26:20 per game whereas the Gladiators rank 4th at 32:14. Not only can they stop the opponent's offense, but they can keep the ball away from them as well. One thing they don't do well is defend the run, which is where Ross and Morgan comes in. They need to be productive running the ball in order to open up some passing lanes for the receivers to capitalize off of. Ross came alive a bit last week rushing the ball 9 times for 35 yards and 3 TD's along with a 16-yard TD reception, but he needs to continue that success. The Soul rank 15th and last in red zone offense and red zone defense respectively whereas the Gladiators rank 6th and 9th in the same categories. If the Soul can't punch the ball in the red zone then look for them to have a hard time finding some separation from the Gladiators all game.

Jaws' Soul