AF1 Round One Playoff Preview

The AF1 Playoffs are here! The first inaugural Arena Crown will be decided in just three games. The end of the season was not without drama, which you can read all about in the Week 14 recap that will be up on UFL News Hub soon. 
As football fans, we’re fortunate that objectively the four best teams in the AF1 are all that’s left standing. Let’s quickly preview this weekend’s matchups:

#1 Albany VS #4 Salina

The playoffs kick off with the undefeated Number One Albany Firebirds versus the Number Four ranked Salina Liberty. This will be the third time Albany and Salina will face off this season. Their first game was on April 6. Albany throttled Salina 57-27 but that was a very different Salina Liberty. They were 0-2. Kilgo was still the full time starter. When Kilgo began to struggle they went to Jamario Benson for a series and experimented with that idea for a couple of weeks. They wouldn’t win a game for another 13 days. 
You could argue that Albany was already operating at top form. They were 2-0 coming into that game. They’d won their first two games by a combined 66 points. 
By the time their second head to head rolled around, Salina had righted the ship. They had momentum. They’d won two straight. Their acquisition of Rakeem “The Dream” Kato two weeks earlier had seemingly smoothed out all of the wrinkles in their often disjointed offense.  Just a week prior they had added Bailey Hale. Albany was facing an incredibly evolved Salina team. 
In that Week Eight game Salina pushed Albany harder than they’d been pushed all season. Albany would win by six, but Salina’s performance had put the league on notice. They were a real contender. 
Of course Albany would continue to crash through the competition like the Kool-Aid Man through a wall. They would defeat the rest of their opponents by an average of 46 points. Their path had been set. They are the Kings of the AF1. Now someone has to take the crown from them. 
Salina will be the first challenger. Like Albany, Salina would win out after that Week Eight game with the Firebirds. This weekend they’ll be coming off of two straight wins over the Number Three ranked SW Kansas Storm. Both victories were courtesy of a last second field goal by Bailey Hale. Salina IS the Cinderella story of the AF1 this season. 
Their single BIG question coming into this weekend’s game is who will be behind center. Rakeem “The Dream” Cato was forced to leave the last two games of the season early due to injury. Javin Kilgo came in and put on a show. Kilgo has championship pedigree. He has the experience of getting starter level snaps. But he also struggled heartily at the beginning of this season and he is currently second in the league in interceptions.
The QB question is THE wildcard of Round One. We’ll get our answer Saturday.
Salina will travel to upstate New York on Saturday evening. Kickoff is at 7:00pm Eastern Time and you can watch every second of this game on EvergreenNow.

#2 Nashville VS #3 SW Kansas

Game two of Round One features the Number Two Nashville Kats versus the Number Three SW Kansas Storm. The Kats and Storm split the season series 1-1. These two teams have the distinction of being in the first AF1 game ever. Congrats to them. The Storm won that game by two touchdowns. Jalen Morton threw three touchdowns and ran for one. Nashville had two different quarterbacks in that game, neither of which are currently on an AF1 roster. Together, the two of them threw five interceptions. It was a very different Nashville team. 
The Kats and Storm would meet again in Week Seven. The Storm were firmly set in the upper echelon of the AF1 with a record of 4-2. The Kats were 2-2. This would be the third week of Kulkamania and it ran wild on the Storm. The Kats would eke out a four point win. Kulka would throw for 235 yards and zero picks. 
Morton, who should probably win MVP, threw three touchdown passes and two picks. At the time, this was THE test for Nashville. Coach Darren Arbet had rebuilt this team. They were playing incredibly clean and precise football but their wins had come against the Lightning and the Wolfpack. So, they looked great, but you had to consider the competition. The Kats win over the Storm was an excellent proof of concept for Arbet and company.
From that point forward, the Storm and the Kats would continue to set themselves apart from every other team in the league. They’ve been battling for that Two/Three spot for the last half of the season. 
The biggest wildcard for me in this game is going to come down to Gunner Raborn. Both of these teams typically execute well in every phase. Raborn, Nashville’s kicker, has struggled the last few weeks though. 
Raborn joined the Kats in Week Six and made an immediate impact. Let’s just look at his PAT’s. Week Six he went 5-8. Week Seven he went 3-5. Week Nine he went 4-4. In two of these games he also hit three deuces. 
Raborn missed Week 11 with an injury. He returned for Week 12 and went 0-4. In Week 13 he went 0-2 but he hit two deuces. Week 14 he went 6-11 in PAT’s and hit three deuces. 12 points is great BUT he did miss five PAT’s in one game. That’s equal to how many he missed in his first three games with the Kats combined. He’s trending upwards so it’s not illogical to think that his percentages will get even better in round one against the Storm. The Kats will need him to perform to make a real run at the Crown.  
The Kats come into this game having just WRECKED the Tritons while the Storm have been humbled a bit by two consecutive losses to the Salina Liberty. Will those losses weigh on the Storm? Will the Kats have their chests puffed out after demolishing Corpus Christi? The Kats are 3-1 at home this season. How will Nashville having home field advantage affect the Kats?  We’ll find out Sunday. 
This game will be the ViceTV Game of the Week. It’ll air on ViceTV Sunday at 4:30pm Central Time. 

The winner of these two games will face off for the Arena Crown on Saturday, June 28. We’ll have a full recap of Week 14 up for your perusal on Saturday. 
Here’s to another great weekend of Arena Football.