With Week Eleven coming to a close, we are zeroing in on who really has what it takes to grab the crown in Arena Football One’s inaugural season. I mean of course other than Albany. The rest of this season is going to be a study of who will present a real challenge to the Firebirds. Who’s peaking at the right time? Who are only pretenders? Let’s dive right into the numbers and the other nitty gritty details that are going to make the end of the AF1’s inaugural season a freaking blast.
I made zero adjustments to my personal AF1 Power Rankings this week. To be frank, nothing happened in Week Eleven that merited edits. This could happen again next week or Billings could lose to Oregon and fall down the ladder a bit. Until then, here’s this week’s Rankings with a blurb for good measure.
- Albany- Made light work of the New Tritons. They’ll now go on a two week bye where they will presumably all go ahead and figure out what they’re wearing to the Championship parade.
- SW Kansas- The Storm continue to look great. They are one of two teams that I believe can truly test Albany.
- Nashville- Kats came in and humbled Oregon. They’ll hold their spot at Three in the Playoff Picture this week which is fine. They’ll need a lot to break their way to get to Two.
- Salina- We are now a week away from Salina possibly rising to the Fourth spot in the official league standings. They looked so good against Billings and Coach Heron O’Neal has them firing on all cylinders.
- Billings- Malik Henry faced his first real challenge as the Billings’ QB and he did not rise to the occasion. Can he correct it in Week Twelve versus Oregon?
- Oregon- The end of season descent has begun. I predict a very ungraceful last three weeks for the Lightning.
- Corpus Christi- They’ve definitely improved since getting wrecked by Oregon in Week Nine, but can they improve enough to hold onto their playoff spot?
- Washington- How many limbs will Adam Kruse have to lose before he’ll allow himself to be benched in Washington?
Let’s do some quick news before we dive into the recaps.
First, going into this weekend’s games the Arena Football One brass did their own ruling on the “Tush Push.” Moving forward, teams will no longer be allowed to deploy the tush push when the QB is lined up under center. However, if the play starts with the QB receiving the snap in the shotgun formation, they’re good to get shoved.
Thursday, the AF1 gave us there updated Playoff Picture graphic:
Thursday afternoon the AF1 named Salina Liberty wide receiver Malik Honeycutt the Player of the Week.
We’ll get into a more detailed breakdown of his stats in our recap of Salina’s win over Billings below.
Congrats to Malik and the Liberty on their continued prosperity.
Firebirds receiver Duane Brown continues to torch defensive backs the world over and he picked up the AF1’s Offensive Player of the Week honors for his fantastic game against Corpus Christi.
Storm Defensive Lineman Joe Golden was named Defensive Player of the Week after demolishing the Washington Quarterback depth chart.
Henry Nell continues to set the bar for great kickers in the AF1. He scored 13 of Albany’s 64 points against Corpus Christi.
Let’s jump into the recaps and let’s start with–
Kats Tear into Lightning
Nashville Handles Business
Standings Ranking- Third
Previous Power Ranking- Third
NEW Power Ranking- Third
Kulka and the Kats got off to a slow start this week. In the first half they struggled to establish dominance over the Lightning and if it weren’t for Oregon’s inability to hold on to the football or generally make good football related decisions, Nashville maybe would’ve been in trouble.
Nashville had some turnover issues of their own in this game that were out of character. They opened the first quarter with a turnover on downs after failing to punch it in from the three yard line. Late in the second quarter Kulka had a fumble in the Lightning end zone that resulted in a safety.
Nashville struggled with Oregon’s defensive front most of the game, which really came to play when the Kats closed in on the end zone. The deep ball was a much safer path to score in this one.
I do want to specifically shout out three players who made their debuts for the Kats in this game. We finally got to see Isaiah McFarland in a Kats uniform. He’s been on the roster since April 30 after leaving the Corpus Christi Tritons during their mass exodus. He came to this team leading the league in interceptions. He has not played in a game since April 19 and he still leads the league in interceptions. See his stats below.
Nih-Jer Jackson made his debut for the Kats at Wide Receiver and gave BIG DK Metcalf energy. He’s not built like DK but he runs fast, like he freaking flies. He catches deep passes. He scores touchdowns and that’s really the only way they used him in this game. He’s new to the Kats but not to Coach Darren Arbet who has previously coached Jackson to two Arena titles. Arbet spoke more about their past to the AF1’s official site here.
Finally, Kicker Stevie Artigue subbed in for Gunner Raborn this week. He didn’t quite match Raborn’s accuracy but he had a solid game. Wouldn’t be a bad idea for maybe Oregon or Washington to reach out to him.
Let’s take a closer look at Kats stats:
- Kulka had another great showing. He was 15 for 27 in passing for 187 yards. He threw five touchdown passes and ran in one.
- Coach Darren Arbet did his part to establish the run game for Nashville. Fullback Calvin Fance had eight carries for 17 yards and 1 touchdown. They still haven’t really figured out how to use Fance in the passing game. He had no catches in this game. They do already throw a lot of short yardage passes. Maybe they just don’t feel they need him for check downs.
- Jordan Gandy had a huge game with six catches for 63 yards and one touchdown.
- Milton Williams III was a reliable target for Kulka. He had five catches for 27 yards and one touchdown.
- Nih-Jer Jackson was their big yardage receiver this week. He had three catches for 87 yards and two scores.
- Dakari Thorpe took over as Nashville’s Return Man in this game. He returned three kicks for a total of 111 yards, including one for 41 yards. He also caught one pass for a touchdown.
- On defense, Kenny Veal led the way with five tackles and one pick.
- Defensive Lineman Jaquan Artis had three tackles, two sacks and scored one safety.
- Byron Edwards had three tackles and a pick.
- Shaun Lewis had two tackles, one pick and three pass deflections. Lewis’ one pick moves him to second in the league in interceptions. Behind only his teammate Isaiah McFarland.
- In his debut with Nashville, McFarland had four tackles and two pass deflections.
- Linebacker Justin Alexandre had two tackles and a sack.
- Stevie Artigue went four for seven in PAT’s and had one deuce contributing a total of six points to Nashville’s win.
Nashville’s Path to the Playoffs
It doesn’t seem likely that Nashville makes their way any higher than the Third seed. They’ll need to run the table and they’ll need Salina to beat SW Kansas twice if they want to leapfrog the Storm into the Second spot. Nashville has two games against Corpus Christi and one game against Billings left. Those are all three very winnable games for the Kats.
Both Nashville and SW Kansas just want to make sure they don’t slip down to Fourth. Fourth gets to play Albany in round one of the Playoffs and why would anyone want to do that?
Oregon Gonna Oregon
Standings Ranking- Fifth
Previous Power Ranking- Sixth
NEW Power Ranking- Sixth
Pretty typical Oregon game here. Cole played two different games. One of them was incredible and featured jaw dropping touchdown passes and one of them was loaded with turnovers. They can’t help but over rely on Cole. They need him to carry an enormous workload and sometimes he struggles. He struggled in this one.
In addition to Cole’s struggles, the Lightning as a whole just couldn’t stay out of their own way.
They ended this game with 11 penalties, the last of which was an Unsportsmanlike Conduct call on Offensive Coordinator Joe Salvador late in the fourth quarter.
They went two for ten in third down conversions and they ended up with six turnovers including: three picks thrown by Cole, two turnovers on downs and one sack for a safety.
Despite this loss the Lightning are still in the playoff race. Something they’ll need to monitor moving forward is the health of Offensive Lineman Julio Romo. Romo’s been a big part of Oregon’s rebuilt offensive line and he had to be helped off the field early in the fourth quarter of this game. There’s been no word on his health moving forward. For the health and safety of QB Dalton Cole let’s hope for the best.
Let’s take a closer look at some Oregon stats:
- We mentioned the two sides of QB Dalton Cole’s performance above. He finished the game 14-34 in passing for 200 yards. He threw four touchdowns and ran two. He also threw three picks
- Wide Receiver Donovan Ollie had a fantastic game. He caught five passes for 128 yards and two scores.
- Maurice Ashley had four catches for 14 yards.
- Kris Lewis had a super efficient game with two catches for two touchdowns.
- The Kats did their best to stifle Philip Harding who only had three catches for 15 yards.
- KeAaris Ardley had five tackles including one for a loss.
- Defensive Back Angelo Grose had four tackles.
- Defensive Lineman Lovell Spruce had three tackles.
- Javier Edwards had two tackles and the one sack that led to a safety.
- Kicker Ethan Skarmas didn’t have many opportunities in this game. He went two for three in PAT’s.
Oregon’s Path to the Playoffs
Oregon is fresh out of gimmes for the season. Despite their recent inconsistency, Billings has the talent to beat the Lightning in their Week 12 and Week 14 Game. The New Tritons have yet to win a game and are on a four game losing streak but they performed well against the juggernaut that is Albany. Oregon has Corpus in Week 13. There’s a very real shot that Oregon loses their last three games of the year and finishes the season Seventh in the standings with a record of 4-9.
Now in a glass half full world, if they run the table and a lot of other teams lose the rest of their games, they could sneak into that fourth spot and take on Albany in the First Round of the Playoffs.
This is the last time the Kats and the Lightning will face each other this season. There is almost no world where they face one another in the playoffs. Nashville is going to land around Two or Three and Oregon will be lucky to get to Four. If they get to Four, they will lose to Albany.
For Week Twelve, the Kats will head south to Corpus Christi, Texas to take on the Tritons on Sunday, June 1.
Oregon will travel to Billings to take on the Outlaws for Week Twelve in ViceTV’s Game of the Week on Sunday, June 1. This game will have major Number Four and Number Five ramifications.
Albany Easily Sinks Tritons
Albany Dominates
Standings Ranking- First
Previous Power Ranking- First
NEW Power Ranking- First
We can now almost certainly say that Albany will go undefeated this season. Their next real challenge will be in the first AF1 title game where they’ll either play Jalen Morton and SW Kansas or Tyler Kulka and the Nashville Kats.
When it comes to this Week Eleven game, you can only find so many ways to talk about how awesome Albany is. Sam Castronova is a fantastic quarterback. He went 22-26 passing for 276 yards and seven touchdowns. His only competition for MVP is going to be Jalen Morton.
The Albany fans freaking love it when Darien Townsend does his Bird flapping touchdown celebration.
Townsend put on a heck of a show for the Albany faithful that went far beyond his dancing. He had six catches for 104 yards and two touchdowns.
The Firebird defense is easily the most dominant unit in the league.
These aren’t new things but they play great in clip form.
Let’s quickly touch on an Albany asset or achievement that’s difficult to compress into a video on X. Let’s talk about the incredible convenience that is the Albany Firebirds’ end of season schedule. Albany is going to finish the regular season having played four straight home games. FOUR. The first game in this streak was played on May 4. They’re about to be off for two weeks and then they’ll finish the season against Washington with a home game on June 14. That’s a day short of six weeks of the Firebirds not having to travel.
Since they’ve locked up the Number One Seed by a LONG SHOT, they’ll also have both of their playoff games at home. Their first round game will be played on the weekend of June 20. They’ll beat whoever has the misfortune of finishing Fourth in that game and then they’ll play for the first ever AF1 Title at home in Albany on the weekend of June 27. By the time they play for the title, Albany will have been home for almost two months.
Let’s look at some game stats that helped bring Albany their Ninth straight victory:
- Duane Brown won Offensive Player of the Week in the league for his eight catches for 113 yards and three touchdowns.
- Isiah Scott had five catches for 31 yards and one touchdown.
- Return Man Marquel Wade had three returns for 64 yards including one for 43 yards. He also had three catches for 47 yards and one score.
- Offensive Lineman Brandon Nicholson notched his second Thick Six of the season.
- Trevon Shorts put up huge numbers with six tackles and one pick.
- Droell Greene had four tackles and one pick.
- Mike Lee had three tackles and one pick.
- The entire Albany defensive line wreaked havoc on the Tritons. Harold Love had two tackles, three sacks, forced one fumble and notched one safety.
- His fellow lineman Ezekiel Rose had one tackle, two sacks and notched one safety.
- Special Teams Player of the Week Henry Nell actually had a bit of an off week. He went four for five in PAT’s, he had two deuces and drop kicked one two pointer. Nell accounted for ten of the Firebirds’ 64 points.
New Tritons Still Struggling
Standings Ranking- Fourth
Previous Power Ranking- Seventh
NEW Power Ranking- Seventh
The Tritons were having a bad day before this game even started. Due to some lost luggage from their flight to Albany, the Tritons did not have their uniforms. They played the entire first half in old Albany Empire uniforms, but wore their own helmets.
In addition to their travel woes, the New Tritons have yet to grab a victory. Corpus has actually not won a game since April 13 and are currently on a four game losing streak. Despite that fact, they are still sitting in the final playoff spot. I do think they’re getting better. I don’t think they’re going to shock the world and win the title or anything but with the return of Quintavius Workman they are actually able to move the ball now.
Workman had a great game. He finished with 12 catches for 85 yards and three touchdowns.
QB Fred Payton Jr put up big numbers, both good and bad. He went 23 for 40 passing for 241 yards and four touchdowns.
He also threw three picks.
Coach Johnny Anderson made an interesting decision in this game and didn’t really make any effort to incorporate running back Josiah King. He had zero carries. Zero. King’s the leading rusher on the Tritons and in a game where Corpus definitely needed all of the help they could get you would think Anderson would have at least tried some kind of running game. King did finish the game with three tackles.
Let’s take a look at the rest of the stats that contributed to Corpus’ fourth loss of the season:
- Richy Anderson II had eight catches for 118 yards and one touchdown.
- Joshua Reesehad two catches for 30 yards.
- On Defense, Tre Coleman had six tackles.
- Defensive Lineman Deon Walker had five tackles.
- Defensive Back Dedric Luton had four tackles.
- Tyler Judson had two tackles and recovered one fumble.
- Solo Tusa had one tackle and one sack.
- Kicker Evan Byrd went 1-2 in PAT’s.
Corpus Christi’s Path to the Playoffs
I don’t think there’s any reality where Corpus Christi is a real contender anymore, but I do think they could win at least one of their last three. Their team’s just been through too much but they have shown real improvement since we saw them last. Yes they did lose by almost 40 points this week, but when you consider that the last time they played Albany they lost by 88 points… 40’s pretty good. That being said, I do think they lose to Nashville in Week Twelve and Fourteen. I think they’ll have an opportunity to ruin Oregon’s day in Week Thirteen. Unless Billings continues their spiral, I think the Tritons finish the season in the Sixth spot with a record of 4-6.
Fortunately for the Tritons, this is the last time they’ll face the Firebirds this season. They are currently lined up to meet one another in the first round of the playoffs, but it’s unlikely that Corpus Christi holds onto that spot. Their descent will continue next week.
The Tritons get to head home for Week Twelve where they’ll play host to the currently Third Ranked Nashville Kats on Sunday, June 1.
Albany starts a two week bye in Week Twelve. They’ll close out their regular season in Week Fourteen when they’ll host the Washington Wolfpack in New York’s capital city before the first round of the playoffs.
Liberty Busts Outlaws
Liberty Continues Ascent
Standings Ranking- Sixth
Previous Power Ranking- Fourth
NEW Power Ranking- Fourth
Coach Heron O’Neal and these Salina Liberty are on fire. They’re not just winning games and executing at a high level, but they’ve been incredibly fun to watch. Rakeem “The Dream” Cato continues to be the gift that keeps on giving. Cato and these receivers can dink and dunk or they can go big game hunting as you’ll see in the clip above. Cato finished this game 15-26 passing for 292 yards and five touchdowns.
Defensive Back Lamont Wade made his debut with the Liberty and he immediately had a tremendous impact. He had six tackles, one pass deflection and one pick.
The addition of Wade is going to make Salina’s defensive backfield a nightmare for opposing Quarterbacks. You needn’t look further than Malik Henry’s stat sheet for proof of that.
Speaking of stat lines, I want to point out Tracy Brooks’ to the Billings, Oregon, Washington and Corpus Christi coaching staffs. This season we’ve learned that if you can, just like in outdoor gridiron football, you have to at least establish the threat of a running game. And to really establish a running back as a dual threat, you have to give them the opportunity to actually be a dual threat. Salina is fortunate that Tracy Brooks is a freaking beast.
Brooks finished this game with six carries and only 13 yards, but he did run one in for a touchdown.
Brooks was also a threat from the air. He had four catches for 73 yards and he caught one touchdown.
Let’s have a look at the rest of the Liberty Stats that are fit to print:
- AF1 Player of the Week Malik Honeycutt had eight catches for 159 yards and three touchdowns.
- Fast Ed Smith Jr had four catches for 90 yards and one touchdown.
- Dez Epps finished the game with one catch for five yards but he started it by returning the opening kickoff for a touchdown.
- The Defensive Backs for Salina came up huge for the Liberty. Shaq Bond had a big game with four tackles and one pick.
- Freddie McGee III had three tackles and one pick.
- Jahlil Brown had two tackles and one pick six.
- Linebacker Kerry Starks had two tackles and recovered one fumble.
- Kicker Bailey Hale did more than pull his weight in this one. He went seven for eight in PAT’s. He had one deuce and went one for two in Field Goal attempts. He accounted for 12 of the Liberty’s 60 points.
Salina’s Path to the Playoffs
With a win next week against the incredibly beatable Washington Wolfpack, Salina will move into the Fourth spot in the standings and the Playoff picture. The hard part for them will then be holding onto that spot. In Week Thirteen and Fourteen, Salina has the great misfortune of facing the Number Two ranked SW Kansas Storm. Salina’s unlucky schedule is going to hold the Number Four door open for Billings, Corpus Christi and Oregon. Salina has done nothing but get better since notching their first win on April 19. They’ve beaten Oregon. They’ve beaten Billings twice. They pushed Albany as hard as anyone else has this season, losing by only six. The games against the Storm will be mountains they have to climb to get into the playoffs. They’ll need to win at least one of them to have a shot.
Outlaws are Outta Sync
Standings Ranking- Seventh
Previous Power Ranking- Fifth
NEW Power Ranking- Fifth
Malik Henry is now 1-2 in starts for Billings. Henry started his tenure with the Outlaws three weeks ago with an emphatic spoonful of dominance over the Washington Wolfpack. He finished that game with six touchdown passes. He followed that up by pushing the Number Two ranked SW Kansas Storm to the limit in a close loss. He finished that game with seven touchdown passes.
This week offered another test in the form of Salina. This wasn’t a “must win” for Billings, but a “like to win” if they intend to make a real push for the Number Four spot in the playoffs and unfortunately for the Outlaws, the Liberty secondary just wasn’t having it.
Malik went 23-44 passing for 234 yards and four touchdowns. He also threw four interceptions and had one fumble that he bounced off of fullback Hunter Swoboda’s head. Three of those five turnovers would lead to Salina scores.
Despite Hunter Swoboda unsuccessfully attempting to take a handoff with his face, he had a solid outing in his Billings debut. The Outlaws and Coach Cedric Walker have struggled to replace their Terminator of a fullback Shawn McFarland since he went down with an injury back in mid-April. Swoboda’s been their most promising prospect so far. He spent most of the early goings of this one staying in to block, which he did well. He would eventually take six carries for 23 yards and he caught one pass for five yards and a touchdown.
As time passes and Swoboda and Henry get more comfortable with each other, look for Swoboda to become a more frequent check down target. Hopefully it’ll help lower the amount of times Henry feels compelled to just throw it away when he’s under pressure.
Let’s have a look at the rest of the Billings business that’s fit to print:
- Arthur Anderson had nine catches for 127 yards and two touchdowns.
- Darius Prince had seven catches for 47 yards and one touchdown. He also returned a touchdown in the first quarter.
- Anthony Duffy had four catches for 34 yards. Duffy sent on recallable assignment.
- Jamaar Moore had two catches for 21 yards.
- Dwayne Hollis has quickly become a leader in the secondary for Billings. He finished this game with three tackles, two pass deflections and two picks, one of which he took all the way to the house for a touchdown.
- Ibrahim Sesay had five tackles and one pass deflection.
- The Billings’ defensive line did their best to sure up the front. Sidney Houston Jr finished with four tackles and one sack.
- Jamell Winn II finished with three tackles, all three of which were for a loss.
- Kicker Dean Faithful had maybe his least productive game as a member of the Outlaws roster. He went one for two in PAT’s. Notching just one point. For context, he came into this game averaging 7.6 points a game.
Billings’ Path to the Playoffs
Despite dropping two straight, I do think Billings rebounds next week and defeats Oregon. Next week I’ll also be picking Salina to beat Washington, which means Billings, Salina and Oregon will have four wins. If everything in Week Twelve breaks the way I think it will and if Billings beats Oregon, Billings win percentage will rise to .400 while Oregon’s will fall to .364. If Salina wins, their win percentage will rise to .444. Which means Salina will jump to Four and Billings will move in right behind them in the Five spot.
This is the last time Salina and Billings will play one another but they will both be vying for that Fourth spot in the playoffs for the remainder of this season.
Salina has a light Week Twelve. They get to stay home and host the 2-8 Washington Wolfpack on Saturday, May 31.
Billings has a very difficult road to travel if they’re going to get into the playoffs. For Week Twelve, they’ll host the Oregon Lightning in ViceTV’s Game of the Week on Sunday, June 1.
Storm Trounce Wolfpack
Storm Clinch Playoffs
Standings Ranking- Second
Previous Power Ranking- Second
NEW Power Ranking- Second
Jalen Morton continues to put up numbers and give performances that keep him in the MVP conversation. He’s also put his team in a position to host a Round One playoff game. Usually, Jalen dominates with QUANTITY. He pours on the passing yards. He pours on the touchdowns passes. He pours on the rushing yards. This win was all about quality and efficiency.
Morton went 10-12 passing. You read that right. He threw only two incomplete passes. He threw for 135 yards and had five touchdown passes. He didn’t have to run a lot this game, but he made it count. He had two carries for 73 yards.
The Storm defense put up some fantastic numbers as well. All around Defensive Juggernaut Dontra Matthews put up numbers that are usually reserved for video games. The 6’3” defensive back had nine tackles, forced and recovered one fumble and had one pick.
You might argue that the only player on the Storm’s defense to have a better game than Matthews was the AF1’s Defensive Player of the Week Joe Golden. Golden terrorized Washington’s QB’s and running backs all night. He finished with four tackles, three sacks and recovered one fumble for a touchdown.
Let’s have a look at the Storm Stats that are fit to print:
- Jairus Grissom is 5-7 for 101 yards and two touchdowns. He finished with three carries for 23 yards.
- Charles Hall IV had three carries for one score. Hall also had six catches for 85 yards and two more scores. Unsatisfied with merely contributing on the offensive side of the ball, Hall also finished with four tackles.
- Demarius Washington finished with six catches for 117 yards and four touchdowns.
- Shiloh Flanagan had one of his slower games with only two catches for 31 yards for one score.
- The Storm defense came in and put a real beatdown on Washington’s offense. Marje Smith finished with six tackles, three for loss including two sacks.
- Michael Lawson had five tackles and a pick.
- Reggie Bracy and Keon Clary both had four tackles. Clary also had a pick.
- Kicker Dillon Burkhard continues to come up big for the Storm. He went seven for eight in PAT’s and had one deuce. He put up nine of the Storm’s 63 points.
SW Kansas’ Path to the Playoffs
The Storm are currently sitting pretty at the Number Two spot but they won’t have an easy path to staying there. If they end the season at two, they’ll get home field advantage in the first round of the playoffs. The Storm will close the season with a home and home against their interstate rivals, the Salina Liberty. The last time they played the Storm won 22-20, but this is a very different Liberty team.
Washington Limps to Finish Line
Standings Ranking- Eighth
Previous Power Ranking- Eighth
NEW Power Ranking- Eighth
Washington is having a rough end to the season. It’s difficult to find much to be optimistic about. They are not good. They are often not fun to watch. Sometimes it feels like their coaching staff and front office are behaving recklessly with the health and safety of their quarterbacks. Dom Shoffner got the start in this game but he did not make it to halftime. He took a hit early in the second quarter and limped off. He left the game four for eight for 36 yards. As of this writing, he’s been placed on injured reserve.
Kruse fared better in stat lines and in that he made it through significantly more of the game. When the game was over his pants were stained with blood and he was struggling to limp back to the huddles.
He did account for Washington’s only touchdown.
Kruse finished 13-27 for 104 yards with three picks. He ran the ball six times, usually in the interest of self preservation, and he got 12 yards and one score for his trouble.
Let’s look at what Washington stats there are to highlight:
- Deshon Williams had six catches for 48 yards.
- Aakiel Greer had four catches for 34 yards.
- Wide Receiver Vextor Jallah finished his Washington debut with three catches and 25 yards.
- Linebacker Josh Higbee finished with six tackles.
- Defensive back Dorian Hardin finished with five tackles.
- Chei Hill had two tackles and two sacks.
- Kicker Manny Higuera went one for one in PAT’s.
Washington’s Path to the Playoffs
They do not have one.
Washington’s role for the rest of the season is to inflate their opponent’s winning percentage. Next week they’ll help Salina move into the Playoff picture before going on a bye, and then they’ll take on the undefeated Firebirds in their final game of the season. Washington will finish the season on a six game losing streak with a record of 2-10.
This is the last matchup between the Storm and the Wolfpack in the regular season and the Wolfpack will need at least three teams to abandon the league immediately if they have any hope of making the playoffs.
For Week Twelve, Washington will travel to Salina, Kansas to take on the Liberty on Saturday, May 31.
The Storm are entering a bye week for Week Twelve. They’ll return to action in Week Thirteen and host the Salina Liberty in Dodge City.
In Week 12 we’ll get closer to figuring out who’s sneaking into that Number Four spot. We’ll have three games over the course of the weekend. One on Saturday and two on Sunday.
Can Adam Kruse survive another week as Washington’s Quarterback? Are Oregon QB Dalton Cole’s shoulders strong enough to carry his team to a victory against floundering Outlaws? Can Fred Payton Jr and the New Tritons continue to improve in time to hold the Number Four playoff spot?
Find out next week in Arena Football One.
