Week Nine in the AF1 was exciting, enlightening and informative. The playoff picture is becoming more clear. Teams are firmly establishing where they stand in the Arena pecking order.
That being said, the league did release their new official setup and regulations for the inaugural AF1 Playoffs. The quick summary is that the playoffs will feature the top four ranked teams. Those rankings will be determined by the following variables:
- Win Percentage
- Head-to-Head Record
- Points Per Game Across All Games Played (Points for Divided by Games Played)
- Coin Flip
The Number One ranked team will have the home game against the Number Four ranked team and the Number Two team will have home field advantage against the Number Three ranked team.
You can read the AF1’s press release in full by clicking HERE.
Let’s run through an updated Power Ranking with one question for each team before we dive into the weekend’s Game by Game Recap.
- Albany- Could we convince Albany to play a full game with an arm tied behind their back?
- Nashville- Can Nashville shake off their first loss of the Kulka era and get right back to their winning ways?
- SW Kansas- Can a rested Storm team grab their second win in a row over Billings?
- Salina- Will Salina continue to trend towards the top of the League?
- Billings- Can Malik Henry and Darius Prince get Billings into the Playoff Picture?
- Oregon- Can Oregon extend their season long winning streak to three?
- Corpus Christi- Where do Fred Payton Jr and the Replacement Tritons go from here?
- Washington- Can Washington become this season’s spoiler?
Albany Humbles Nashville
Albany Won’t Be Stopped
Standings Ranking- First
Previous Power Ranking- First
NEW Power Ranking- First
I broke down the entire first half of this game incredibly thoroughly in the Nashville section. So let’s jump right into some pertinent stats that brought Albany to their eighth win of the season.
- QB Sam Castronova was 16 for 27 in passing for 225 yards and five touchdowns. He threw one pick and ran one touchdown.
- Fullback Desmond Maxwell had six carries for 18 yards and one touchdown.
- Linebacker Trevon Shorts had two carries, one touchdown, five tackles, and one pick.
- Duane Brown had nine catches for 144 yards and four touchdowns.
- Isiah Scott had five catches for 69 yards
- Darien Townsend had three catches for 26 yards and two touchdowns.
- Defensive Back Markus Smith had seven tackles, one forced fumble and two pass deflections.
- Tre Wortham had five tackles and one pass deflection.
- Defensive Lineman and BEAST of the front Ezekiel Rose had four tackles, three sacks and forced one fumble.
- Kicker Henry Nell kept up his incredible season. He went nine for ten in PAT’s and kicked one deuce for a total of 11 points.
Kats Fail to Find Perfection
Standings Ranking- Third
Previous Power Ranking- Second
NEW Power Ranking- Second
We came into this week with Nashville being our last best hope to prevent Albany from having a perfect season and an aggressively smooth road to the first AF1 Championship. You’ll recall that last week the Salina Liberty, riding a wave of momentum on a two game winning streak, pushed the Firebirds like few teams before them.
Were it not for three relatively small mishandled situations, Salina could’ve shocked Albany and the league.
Enter the surging Nashville Kats.
Nashville came into their Week Nine game with Albany on their own upswing. They’d won three straight games since starting Tyler Kulka at QB and finally allowing the Kulka-sance to commence. Each Kat opponent over the last three weeks were better and better which allowed the Kats to push themselves to tighten up their execution progressively each week.
In Week Seven, the Kats defeated the now second ranked SW Kansas Storm. They then had a week off to focus on their game against the top seed of the AF1, Albany.
Remember, last week we decided that the only way to beat Albany is to play a perfect game. No matter how many mistakes they make, you must be flawless.
Things started great for Nashville.
Despite Albany’s Coach Damon Ware starting the game with a trick play that netted them a first down, Albany then quickly turned the ball over on downs. QB Sam Castronova threw four straight incomplete passes.
We’ve seen Albany start games slow before. They started the Salina game a little clumsy, but starting the game with a turnover on downs is a real rarity.
Then the Kats did what you have to do to beat Albany, they scored. Less than two minutes after taking over on offense, Kulka found Antwane Grant in the end zone. Kicker Gunnar Raborn hit the PAT.
7-0. It’s going great. Whatever Albany does, you have to be perfect.
On Albany’s second play of their second drive Castronova, who will probably be the league MVP, did something he’d only done one other time this season, he threw a pick.
This is where we get our first “imperfection” by Nashville. After the interception, the Kats five plus minute drive ended in only a 21 yard field goal by Raborn.
10-0. Looks good right now. It looked great in the moment.The drive ended in points, but is it perfection?
Albany took over with one minute and 35 seconds left in the first quarter. They’re future MVP had yet to throw a complete pass. They’d already turned the ball over twice. They were having their worst start of the season and the Kats were only up 10.
Less than a minute later, Castronova threw his second complete pass of the night to Duane Brown, who treated the crowd to a backflip after scoring his first touchdown of the night. He would end the night with three more.
Nell hit the PAT.
10-7
If everything went perfect for the Kats the rest of the game, they’d win. If they scored a touchdown on every drive and then Raborn successfully kicked every PAT, they’d leave Albany conquering heroes.
Perfection is the only option.
Things continued to go well in the second quarter.
Gunnar Raborn was holding up his end of the deal, with 11 minutes and 52 seconds left in the half, he doinked his first deuce off of the uprights and through the net.
This made it 19-7, Kats.
The teams exchanged blows back and forth and then, another imperfection.
All season long, Albany’s defense just gets better as the game goes on. This game was no exception. By the end of the second quarter, Kulka was struggling to connect with his receivers and with 56 seconds left in the half, the Kats turned it over on downs.
On the very next play from scrimmage, Sam Castronova ran it into the endzone to give Albany their first lead of the game. Nell would hit the PAT.
21-19, Firebirds.
Then, on the Kats first play from scrimmage, Kulka hit Gandy deep in the endzone. Touchdown. Raborn’s PAT is good and on the kickoff he boots through his second deuce of the half.
28-21, Kats with 47 seconds left in the half.
Then, a mistake.
One of the things that makes Albany great is that they don’t waste time. If there’s time to charge downfield and score, they’re going to try. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen Coach Damon Ware just let the clock run down this season. Albany’s aggressiveness wasn’t a new variable, the issue was how Nashville attempted to counter Albany’s aggressiveness.
For almost the entirety of this five play drive, Nashville was in a prevent defense. They just wanted to keep Albany from getting in the end zone. They were giving way too much space to receivers who are incredible athletes and gave a wide open mid-field to the best quarterback in the league.
On the first play, Castronova, not a running quarterback, ran for first down. Second play, Castronova hits his favorite target Duane Brown for a first down. Third play, Castronova hits Isiah Scott for a first down. Albany had now easily moved the ball more than 30 yards in three plays.
Two plays later, Castronova hits Darien Townsend for a touchdown.
The whole drive took 42 seconds. Nell hits the PAT to tie the game.
Then, with five seconds left in the half, Nell kicked his first deuce of the night.
30-28, Albany. They’d just scored nine points in less than a minute.
The Firebirds had wrestled away the momentum going into the half. The Kats would never lead this game again.
In the opening kickoff of the second half, Nell’s kick bounced off the rebound net, putting the ball in play. Kats return man Amos Coleman III struggled to locate the ball and as he was just about to scoop it up, Firebirds Linebacker Dejon Walden threw himself on top of the ball in the end zone. Touchdown Firebirds.
Albany was up 37-28 in the second half before Nashville could even run an offensive play.
From then on, this game was all Firebirds. When Nashville finally punched it into the end zone for the first time in the second half, Albany was up more than three touchdowns, 58-35.
Let’s look at Nashville’s numbers in this failed bid to topple the Kings of the AF1:
- For evidence that Nashville Coach Darren Arbet didn’t make a lot of effort to establish a run game, one need look no further than QB Tyler Kulka’s 44 passing attempts. He completed 27 of those for 332 yards, five touchdowns, one pick and one fumble.
- Ultimately the Kats would run the ball a total of five times for a total of 16 yards. That’s split between four different players.
- Milton Williams III came up huge in this game with ten catches for 85 yards and two touchdowns.
- Jordan Gandy showed up and showed out with eight catches for 138 yards and one touchdown.
- Robert Jones Jr caught seven passes for 89 yards and one touchdown.
- On the defensive side of the ball, Shaki Holiness, Kenny Veal and Amos Coleman III all had four tackles. Coleman would grab an interception as well.
- Justin Alexandre had three tackles including one sack for a safety.
- Gunnar Raborn did all he could for the Kats. He went a perfect four for four on PAT’s. He kicked three deuces and one field goal for a final tally of 13 points.
This is Albany and Nashville’s final matchup of the season unless they meet again in the playoffs. Both teams are going into a bye in Week Ten.
For Week Eleven, Nashville will head home to the Nashville Municipal Auditorium to take on the Oregon Lightning on Saturday, May 24.
Albany will also return to action on May 24. They’ll go home to upstate New York on Week Eleven and play host to the Corpus Christi Tritons.
Outlaws Whip Wolfpack
Has Billings Righted the Ship?
Standings Ranking- Fifth
Previous Power Ranking- Fifth
NEW Power Ranking- Fifth
This was a perfect game for Billings. Perfect time. Perfect opponent. They came into Week Nine on a four game losing streak and Coach Cedric Walker has been frantically tinkering with the roster and the lineup card in an effort to get Billings back in the upper tier of the AF1 with little success. Until now.
After Corpus Christi paid their team with IOU’s a couple weeks back, Billings was able to sign Darius Prince and Dwayne Hollis to beef up their receiver corps and their defensive backfield respectively. Then last week the Outlaws added Malik Henry at Quarterback.
Washington is the perfect team for Billings to play right now because Washington is, to put it plainly, incredibly bad. We’ll dive into this in more detail below.
Henry looked great. He wasn’t afraid to tuck it and run. He didn’t just throw passes he FIRED them from the pocket quickly. He was sometimes raring back to throw before completing the first step of his drop.
Henry and Prince seem to have an instant chemistry. You’d never know this is the first game the two men had played together this season.
They had one play in this game that was so spectacular it landed them on SportsCenter.
Billings still has a lot of questions to answer and they have some ground to make up to get into a playoff spot. This game though, was a fantastic opportunity for Coach Walker to survey what weapons he has in his arsenal.
Let’s look at some stats that contributed to Billings first win since April 3:
- Malik Henry had a brilliant debut. He went 15 for 20 passing for 181 yards and six touchdowns. He also ran one touchdown and had ZERO turnovers.
- Darius Prince had six catches for 87 yards and four touchdowns.
- Wide Receiver Jamaar Moore had a tremendous game on both sides of the ball. He caught six passes for 38 yards and one touchdown. He also had three tackles, one sack and one pick.
- Wide Receiver Anthony Duffy had two catches for fifty yards and had one score.
- The aforementioned Dwayne Hollis had four tackles and one pick.
- D-Lineman Kevin Voyles Jr had three tackles and two sacks.
- Defensive Back Justice King had three tackles, two pass deflections and two picks.
- Cedric Thomas, Tahj Wright, Sidney Houston Jr and Jamell Winn II all had three tackles. Winn and Houston also tallied one sack apiece.
- Kicker Dean Faithfull put up some serious points for Special Teams. He went nine for nine in PAT’s and kicked two deuces for a total of 13 points.
Washington = Woof
Standings Ranking- Eighth
Previous Power Ranking- Seventh
NEW Power Ranking- Eighth
Washington is the one team in the league that seems to actively be getting worse week to week. Their last victory came on April 24 against the inconsistent Oregon Lightning. At that time, Oregon and Washington seemed to be passing the mantle for “Worst in the League” back and forth to one another. Now, Washington feels like they’ve regressed a bit.
A lot of the instability for Washington can be traced to their Quarterback position. We’re going into Week Ten and Coach JR Wells still hasn’t found his starter.
Adam Kruse was his guy for their opening game against the SW Kansas Storm. They’d lose that game. Kruse would suffer an injury to his hand in their Week Two matchup against Oregon, giving way to Ed Crouch Jr.. Crouch would lead Washington to their first win of the season in that game. With Crouch under center, they’d drop their next three.
Kruse officially returned from IR on April 23 and the Wolfpack immediately severed ties with Crouch. Opting instead to hold onto backup Rodney Raines.
Kruse would lead the Wolfpack to their second win of the season in Week Six, coincidentally also against the Oregon Lightning. They’d hold onto those good feelings through their bye in Week Seven. Kruse would again face the Lighting in Week Eight, this time losing 39-7.
This leads us to May 9, when Washington officially released backup Rodney Raines and signed Dominic Shoffner. Shoffner, not Kruse, would get the start against Billings.
In their first drive, it was clear Washington was having issues with their Center. Low snaps would be a problem throughout the night. Shoffner would complete the only pass he threw in the drive. He would be sacked and then forced to keep it before the Wolfpack turned it over on downs.
For Shoffner, the rest of the game was more of the same until he was benched with about 12 minutes left in the fourth.
In Kruse’s first drive he’d go 2-3 and throw Washington’s only touchdown of the game.
In his next drive, Kruse would take a hit while completing a pass to fullback Dominic Gonella that would force him out of the game and force Shoffner to retake the field with about five minutes left in regulation. Shoffner would go on to throw his third–
And fourth pick on two successive drives.
On the defensive side of the ball, Washington was without Chei Hill, who is undoubtedly their most impactful player on the Defensive Line.
With the injuries and indecisiveness under center, Washington is trending in the wrong direction. I only hope for their players and fans sake, they’re able to put together a good looking roster that gives their fanbase something to root for next season.
Let’s dig into some numbers:
- In his Wolfpack debut, Dom Shoffner went 11-26 passing for 40 yards and four picks. He’d run the ball eight times for a total of 22 yards and he’d be sacked four times.
- In his brief appearance in this game, Adam Kruse would go 3-4 for 70 yards and one touchdown. He’d be sacked once.
- Deshon Williams caught five passes for 34 yards.
- Fullback Dominic Gonella caught three passes for 20 yards
- Aakiel Greer caught three passes for 19 yards.
- LD McAllister caught two passes for 34 yards and the only Wolfpack touchdown.
- Defensive Back Machiah Lee had five tackles.
- Antonio Simley had four tackles and one sack.
- Dorian Hardin had three tackles.
- Trevonte Carter and Jadarius Byrd both recorded two tackles and one sack.
- Kicker Manny Higuera came in and did his part. He was 1-1 on Field Goals and PAT’s. He put up four of the Wolfpack’s six points.
This is Billings and Washington’s final matchup of the season.
Washington will make the around 340 mile trip Southeast to Redmond, Oregon to take on the Oregon Lightning on Sunday, May 18.
Billings will stay home and host the SW Kansas Storm in the ViceTV Game of the Week on Saturday, May 17.
Oregon Lights Up Tritons
Oregon Wins Second Straight
Standings Ranking- Sixth
Previous Power Ranking- Sixth
NEW Power Ranking- Sixth
Both teams struggled to really find a flow in this game, but you have to commend Oregon for taking what the Replacement Tritons gave them.
This was a classic Lightning win. It was messy. It was loaded with penalties and chock full of celebratory dancing despite the fact that this is only their third win of the season and it came against a team that lost more than a third of their roster two weeks ago.
As always with Oregon, if something great is happening it’s usually because QB Dalton Cole lowered his shoulder and willed it into existence.
We’ll get more specific on the stats here in just a bit but suffice to say Cole had a hand in seven of the Lightning’s touchdowns.
Wide Receiver Marquis Sampson also had a fantastic game and I think proved that if Coach Chuck Jones will run plays that feature him, he’ll move the chains. Sampson is a BURST of energy no matter where gets the ball.
The defense did their part with six sacks and they recovered one fumble.
Looking at the stats, this was easily one of Oregon’s most efficient games of the season.
Right now Oregon is sixth in the standings. They’ll need to leapfrog Billings and Corpus Christi to get to that last playoff spot. Thankfully for them, they’re all out of byes so they’ll have plenty of opportunities to rise to the occasion.
Let’s check out some stats that led to this victory:
- Cole went 22-30 passing for 285 yards and five touchdown passes. Cole also carried the ball six times and rushed for 28 yards. He ran in two touchdowns and threw one pick.
- Wide Receiver Maurice Ashley put up big and efficient numbers. He ran the ball twice for 29 yards and one score on the ground. He also caught five passes for 64 yards and one touchdown.
- The aforementioned Marquis Sampson led the team in receiving yards with eight catches for 96 yards.
- Kris Lewis caught six passes for 79 yards and three touchdowns.
- Phillip Harding made his presence felt with three catches for 38 yards and one touchdown.
- On Defense Jerimiah Spicer locked down the front line with one tackle, two sacked and one fumble recovery.
- Miqueal Pillow-Smiley also put up two sacks and two tackles.
- Tywon Buckley and Angelo Grose each had four tackles.
- Nicolas Brassell had three tackles.
- Fabian McNichols had two tackles and one pick.
- Lovell Spruce had two tackles and two sacks.
- Kicker Ethan Skarmas had one of his better games of the season. He went four for seven in PAT’s tallying four of Oregon’s 52 points.
Fred and the Replacements Struggle
Standings Ranking- Fourth
Previous Power Ranking- Eighth
NEW Power Ranking- Seventh
There was so much riding on this game for Corpus Christi. They’ve had a tumultuous few weeks. We touched on it above. They turned over a huge portion of their roster and lost major contributors like Darius Prince, Dwayne Hollis and Isaiah Mcfarland (who I’d like to point out still leads the league in interceptions despite not having played since April 19.). You can’t feel bad for the team as an entity. These were issues of their front office’s making.
You can feel bad for the players. These guys are showcasing their abilities in what can be an incredibly dangerous sport. They should be rewarded for that. The players and the fanbase deserve better.
This was the first game featuring the Newly Rebuilt Tritons and they played exactly how you’d expect a mostly brand new team to play in their first game together. Clumsily.
The rebuild of the Tritons is going to be a long term project that’s probably going to keep them out of the playoffs. I will say though, they did show some promise in this loss.
Corpus Christi was fortunate to retain quarterback Fred Payton Jr, who looked solid in this game. This week we saw Fred play like he hasn’t had to play before. In the early weeks of the season, when the Tritons were a contender, they were an extraordinary defensive team that happened to have a reliable offense. Fred and the Offense will have to step it up moving forward.
This week we saw Fred scramble more. We saw Fred keep it and run it more. We saw Fred have to improvise and problem solve in real time and he wasn’t bad at it. I just think the Tritons aren’t used to having to play like that. They’ll know better next week. They’ll be more prepared.
The biggest adjustment is going to be Fred now having to captain an offense with less weapons. This puts a larger workload on guys like Moe Strong.
Moe would’ve been a third option at best two weeks ago, but this week he was Fred’s number one target. He had a fine game. He caught four balls but Fred threw it to him nine times. There were other plays where Moe and Fred just weren’t on the same page as far as the route Strong was supposed to run.
There were at least five plays where Fred either threw it away or threw it to a part of the field where there were no Tritons receivers.
Oregon’s defensive line gave a solid effort and kept the Tritons from getting running back Josiah King going which again limited Fred’s options.
A big shiny bright spot was the debut of new Triton Richy Anderson II. Anderson played the first six weeks of the season with the Lightning. He led Oregon in receptions in their first, second and fourth games. As the season progressed Oregon added receivers Bryce Goggins and Philip Harding and Anderson was released on May 2. He officially signed with Corpus on May 7.
He had a great game and once he and Fred Payton have a bit more time to develop chemistry, I think he’ll be a great number one option.
Before we get to the stats I just want to ask, where is Robert Fuentes? The Tritons defensive leader was MIA again this week after being a part of the player walkout before the Tritons’ game on April 25. There’s been no injury or transaction report on him. There’s been no post from his social media relaying any progress being made to get him back on the field. If Corpus is going to make a real push for the playoffs, they NEED Fuentes. It doesn’t matter how many wrinkles Fred and the offense iron out if you can’t make stops.
And now let’s get to the stats:
- New receivers and receivers with more attention led Fred to go 10-25 in passing for 110 yards and one touchdown pass. Fred also ran one touchdown in himself and threw one pick.
- Moe Strong led the team in receiving yards with four catches for 54 yards and one touchdown.
- Josiah King couldn’t get much going on the ground but he did catch three passes for 26 yards.
- New Triton Richy Anderson II had four catches for 40 yards.
- The only other Tritons’ touchdown was scored by defensive back Tyler Judson who recovered a fumble and took it all the way to the house. Judson also had four tackles and one pass deflection.
- Linebacker Nathanial Dunn had a big game with five tackles.
- Adonis Cruz finished with five tackles and one sack.
- Kevin Short had four tackles.
- Chase Alisauckas had three tackles and one sack.
- Jacob Papillion had three tackles and one pick.
- Kicker Evan Byrd made his debut with the Tritons but otherwise made little impact on the game. Byrd went 0-1 in PAT’s.
Corpus Christi will have their shot at vengeance against Oregon in Week 13. They’ll return to the First Interstate Bank Center in Redmond on Sunday, June 8.
Oregon will stay home for Week Ten and host the Washington Wolfpack on Sunday, May 18.
The Tritons are going into a bye for Week Ten and will return to action on Week Eleven against the Albany Firebirds on Saturday, May 24.
Week Ten will actually only feature two games for the AF1. One on Saturday. One on Sunday. Four teams are on a bye.
Will the rejuvenated Billings Outlaws maintain their new swagger against stiffer competition when they take on the SW Kansas Storm? Can Oregon extend their longest winning streak of the season to three? Who will start at Quarterback for Coach JR Wells and the Washington Wolfpack?
Find out this weekend on Arena Football One.
