It was another exciting week in the Arena. Week Six was our first week of back to back weeks with zero teams on a bye. This is going to allow us to learn an enormous amount about all of these teams.
We’re now just about halfway through the season. This week we’ll lay out our Power Rankings and pose one overarching question for each team.
Then we’ll dive into the details of Week Six’s matchups.
- Albany- Who can beat Albany?
- Billings- Can they regain their winning swagger?
- Nashville- Can the Kats continue their ascent?
- Corpus Christi- Can an inconsistent offense and a strong defense win a title?
- SW Kansas- Are the Storm the true King of the Middle?
- Washington- How can Washington turn the tide of a three game losing streak?
- Salina- Can they turn one win into momentum?
- Oregon- Can they slow their messy descent?
Kats Make Light Work of Wolfpack
Nashville and Washington came into this game with matching win totals but heading in the opposite direction as far as trajectory goes.
Washington’s one win this season was on March 22 when they outlasted the Oregon Lightning 35-28. Since then, they’ve lost by 38 and 40.
Nashville continued this unfortunate trend and walloped the Wolfpack by 48. Notching the Kats second win with a final score of 68-20.
The Kats accomplished this feat by simply out executing the Wolfpack at every level.
Arbet + Kulka = WINS
Standings Ranking- Fifth
Previous Power Ranking- Fifth
NEW Power Ranking- Third
Let’s justify this NEW power ranking, shall we? I’m betting on the Kats.
One of my favorite things to watch so far this season is the evolution and progression of the Nashville Kats.
Since Game One, it felt like every commentator and their uncle wanted to tell me about how great Arena Hall of Famer, and Kats coach Darren Arbet is at coaching Arena football. It was hard to buy into that after the Kats started their season 0-2, but one thing even my skeptical eyes couldn’t deny, they got better every game.
Game One, they were a mess and they lost by two touchdowns. Game Two, they had Rakeem Cato and they looked better but still lost by eight. Week Three, Coach Arbet went to Tyler Kulka and BOOM! Kulk Smash.
This week, they again got better. They moved better. They executed better. With Kulka, Arbet’s been able to realize his perfect Arena offense. The same type of offense you’ll see in Albany and Billings.
Against Washington, Kulka was 15-25 with 181 passing yards and five touchdown passes. No picks. He also ran in one touchdown in a designed play I’d like to call “The Kulka Keeper.” You heard it here first.
Kulka connected with five different receivers including seven times with Antwane Grant. Grant ended up with three touchdown catches.
One of my favorite new wrinkles for this Kats attack is the increased reliance on Fullback Carlton Brown.
A running game is not a prerequisite for success in Arena football, but it doesn’t hurt. Brown, who’s 6’3” and 285 lbs, only had two carries in this game but they both ended in touchdowns. He also caught one touchdown.
If the Kats can continue to establish Brown as a threat, it will allow Kulka and company to keep executing a tenacious passing attack.
As I said above, this team gets better every single week. If they keep improving at this rate, they’ve got plenty of time to claw their way to the top of the AF1.
Wolfpack Drop Third in a Row
Standings Ranking- Eighth
Previous Power Ranking- Seventh
NEW Power Ranking- Sixth
It’s hard to pinpoint what exactly doesn’t work for the 1-4 Washington Wolfpack. Their problem is more what consistently DOES work.
This week they got off to a good start, which has become the norm in the Ed Crouch Jr. era. Crouch took over at QB for Washington late in the first half of their Week Two game against the Oregon Lightning.
At halftime of that game, Washington was down 22-0. Ed would guide them back to a 35-28 win. Their only win of the season.
This started a trend for Crouch and the Wolfpack. They can stay in the game for a quarter or two, depending on the competition. After that things get bumpy.
In Week Four, against the usually dominant Billings Outlaws, they escaped the first quarter down only 22-14. In Week Five, against the then undefeated Corpus Christi Tritons, they were ahead after one, 15-6. They would go on to lose both of those games.
With the exception of Crouch, Deshon Williams and LD McAllister, they don’t have a lot of offensive weapons and they don’t take care of the football.
In this loss to Nashville, Crouch threw for 134 yards and three touchdowns but he did it on 34 attempts. He finished the game with a completion percentage of 38.24%. For comparison, Kulka finished at 60%.
Crouch also threw two picks.
Williams, who’s fifth in league in receptions, finished this game with only one catch.
McAllister had a strong game with six catches, two touchdowns and 37 yards, but even doubling his output wouldn’t have gotten them past the Kats.
The Wolfpack finished with a total of six rushing yards.
The defensive side of the ball isn’t faring much better. Although they’re currently in a three way tie at the bottom of the AF1 with Oregon and Salina, Washington’s defense has allowed the most points scored in the league. They’ve allowed 38 more points than Oregon and 79 more than Salina.
It’s just not clear how Coach JR Wells intends to win football games.
This was Nashville and Washington’s only scheduled meeting this season. We’ll see what shakes out for the playoffs.
This Friday, the Wolfpack will travel to Oregon to take on the 1-4 Oregon Lighting to establish once and for all, who is the Seventh best team in the AF1.
In what will be a real test for these new ascending Kats, Nashville will head to Dodge City, Kansas to take on the 4-2 Storm on Saturday.
Liberty Level Lightning
I’m sure coming into this game Coach Chuck Jones and the (now 1-4) Oregon Lightning were excited to take on the only team in the league with fewer wins than them.
Oregon’s coming off of a much needed bye week. They had time to rest. They had time to make upgrades to the roster. They were confident. Don’t believe me? Check out the possibly AI generated post on their official website with the headline, “The Comeback Starts Now.” More on that in a minute.
Spoiler Alert! Salina and their new quarterback Rakeem “The Dream” Cato had other plans. When the final whistle blew, Salina would celebrate their first win of the season and Oregon would begin a 1,500 mile trip home bruised, bewildered and beaten.
Salina Scores First Win
Standings Ranking- Seventh
Previous Power Ranking- Eighth
NEW Power Ranking- Sixth
Hiring Rakeem Cato is a good idea. If Cato’s name sounds familiar it might be because he was the starting QB for the Nashville Kats just 26 days ago in their Week Three loss to the top of the AF1 heap the Albany Firebirds.
In that game, the Kats and Cato pushed the Firebirds harder than any other team in the league. The Kats only lost by eight. The smallest margin of victory for the Firebirds this season.
Even in that loss, you could see Cato was if nothing else, a freaking playmaker. He finished that game going 22-34 with 239 yards passing. He connected with five different receivers and threw three touchdown passes.
I was disappointed when I saw that he and the Kats had parted ways not long after that game, but I was ecstatic when I saw that he had officially signed with Salina on April 15. Just four days before the Liberty faced the Lightning.
Was it a perfect game for Salina? No. But Rakeem “The Dream” Cato came in and injected an energy into the Liberty offense like the football equivalent of killing an espresso just before a test.
By the end of the first half, Cato was five for seven passing with three touchdown passes. He’d finish the game with a total of five.
As Cato heated up, you could feel his confidence spreading to the rest of the team. “Fast” Ed Smith Jr. would finish the game with three catches and two scores. Malik Honeycutt would finish with three scores. Running Back Tracy Brooks would finish with 52 yards on the ground and two touchdowns of his own.
Things ran so smoothly for Salina’s offense that they scored on every one of their drives except for two.
There’s still plenty of work to do for Salina and Coach Heron O’Neal, but this might be the first time in 2025 that we can say things are trending in the right direction for Liberty.
Lightning Delay Comeback by One Week
Standings Ranking- Sixth
Previous Power Ranking- Sixth
NEW Power Ranking- Eighth
As I referenced above, the Oregon Lightning’s official website posted an article on April 16 explaining how ready the Lightning were for their contest with the Liberty.Here’s a link to it if you’d like to see it in its entirety:
https://www.theoregonlightning.com/news/oregon-lightning-gear-up-for-crucial-road-clash-at
“The squad travels to Kansas to take on the formidable Salina Liberty this Friday, April 19, in what is shaping up to be a high-stakes showdown in the Arena Football One.”
“High-stakes”= A 1-3 Oregon Lightning taking on a winless Salina Liberty.
This is a quote from Oregon Head Coach Chuck Jones, “this isn’t the same team you saw in the first few weeks. We’ve had some time to regroup, reset, and now we’re coming with a chip on our shoulder and thunder in our veins.”
The “this isn’t the same team” part of this quote is accurate. Since Oregon’s last game on April 4, they’ve signed five free agents, moved one player from injured reserve to active, placed one player on injured reserve and released five players, including wide receiver Tom Butters who against the Kats established himself as a real threat for Oregon at full back. I’m curious to see if anyone picks him up after he clears waivers.
“Fans can expect a fierce, physical, and fast-paced matchup as Oregon looks to set the tone for their comeback campaign.”
Let’s get into the numbers that set the tone for that comeback campaign.
– Oregon was flagged for 19 penalties for a loss of 138 yards. That’s almost three full Arena football fields.
– In one series in the fourth quarter, Oregon QB Dalton Cole was sacked three times. He’d be sacked a total of six times in the game.
– Oregon had four turnovers, including one pick, one lost fumble and two turnovers on downs.
– Despite scoring five touchdowns in the game, the Lightning only managed to put up extra points once. New Kicker Wyatt Oldham, who was added to the roster on April 17, went 0-2 in attempted points after touchdowns and the Lightning offense went one for three in attempted two point conversions.
We’ll check back in on Oregon’s comeback campaign next week.
This is Oregon and Salina’s only meeting of the season.
For Week Seven, Oregon will travel around 350 miles to face the Washington Wolfpack on Friday night.
Also on Friday, Salina will make their way to Billings, Montana to take on the 2-2 Billings Outlaws in ViceTV’s Game of the Week.
Storm Rain on Tritons Parade
Last week, after the Tritons very clumsily bested the Washington Wolfpack, I predicted that despite being undefeated, the Tritons would eventually tumble out of the upper echelons of the AF1. I predicted that the Tritons would beat the Storm in Week Six and suffer their first loss in Week Seven against the Albany Firebirds.
After that, I said they’d “take their place as the Leader of the Middle of the Pack.”
I was wrong. They began their tumble one week early.
After four quarters of back and forth the Storm emerged with a 47-40 victory and brought the Tritons back down to Earth.
SW Kansas
Standings Ranking- Third
Previous Power Ranking- Sixth
NEW Power Ranking- Fifth
“The Corpus Collapse” has Begun
Standings Ranking- Second
Previous Power Ranking- Third
NEW Power Ranking- Fourth
Six days removed from their win over Washington, where they turned the ball over five times and were flagged for 11 penalties, the Tritons started their game with SW Kansas by being flagged for a delay of game in their FIRST offensive play from scrimmage. Less than four minutes later, Tritons Wide Receiver Darius Prince would commit the first turnover of the game when he fumbled while sprinting for a first down.
Just as they had done the week before, the Tritons were still playing sloppy football. The difference this week is that the Storm were good enough to make them pay for it.
The Tritons did clean it up a little bit. They were only called for seven penalties, including two unsportsmanlike conducts, and they only turned the ball over three times.
This game came down to literally the final second. The Tritons and the Storm had been battling back and forth.
With 10 minutes left, the game was tied 33-33.
Storm QB Jalen Morton was struggling to get the offense moving. He’d just been flagged for intentional grounding. Morton tried to thread the needle deep and threw his second pick of the game.
7:54 left. Tritons’ ball. Just over three minutes later, Payton hands the ball off to Josiah King who punches it in for his second touchdown of the game.
40-33, Tritons lead. 3:54 left in the game.
On the Storm’s possession, Morton scrambles for a long QB keeper. First down.
Morton hits Receiver Shiloh Flanagan over the middle for a seven yard gain. The offense is moving.
Just before the One Minute Warning, Morton keeps it again and powers his way to a first down. It’s moments like this that I believe Morton really shines.
Seconds later, Morton hits Flanagan again for a five yard gain. Morton and Flanagan were operating at another level this game. Flanagan caught nine passes for 120 yards and two touchdowns.
The very next play Morton hit Charles Hall IV in the end zone, Touchdown.
Tie game. 40-40. 49 seconds left.
Fred Payton Jr. and the Tritons offense struggled to respond.
With 12 seconds left, Tritons Kicker Aedan Johnson hustles onto the field to attempt the game winning field goal from the 17 yard line.
It’s up. It doinks off of the uprights.
The game is still tied. Six seconds left.
After a couple of failed attempts to move it downfield, the Storm were down to their final second.
Morton hikes it. Drops back. He launches it deep and somehow right into the arms of Demarius Washington in the end zone.
The referee signals touchdown. No time left on the clock.
Celebrations have started but… there’s a flag back near the line of scrimmage.
Holding on the offense. The Storm are backed up five yards. There will be one untimed down. The game can’t end on a penalty.
The Storm will get one more shot.
Morton snaps and drops back. He fires it over the middle again to Demarius Washington at the 24 yard line, his sixth catch of the day. Washington falls to his knees and pitches to a streaking Shiloh Flanagan. “Hook and Ladder.”
Flanagan burst through one tackler and was off to the races. He sprinted past two more Tritons defenders like they were standing still.
Touchdown.
Game over. Tritons’ winning streak over.
The Storm win 47-40.
This is Corpus Christi and SW Kansas’ only game this season.
Friday, April 25, the Tritons will host the undefeated Albany Firebirds in Week Seven.
SW Kansas will return home to Dodge City to take on the ascending Nashville Kats on Saturday, April 26.
Firebirds Shrug Off Outlaws
The entirety of the AF1 world had been looking forward to the Albany versus Billings back to back. It’s an ArenaBowl rematch. It would show us who is truly number one in the AF1.
Last week in Game One, Albany wrecked Billings 62-24.
This week the focus became how Billings would respond. Surely, Coach Cedric Walker would do whatever it took to keep his team from being embarrassed two weeks in a row.
Albany would win this one 39-7 and sometimes felt like they were barely breaking a sweat.
Firebirds Finish Billings Quick
Standings Ranking- First
Previous Power Ranking- First
NEW Power Ranking- First
There are only three quick and important points to make about the seemingly unstoppable Albany Firebirds this week.
Point One: I loved Coach Damon Ware’s game plan. The Firebirds came into this game and dominated QUICK. With 11 minutes left in the first quarter, Albany was up 16-0 and had only run two offensive plays.
After halftime and armed with a 30-7 lead, Ware switched to a more run-heavy game plan. They knew they had Billings’ number. There was no need to drag this out. They only scored one touchdown in the second half.
Coach Ware and his Firebirds know they are good. They know they have the pieces to succeed. They just need to execute moving forward and they might be on their way to etching their names into AF1 history.
Point Two: Who is going to beat them? Now that they’ve swept what is easily the second best team in the league, do we now have to start discussing the possibility of an undefeated season? Is it bad luck to bring this up this early?
Point Three: An educational point here. The Commentary team on the Billings/Firebirds game introduced me to the term “Thick Six.”
In AF1, an offensive lineman declares himself an eligible receiver simply by raising his hand as his team is lining up to run a play. Just to keep defenses on their toes, you’ll typically see a lineman declaring himself eligible during every single play.
But that lineman usually never actually gets a pass thrown his way. Usually. Enter Albany and their never ending quest to find new ways to beat you.
This plus sized moment of triumph came with four minutes left in the first quarter when Sam Castronova hit the 6’4” 300lb Brandon Nicholson over the middle for a touchdown.
I don’t think it would be appropriate to walk around saying “Thick Six” in everyday life but it’s something fun you can share with your friends next time you’re watching Arena Football.
Billings Gets Beat… Bad
Standings Ranking- Fourth
Previous Power Ranking- Second
NEW Power Ranking- Second
I think it’s important that Billings doesn’t panic or overreact. Have they dropped two in a row? Yes. Were the games even competitive? No. Were both games against the best team in the AF1 who have yet to lose a game? Yes.
Billings has to find a lot of answers to beat Albany, but so does everyone. I still think Billings is the second best team in the league by a long shot.
I worry about the Billings front office overreacting and doing something they’ll regret quickly. Going into the half Billings Coach Cedric Walker expressed a lot of frustration at QB Braden Wingle being seemingly unable to read defenses. Wingle had had a tough half.
He had thrown a pick six and was sacked twice in the Outlaws’ final series of the half. He’d gone 8 for 13 for 45 yards and one touchdown.
Walker stuck with Wingle for the first series after the break. Wingle led the Outlaws on a more than six and a half minute drive that yielded zero points and ended with a turnover on downs after Wingle took his fourth sack of the night.
The next time the Outlaws offense took the field, Wingle stayed on the bench and back up Danny Southwick lined up under center.
Statistically, Southwick didn’t do much better. In his first drive he led the Outlaws on a seven minute drive that ended when he threw a pick. He would finish the game 2 for 7 and would be sacked for a safety.
I say all of that to say that Wingle didn’t lose to the Firebirds on his own. I still firmly think he gave the Outlaws their only real shot to win.
He was facing what is arguably the best defense in the league. They’ve allowed the fewest points. They have two players in their defensive backfield with four picks. They have another guy with two. Linebacker Dejon Walden has five sacks and Defensive Lineman Ezekiel Rose has four of his own.
This is a great defense. They’re here to wreck your game plan.
Coach Walker has issues elsewhere he can look at. How can he prevent his defense from giving up 30 points in a half? How can he replace Iron Man Shawn McFarland who’s out with an injury?
Wingle and his receiving corps might be the most stable thing he’s got going.
Billings’ back to back nightmare against the Firebirds is finally over and the Outlaws can rest easy knowing that they won’t have to face Albany again until the playoffs.
For Week Seven, the undefeated Firebirds will travel to the deep south of Corpus Christi, Texas to take on the 3-1 Tritons.
In this week’s ViceTV Game of the Week, Billings will host the 1-4 Salina Liberty.
Week Seven will feature four more games, including three on Friday night and one on Saturday night. Will Albany pound Corpus Christi deep into the ocean blue? Will Salina shock the world in Billings? Will the Kats bring clear skies to SW Kansas? And Oregon versus Washington, someone has to win. Right?
Find out this weekend on Arena Football One.
