Champs look to awake from long catnap for playoff run
Andy Lopusnak
Friday May 9, 2008
It’s been an up and down rollercoaster ride for the defending ArenaBowl champions through the first ten games. At 5-5, the San Jose SaberCats have struggled against winning teams (0-5) and beat up on teams with losing records (5-0), yet they are still leading the Western Division, which will secure at least a bye and second-round home playoff game.
There was no question the SaberCats played the toughest schedule of any team through the first ten weeks of 2008 with all five loses coming at the hands of the league’s top five teams (Philadelphia, Dallas, Chicago, New Orleans and Orlando). San Jose has the worst record in the AFL against the National Conference (0-4) with losses against the top two teams in each division. Interestingly enough, the team has lost close games in the final seconds to Dallas and Philadelphia from the Eastern Division, while getting demolished by New Orleans and Orlando from the Southern Division. Added to this, the SaberCats have flown more miles to road games in the first ten weeks of the season than any team will travel the entire season.
Luckily for the SaberCats, the remainder of their schedule features all six games against teams with non-winning records. Also after tonight (at Arizona), the other five games will all be inside the state of California (four home games and one road tilt in Tinseltown).
With a win against the Rattlers, San Jose will set an AFL record for the most consecutive wins over division opponents (15). It will also be the team’s seventh straight win against Arizona and continue the SaberCats’ 2008 trend of beating teams with sub .500 records. Additionally, the SaberCats win will give the clinch a playoff berth for the Chicago Rush after only eleven weeks.
Traditionally, this article would contain some keys to victory for the SaberCats, but it’s become a broken record discussing the team’s struggles with third and fourth down conversions and winning the turnover battle. On the year, San Jose ranks second to last on both third and fourth down – last season they were the best in the league. Additionally, the SaberCats are fifth in the league in turnover differential (+6), but have given the ball away the sixth most in the league (24) and only have a positive differential because the defense has forced the most turnovers in the league (30). They are 0-4 in games when they have a negative turnover differential and 5-1 when they are positive. These two areas have been the biggest struggle for San Jose and are why A.J. Haglund has made more field goals than any team has even attempted this year.
Andy Lopusnak is an 11-year AFL front office veteran, spending time with the Tampa Bay Storm, San Diego Riptide and Grand Rapids Rampage. He works as a statistician for NFL and college sports for CBS Sports and is a freelance photographer. Lopusnak received two Bachelor of Arts degrees from the University of South Florida and has been a fan of ArenaBall since its inception.
