Arena Football Deserves San Jose vs. Arizona Act III

Adam Markowitz
Sunday May 6, 2012

Back in the day of the AFL, there were four games (and often as many as six) that you never wanted to miss. You knew when the Tampa Bay Storm played the Orlando Predators that the game was going to be bloody and that both squads were going to give it their all to beat the snot out of the other. You also knew that when the Arizona Rattlers played the San Jose SaberCats that there would be fireworks. On a night that the War on I-4 played its 49th edition, the tremendous game proved to be that duel in the desert between the SaberCats and the Rattlers, and it is a game that this writer would love to see a third time this year.

The SaberCats posted a 77-70 victory in a game that had a little bit of everything. It had a ton of offense on both sides, as the teams combined for 147 points, the most in the history of this storied rivalry. Mark Grieb threw for 388 yards and seven TDs. Nick Davila had 343 yards and eight scores.

The special teams on both sides came up with some big plays. Arizona recovered an onside kick in the first half. San Jose countered with a recovery at the end of the game on an onsider of its own, and it had a net recovery that turned the tide of them.

And for a change, there was some defense at the end as well. The Rattlers, down seven and without the pigskin, turned the SaberCats over on downs to get the ball back with a chance to tie or get the win, but in the end, it was the defense dressed in those not-so-traditional all white uniforms that forced the fumble at the death to give the visitors the win.

San Jose is now 6-2, and it has beaten the Rattlers (5-3) both times in this series this year.

The SaberCats now own a 21-16 edge in this series that dates all the way back to 1995. The very first game between these two teams ended with Arizona winning 43-37 in overtime, and since that point, the two have played some remarkably close games. Though a lot has been made over the fact that the Storm and the Predators are so close to one another, these two from the West are fairly close as well. In the 37 games, San Jose has the edge 1,919-1,864, or an average final score of roughly 52-50. Fourteen of these rivalry games ended with the winning team proving to be victorious by eight points or fewer, and the 71-70 win for San Jose in Week 1 was the fifth time that the final margin of victory was a single point.

This is what the Arena Football League is meant to be like. Over the course of the two games that these two have played this year, we have seen Grieb and Davila combine to go 116-of-173 (67.1%) for 1,532 yards with 30 TDs and just two picks. Maurice Purify had 19 catches for 310 yards and seven TDs in the two games. In both games, the Rattlers were able to catch a break in the first half, only to see the SaberCats claw back in the fourth quarter. Week 1's game went to overtime and was decided on a failed two-point play by Arizona. This week, it was a sack by Gabe Nyenhuis that resulted in a fumble recovery that kept us from another game that either went to OT or was decided by a single point.

San Jose has run 25 full drives this year against the Rattlers, and it has scored TDs on 21 of them. Arizona has had 24 drives, which ended in a total of 20 TDs and a field goal.

Perhaps it shouldn't be all that much of a surprise that the SaberCats and the Rattlers played two great games this year in this series. After all, they are clearly two of the best teams in the league, and they are going to be fighting it out for the right to go the ArenaBowl this year in the playoffs in all likelihood should both teams stay relatively healthy. Both teams average over 300 passing yards per game, and both rank in the Top 5 in the league in just about every offensive category that matters in the AFL. Though both defenses do struggle at times, they both force turnovers and are both at least +3 this year in the turnover differential on the season. San Jose is outscoring teams by 14.4 PPG. Arizona is doing so by 11.9 PPG. It shouldn't be surprising that these are the two best point differentials in the National Conference this year.

Davila represents the direction that the AFL is going in. He is just two weeks away from his 27th birthday, and he just became the 25th quarterback in the history of the league to throw for 12,000 or more yards in his career. Grieb represents the past. He moved into second place all-time in career passing yards and is a week or two away from getting to 45,000 yards in his career. Grieb also just passed Sherdrick Bonner for third place on the all-time passing touchdowns list.

The only travesty about these two teams right now is that they are done playing each other in the regular season. Sure, we are going to get to see the Utah Blaze take both of these teams on a total of three more times over the course of the rest of the year, and those duels might turn out to be great. They aren't San Jose/Arizona games, though.

The 25th season of the Arena Football League is the "Year of the Fan," and I've been known a time or two to make fun of that moniker, knowing that there are attendance issues all over the place and a plethora of teams that are just a crying joke that are posing as AFL teams. That being said, in the end, there is clearly still some hope for the AFL and its quality of play, though not even 10,000 fans were in Phoenix to watch this game on Saturday night. There are still two teams that really do play the game and play it well, week in and week out.

After sitting at the Tampa Bay Times Forum and wanting to gouge my eyes out as the combination of Steve Wasil, Matt Grothe, Chris Leak, and Justin Roper put together a comedy of offensive errors in a sloppy game, I needed a pick-me-up. I got just that with the Arizona/San Jose clash.

The 50th meeting all-time between the Storm and the Predators takes place on June 15th at the brand spanking new Amway Center right in my own backyard in Orlando. Needless to say, especially eight days before my wedding, it is a game that I am merely hoping to just be able to stomach. What I would love for a wedding gift from the AFL though, is a third game this year between the SaberCats and the Rattlers with a berth in the ArenaBowl and a conference championship on the line. It would truly be one of the best gifts that the Arena Football League could give to its fans.