Preds play at their best, rattle Arizona in battle of unbeatens

Adam Markowitz
Saturday May 7, 2016

ORLANDO - The Orlando Predators won their Super Bowl on Saturday night. In spite of the fact that they were undefeated through five games and playing in their own gym, they were double-digit underdogs to the Arizona Rattlers. They fell behind by a stop early and committed nine penalties in the first 20 minutes of the game, and this writer surely wasn't the only one who had to think that the romp was on.

After all, that's how every Arizona game has gone this year. As soon as they've gotten their foot out in front of the competition, they've run away with the proceedings.

But that's just not how the Rattlers played on this night, and all the credit in the world goes out to the Predators for taking it to arguably the best team in the league.

Randy Hippeard was virtually flawless on the evening, going 22-of-30 for 340 yards with nine touchdowns, and he and the Preds offense were only stopped once in the game. Six different Predators found the end zone on the day, including Hippeard himself on a keeper to run his total to 10 TDs. Orlando dropped 42 points in the first half against the Rattlers, the first time since 2010 in which Arizona allowed 42 or more to an opponent in the first half of a game. The 77 points scored was the most any foe has dropped on the Ratts since San Jose did the same thing in 2012.

For as notable as the Orlando offense was on this day, it was the defense which made the plays to get the job done. The whole game turned on an interception by Paul Stephens in the second quarter to give the Preds the stop back which they coughed up earlier in the half. The defense added another stop with 21 seconds left in the half, and when Larry Brackins scored with zeroes on the clock in the second quarter, the game was effectively over.

The Rattlers were stopped on downs again early in the fourth quarter, and that's when Kevin Guy essentially threw the white flag up, pulling Nick Davila in favor of Shane Boyd with over six minutes left to play.

The Predators are now 6-0 for the first time since winning their first six in 2003.

Arizona's loss ends a six-game regular season winning streak. The Rattlers now have to turn around and play in Philadelphia against the Soul next week in another huge test.

Orlando's Offensive Clicking On All Cylinders

For the season, the offense for the Predators has now scored touchdowns 56 times on 65 completed drives this season, easily the best mark in the AFL and a percentage of which will win them a slew of games. To put this in comparison, the Arizona offense from 2013 which averaged 66.8 points per game scored touchdowns on 77.5 percent of their possessions. This Preds team is currently at 86.2 percent, albeit with 10 regular season games left to play.

Battle of the 5-0s Could Foretell ArenaBowl

This win clearly meant more to Orlando than it would have to Arizona. The Rattlers are surely still going to win the National Conference and be no worse than the No. 2 seed in the all-in playoffs of 2016. The Preds though, not only are 6-0, but they've got the inside track to have home field advantage in the ArenaBowl if they do happen to play against Arizona. Of course, Orlando will need to win the American Conference first, a task which would ironically be a lot easier if the Rattlers won next week in the City of Brotherly Love.

This was only the fourth time in league history that a pair of undefeated teams played against each other with at least 5-0 records. Two of the previous three winners of said game went on to win the ArenaBowl.

Battle of the 5-0 or Better Unbeatens
1996: *Tampa Bay 34 – Anaheim 28
2001: Tampa Bay 66 – Grand Rapids 41
2008: *Philadelphia 57 - Dallas 28

*Went on to win the ArenaBowl

Windsor Waltzes into Rattlers' Record Book

Rod Windsor had another fantastic game on Saturday night, catching 11 passes for 130 yards and three TDs. He now has 786 receptions for his career, surpassing Hunkie Cooper for the most in an Arizona uniform in team history.

Windsor also has 9,995 career receiving yards, leaving him just five yards shy of the coveted 10,000 mark, a milestone only 14 other men have reached in AFL history.