Taking a "By the Numbers" look at Tampa Bay's blowout loss in Philly
Connor Akeman
Tuesday May 10, 2016
It’s not often that I go this route. Listing only statistics and fun facts or quirks from the season up to this point or a game in particular, but simply put, the Tampa Bay Storm have become unwatchable. And frankly, some of these are just so astonishing it’s extremely hard not to share with anybody that will listen.
Sure, writing the usual game story or short summary of the Storm’s 47-17 loss to the Soul in Philadelphia on Monday night may be the more conventional method and enjoyable read, but I might as well just hand out broken records to everyone while I am at it. That’s what it’s been since Week 1. Same old, same old. Broken record. Word it how you please, the Storm are 0-5 and the numbers below prove why they are even worse off than that.
Storm fans, look away if you must, because here goes…
-The Storm have 125 points scored in five games this season. It took the Arizona Rattlers seven quarters to reach that total at the outset of the year.
-The Storm’s average of 3.26 yards per play against the Soul on Monday night was the lowest in an AFL game since 2014.
-By scoring just 17 points in the loss against the Soul, the Storm are the first team since the 1996 Texas Terror to fail to score 30 points in five straight games.
-Former Storm wide receiver and fan favorite Joe Hills (now with the rival Jacksonville Sharks) has 18 touchdowns so far this season. The Tampa Bay offense has 17 total touchdowns.
-The Storm produced 124 yards of total offense on Monday night in Philadelphia and 87 yards of pick sixes for the Soul defense.
-The Arena Football League scoring average for teams not named the Tampa Bay Storm is 52.5 points per game. That’s 27.5 points per game more than the Storm are averaging through five games. Take Portland out of the mix as well, and the other six teams are averaging 55.4 points per game, 30.4 points per game more than the Storm.
-With the loss on Monday night, the Storm are now 15-26 overall under head coach Lawrence Samuels. On the road? Just 5-16. Three of those five teams which Tampa Bay beat no longer exist.
-Storm quarterback Jonathan Bane threw as many touchdowns (2) as he did interceptions which were returned for touchdowns (2) on Monday night in Philadelphia. The Storm now have 15 passing touchdowns this season. Danny Southwick, who is now the third-string QB for the Portland Steel (0-5), has 13 in just four games.
Much like Jonathan Bane is not the answer at quarterback for the Storm, Lawrence Samuels is simply not the answer at head coach. With the results being what they were on Monday night, and a beat down at the hands of the undefeated Orlando Predators looming just a few days from now, one must wonder how Coach Samuels survives the remainder of this week.
And perhaps that’s just the problem. Answers. Nobody seems to have the right answers.
The stats don’t lie. Facts are facts. And it is what it is.
We are witnessing one of the all-time great Arena Football League franchises fall apart before our eyes and nothing is being done to stop the bleeding.
