It's No Mistake That Orlando and Pittsburgh Are Striking Out
Adam Markowitz
Wednesday April 11, 2012
The Pittsburgh Power and the Orlando Predators are set to play for the second time this season in Week 6 of the Arena Football League season, and the circumstances that they are going to be playing under aren't anywhere near the same as their meeting on the opening night of the season on March 9th.
That night, there were scrubs that were playing in the game for both sides, a game that was ultimately won by backup QB Andrico Hines and the Power 40-26. Since that point, both teams have gone 0-3, and both are going to be fighting for their lives this week at Consol Energy Arena.
In its three losses, Orlando has scored just an average of 35.7 points per game, and the 41-24 loss at the Cleveland Gladiators was an incredibly sloppy one. The Predators have now been held in the 20s twice this season. Before this year, they hadn't been held in the 20s in a game since the 2007 playoffs, 54 games ago. There were only a total of three games scored in the 20s since the 2001 campaign, and that was the last time the squad was held twice in the 20s in the same season.
To say that this is a team that is a train wreck offensively is a bit of an understatement. The team ranks dead last in the league in scoring at 33.3 points per game. Collin Drafts has been atrocious, completing 57.1 percent of his passes for just an average of 233.3 passing yards per game with 15 TDs and six INTs. Drafts doesn't rank in the Top 10 in any category for quarterbacks this year.
To make matters worse is that this is one of the two winless teams in the AFL, and it is hard to make an argument that the Preds have even a remote shot of getting into the playoffs, though we aren't even a quarter of the way into the season. Especially in the Southern Division, we can't throw the baby out with the bathwater quite yet, but there are signs that all of the rest of the teams are going in the right direction. Orlando just looks lost, and issues aren't getting any better.
Of course, matters aren't all that much better for the Power. They are only averaging 45.2 PPG this season, only in front of Orlando and the lowly Kansas City Command in the league. The squad elected to cut ties with QB Kyle Rowley after his stand in the first game of the season, and since that point, the combination of Hines and Bill Stull have completed just 56.0 percent of their passes for 19 TDs against nine INTs. Hines threw four of those picks in the team's most recent loss against the Iowa Barnstormers.
Even worse is the defense, which has allowed an average of 67.3 PPG, which would easily be the worst mark in the league if not for the first game of the year against the Orlando scabs.
Orlando might have its playoff streak snapped this year, but the Power might have even more that they can lose when push comes to shove. The team's attendance has been miserable this season, averaging just 5,792 fans per game. This is a stark contrast from the 9,197 fans that were in attendance at the 2011 games for the newest franchise in the league.
Either there is real confidence in the Pittsburgh ownership that this team is worth a lot more than it really is, or the costs at Consol Energy Arena are just too high for the league to make it there. Ticket prices are as high in Pittsburgh, with the cheap seats coming in at $20 apiece, as in any market in the league, and the fans clearly aren't showing up at those prices. Ticket prices could need to come down, or in the end, we might just find that Arena Ball isn't going to work in the Steel City if the team isn't winning.
The Pittsburgh Gladiators didn't make it in 1989 or 1990 when it averaged just over 5,000 fans per game at Pittsburgh Civic Arena, and though I know that it was 20 years before the city got a team back, I've long said that putting teams back in cities where the AFL already failed isn't a good idea.
Heck, there could be another real issue next year as well. All of the Pittsburgh players were fired on the spot at the Olive Garden in Orlando just a few hours before they were supposed to take the field. Who would want to play for ownership that pulls that stunt? Not to mention the fact that there were players that had to drive back to Pittsburgh on their own dime and find a place to stay on their own in Orlando until they could drive home. Or, even better was when the team's owner, Matt Shaner, told Rowley via text message after firing him and the rest of his teammates, "How smart do you think you are now dumb (expletive)." What player would want to play for an owner like that when there is no difference in the pay playing in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, or any of the other cities in the league? Shaner could have a heck of a lot of selling to do on players for next season.
But make no mistake about it; these two teams don't stink by accident. They don't stink because they don't have quarterbacks. They don't stink because they haven't played well defensively. They stink because of the garbage that went on way back on March 9th.
The AFL had to see this coming, and the AFLPU had to see this coming. These two teams were literally shredded apart at the seams when players crossed the line. It is amazing that any of the guys that were in the car driving 17 hours from Orlando back to Pittsburgh were able to get back in their locker room again, and it is clear that those guys have to be banded together and have to be awfully upset with the guys that came back onto the field, particularly those that decided to come back in the second quarter against the Predators in Week 1.
Multiple sources have confirmed to ArenaFan.com that WR Lonnell Dewalt, one of the players that did play for the Power in Orlando in Week 1, has left the team, and he was put on Team Suspension on April 5th according to the AFL transactions.
For the Predators, there has to be a bit of an issue with Drafts. He was one of the few that crossed the strike line and played that Friday night, and not only did he have to lose the respect of some of, if not all of his teammates for doing so, but the argument could be made that he has been the worst quarterback in the league for a man that has started all of his team's games this year.
It is clear that these teams aren't void of talent, though. Drafts was in the lineup as a backup quarterback for the team last year when QB Nick Hill was benched, and he was able to post a victory in doing so. TT Toliver and Marlon Moye-Moore are back. Ahmad Carroll is an AFL veteran from back in the day, and Richard Clebert has been one of the best defensive linemen in the league for quite a few years. Dwayne Eley Jr. and Nate Forse have both had big years in the past, and Eddie Moten is one of the best defensive backs in the history of the league.
For Pittsburgh, PJ Berry is one of the most exciting players in the league, while Randy Hymes and Mike Washington fill out a very impressive receiving corps. Sure, the defense is shoddy, but it isn't this shoddy and should not be getting burned for 60+ points seemingly every time out.
It's not like these schedules have been all that tough either. Pittsburgh was beaten by two very average teams in Iowa and Milwaukee and a very good team in Philadelphia. Orlando has been topped by a Chicago outfit that might be pretty good, but the other two losses against San Antonio and Cleveland came against teams that likely are nothing all that special.
For my money, both of these teams should be average on paper, with Orlando probably being the slightly better team. They should be 9-9 type squads, and as the season progresses, that might be what we see ends up happening. For now though, there isn't a person in the world that could convince me otherwise: The firing of the Power players and the dismissal of the Orlando players signaled the end for both of these teams. The 2012 Pittsburgh Power and Orlando Predators were doomed before they ever stepped onto the field.