Rattlers, Predators ready to rumble in potential ArenaBowl preview

Adam Markowitz
Saturday May 7, 2016

ORLANDO - I'll be the first to admit that I hate the de facto 16-game preseason known as the 2016 AFL regular season. All eight teams are going to get into the playoffs, and we could pretty much pick the eight teams and their finishing positions right now and at least be pretty close to having the right answer.

The Arizona Rattlers are the presumptive No. 1 overall seed just like Donald Trump is the presumptive Republican nominee for the POTUS, but just as Trump still needs to ultimately get the delegates necessarily to clinch the nomination before the Republican National Convention, the Rattlers need to go out and win at least seven or eight more games to lock up home field advantage throughout the playoffs.

Perhaps the toughest test for the Snakes comes on Saturday night at the Amway Center. They're huge favorites for sure against the Orlando Predators, but it should be noted that the hosts are still undefeated, and they aren't going to want to back down in their own building.

This is the first meeting of teams which were still undefeated with 5-0 records or better since 2008 and just the fourth time in league history it's happened. In each case, one of the teams in the game went on to play in the ArenaBowl, and in two of the three, the team which won the battle of the undefeated teams went on to win the whole thing.

Just from that standpoint, there's clear a lot on the line in the City Beautiful on Saturday. Now consider the fact that if Arizona wins these next two weeks at Orlando and at Philadelphia, it will almost surely hold all of the cards en route to the ArenaBowl.

The Rattlers have exactly one loss at home since the start of the 2013 playoffs. The notion that anyone is going to come into the Snake Pit and beat them is absurd. Dating back to last year May, they've won their last nine home games by 19, 23, 20, 14, 13, 26, 31, 33 and 47 points, an average of 25.1 points per game.

There are challenges here for the Rattlers, though. Their last trip to the Sunshine State should've probably been their first loss. They were taken to overtime by the Jacksonville Sharks, a game which was ultimately won 75-68. Furthermore, one of their most versatile players, Kerry Reed was just lost for the season last week. Filling his void will be a tough one for sure.

The Preds might be 10.5-point home underdogs, but one could argue they've been almost as efficient, particularly on the offensive side of the ball as Arizona.

No one is going to confuse Randy Hippeard for Nick Davila, but the numbers these two have put up thus far in 2016 have been ridiculously similar.

Davila is completing 72.8 percent of his passes, is averaging 8.1 yards per pass attempt and has a TD/INT ratio of 32/2. Hippeard is completing 64.6 percent of his passes, is averaging 8.4 yards per pass attempt and has a TD/INT ratio of 28/3.

The first-team Arizona offense has scored touchdowns on 47 of its 54 drives, an insane conversion rate of 87.0 percent. Orlando might not be blowing out teams by quite the same margins as Arizona, but it's been every bit as efficient. The Predators' first-team offense has found the end zone on 45 of 53 drives, including three games this season in which it scored touchdowns on every single possession.

Both Kevin Guy and Rob Keefe are going to be preaching to their team about efficiency on the offensive side of the ball. This is one of these games which is going to take at least 60, if not at least 70 to win in all likelihood, and whichever team blinks first and makes a mistake on offense could be the one chasing that stop the rest of the way.

Though no championship in this league is ever won in May, especially in a season like this, the best teams find ways to beat the best more often than not. Arizona has already proven that it can win a really gritty game against a good Jacksonville team which was in the ArenaBowl last season. Orlando has yet to play against any of the truly great teams yet, but this is its opportunity to prove its worth.

In a year where the regular season doesn't mean a whole heck of a lot, Saturday night's showdown in the Jungle means just about everything, and it's can't miss viewing for all AFL fans whether you've got a dog in the fight or not.