Philadelphia Soul Clinch Eighth Consecutive Playoff Appearance
Harrison Brown
Monday July 1, 2019
The Philadelphia Soul punched their ticket for the 2019 Arena Football League playoffs with a 54-43 win over the Albany Empire. Since Clint Dolezel and Dan Raudabaugh became the Soul’s play caller and quarterback tandem in 2012 the team hasn’t missed the playoffs. The win over Albany marks the Soul’s third consecutive win after a 3-4 start.
“That’s the ultimate goal, just to get into the dance,” Soul head coach Clint Dolezel said. “Now we’re getting greedy, the number one seed’s still up. If we can get some help next week and we hold here on out there’s no reason we can’t be the number one seed if things go right for us,” Dolezel said.
Raudabaugh threw seven touchdowns in the win, which is tied with his week four performance for his season high. Darius Prince led the team catching three, while BJ Bunn and Lonnie Outlaw grabbed two each. Jordan Williams didn’t catch a touchdown but hauled in four receptions and has continued to have his workload grow each week.
“I’ve got all the faith in the world in our guys,” Raudabaugh said. “That’s why we practice at game speed so they’re ready for it, come gameday it’s supposed to flow. They’re getting more confident each and every day and you can see it in their play. They’re executing well and I’ve just got to get the ball in their hands and let them get in a groove,”
“We’ve got playmakers and I’m not afraid to throw it to any of them. They all give me good opportunities and good spots. It’s my job to deliver the ball to the open guy, the more I do that the more we typically score more and win. Our play is rising and they’re a big part of it,” Raudabaugh said.
Albany has playmakers of their own like Quentin Sims and Malachi Jones, the only wide receivers in the league with over twenty receiving touchdowns this season. Tommy Grady leads the league with fifty-nine touchdown passes, eleven more than any other quarterback in the league.
Defensively the Soul held their ground against the Empires juggernaut with defensive backs Torez Jones and James Romain recording interceptions. Romain and Joe Powell have continued their exciting race for the AFL’s league leader in interceptions, Romain currently has seven interceptions with Powell right behind at six.
Soul defensive linemen Sean Daniels was the first player in the league to sack Grady this season, an incredible testament to the Albany offensive line considering how frequently they run five-step drops and take deep shots down the field.
The Temple University alumni Daniels has continued to bring his game back to what he displayed in 2017 when he was a first team All-Arena defensive end. Last season he suffered a severe leg injury during training camp that cost him the entire season. He’s played extremely well in the last few weeks after getting to the physical and mental state he needed to be in after the injury.
“I feel like I’m at one hundred percent,” Daniels said. “Last time we played Albany they kind of gave it to me, punched me in the mouth. I took that personally and I had a chip on my shoulder. I was playing with a knee brace on but I took the brace off, if I’m at one hundred percent I need to play like it I can’t have a brace on,”
“Physically I knew I had the mobility I knew it was there, but mentally there was still that trauma. I did surgery on my ACL, MCL, and my meniscus, so mentally I was not fully there. It wasn’t until I had the brace off, and I took a shot and I had to plant and I was like oh man it’s going to snap again,”
“But after that I was like wow, I’m there. By the grace of God that he allowed me to come back, I was in the gym not even a month after and people ask me and I say man, prayer. That’s all it was.” Daniels said.
Daniels and the Soul are locked in for a playoff run this season, but they’ll still have two more regular season games to play before they can think about the dance. Next week they’ll take on the Atlantic City Blackjacks at Boardwalk Hall. Atlantic City is still in the mix for a playoff spot and the Soul have their sights set on potentially stealing the number one seed from Albany.
“It’ll be nice to go down there,” Clint Dolezel said. “It’ll be a little more comfort, but my guys are going to work. They always do and I wouldn’t have them here if they didn’t,” Dolezel said.
Harrison Brown is a college student who has been covering Arena Football since he was 12 years old and has been with ArenaFan since 2014. Harrison was a captain of the varsity football team during his senior year of high school and went on to play one season of Division III football in Massachusetts. Harrison has worked for two indoor football teams, in 2018 he was the Director of Player Personnel for the Jersey Flight and in 2016 he was the Color Commentator for the Philadelphia Yellow Jackets. You can follow Harrison on twitter @HarryBrownRusso.