July 14,2016
By Adam Markowitz
LAS VEGAS (July 14,2016) – In many respects, the biggest game of the entire regular season in the AFL is set to take place this coming Monday night. The Arizona Rattlers will host the Orlando Predators, and the team which wins that game will have the inside track to the No. 1 overall seed in the postseason. Not only does this game mean the world to the Preds from the standpoint of their ArenaBowl chances, but a victory would give them a number of milestones as well in their franchise's history.
Predators One Win Shy of Franchise Mark
With last week's win against Portland, the Predators improved to 12-2, tying the record for the most wins in franchise history with the 2003 team which finished up at 12-4 and last season's team which finished 12-6. A win this week in the desert would give Orlando its franchise-record 13 th win.
The victory would also be win No. 250 for the Predators in franchise history including both regular season and postseason games. Ironically, the only other franchise to get to 250 wins? None other than this Arizona team which is going to be on the other side of the field in Week 16.
Four Scores For Super Soul Record
Even though the AFL is a league predicated on its scoring, doing so in every single quarter over and over again isn't the easiest thing in the world to do. The last time the Philadelphia Soul didn't score in a quarter though, was way back in first quarter of the final game of their 2014 season. Since then, they've ripped off 131 quarters in a row with at least one score. With at least one score in all four quarters of their game this week against the Storm, Philadelphia will tie the AFL record for the most consecutive quarters without a bagel.
Teams have gotten up near this point before and ultimately failed, though. The record-holders, the 2001-2003 San Jose Sabercats scored in 135 straight quarters before their first donut, while the 2010-2012 Jacksonville Sharks went 134 quarters in a row with a score before the big goose egg caught up to them.
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Philadelphia is also the only team in the AFL this season to go the entire year without a single zero in the column of any quarter. There have only been six teams since 2010 to go through the campaign without any scoreless quarters, though it should be noted that only one of the bunch – the 2010 Spokane Shock – went on to even reach the ArenaBowl.
Week 16 Milestone Watch
The Joe Hills Watch is on. Not did Jacksonville's top receiver extend his active record for consecutive games with a touchdown to 65 games, but his five TDs against Arizona leave him just 12 total touchdowns short of the all-time single-season record held by Damian Harrell. KISS receiver Donovan Morgan needs two more receptions to catch Mike Horacek (877) for ninth place all-time in AFL history.
Jacksonville's Reggie Gray is now within sight of 9,000 receiving yards for his career. He needs 53 yards to reach that plateau.
Philadelphia's Darius Reynolds is sitting on 99 career receiving touchdowns and is one shy of the illustrious 100 mark.
Portland's Jared Perry needs 94 receiving yards to reach the 5,000-yard plateau for his career. Just 10 active players have made it to 5,000 receiving yards.
Week 15 Quick Hitters
KISS wide out Donovan Morgan notched his tenth game in a row with at least two touchdowns, the longest such streak in the League.
Collin Taylor extended his streak of consecutive games with a receiving touchdown to 29, a Gladiators franchise record.
Jacksonville's Joe Hills ran his streak of consecutive regular season games with a TD up to 65 in a row.
The Rattlers became the first franchise in Arena Football League history to win 275 games (including playoffs). Arizona has 242 regular season wins in its history and a league-record 33 triumphs in the postseason.
Philadelphia's Dan Raudabaugh had himself a game in Week 15. He went 20-of- 21 passing, the best completion percentage by a quarterback in a game this year (minimum 20 pass attempts). The Soul scored touchdowns on all 11 of their offensive possessions, including eight TD passes from Raudabaugh. His eighth score gave him 600 for his career, making him the ninth man in League history to reach that feat.
The 83-62 win for the Soul in Week 15 marked the most points scored in a game by any team this year. The last time a team scored 83 in a game was on May 16 last season when the SaberCats pulled off the feat against Spokane. Since 2014, there have been five examples of teams scoring at least 83 points in a game. All but one of the previous four made it to the ArenaBowl.
It was a record a few weeks in the making, but T.T. Toliver finally broke the record for the most all-purpose yards in a career in League history. Toliver now has 1,182 receptions, 15,495 receiving yards and a total of 21,146 all-purpose yards in his career, all of which are AFL records which were set this season.
Rod Windsor had another fantastic game for the Rattlers in Week 16, catching 10 passes for 108 yards and six touchdowns. In that process, Windsor surpassed both Siaha Burley and Cory Fleming on the all-time list for receptions in AFL history, moving him up to No. 11 all-time with 851 catches. Windsor also moved past Burley in touchdown receptions with TD No. 248 for hiscareer, moving him up to No. 10 in that category.
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