Eastern Conference Championship Preview: Green Bay Blizzard at Quad City Steamwheelers
IFL Green Bay Blizzard

Eastern Conference Championship Preview: Green Bay Blizzard at Quad City Steamwheelers

August 8, 2025 - Indoor Football League (IFL)
Green Bay Blizzard News Release


The Eastern Conference Championship (ECC) matchup features the top two teams from the conference squaring off for the fourth time this season. The top seed Quad City Steamwheelers play host to the visiting 2-seed Green Bay Blizzard. Game time is set for August 9th at 7:05 PM (CST) from Moline, IL.

All season, these two teams appeared to be on a collision course to meet in the ECC game; they even met three times in the regular season. Let us dive into how we got to this point, the history of this matchup, review both teams' wins last week, and highlight key players on both squads.

The Steamwheelers finished the regular season with an 11-5 record, the best in the Eastern Conference, earning them the one seed and home-field advantage. Last week, Quad City defeated the Jacksonville Sharks, 57-41, in their Eastern Conference Semifinals showdown. After Jacksonville scored a deuce attempt on the opening kickoff, Quad City took their first possession into the endzone and never gave up the lead.

The Green Bay Blizzard finished the season with a 10-6 record, earning them the second seed, which gave them a home playoff game last week for the opening round of the playoffs. Green Bay put on a show last week in their Eastern Conference Semifinals matchup against the visiting Tulsa Oilers. Green Bay won the game by a score of 58-26. The Blizzard were firing on all cylinders. Green Bay's defense forced five turnovers, 4 being interceptions, while the offense scored points on all of their possessions, except for the final drive where they were able to take a knee and drain the final minute on the clock.

This post-season matchup between the Steamwheelers and Blizzard is their fourth matchup, and the third time the teams will battle in Moline this season. The Steamwheelers won the first meeting in week 1 on March 21st in Moline, 39-37. The second meeting took place in Green Bay on May 10th, where the Blizzard won by a wide margin, 47-25. The third meeting in the regular season was back in Moline on July 12th, where the Blizzard outlasted the Steamwheelers by a score of 58-52. However, this is the post-season now. There is no next week for the losing team.

If Green Bay wants to keep their title aspirations alive, they have to shut down some of the standouts on the Quad City roster. As a team, the Quad City defense is successful in driving teams backwards and forcing turnovers. The Steamwheelers accumulated 23 sacks as a team, which puts them second in the IFL. They are led by DL KeShaun Moore, who ranks second across the league in the following defensive categories: tackles for loss (18), sacks (8), and forced fumbles (4). Moore ammassed these impressive totals despite missing two games this season. Quad City had 19 interceptions as a team, nearly one-third of those came from DB Camron Harrell, who nabbed six on the season. Harrell also leads the league in pass breakups with 21. When you dig into the offensive team stats, Quad City does not appear to have a potent offense; however, much of that is attributed to their defense forcing a high amount of takeaways and forcing opponents into longer down and distances. They have a top 3 scoring offense, but they rank as one of the shortest averages for time of possession and have one of the lowest offensive total yards across the league. Make no mistake, though, Steamwheelers QB Daquan Neal is still a force to be reckoned with. He may not have the most glamorous stats across the league, but he is a highly efficient runner and thrower of the football. He is 4th in rushing yards, in the top 10 for rushing touchdowns with 22. Neal threw for just shy of 2,000 passing yards, which ranks him 7th, and is top 5 in passing touchdowns with 41. He only threw nine interceptions on the season, which puts his highly touted TD/INT ratio over 4:1. Quad City moves the ball efficiently. They rarely see 3rd downs, only 102 times on the season, which is the fewest across the league, but they have a difficult time converting those 3rd downs, with a conversion percentage of 34.3. This has to be a point of emphasis for both teams. Green Bay is obviously hoping to force stops, and Quad City either wants to avoid 3rd downs or increase that efficiency mark.

For Quad City to make the IFL Championship game, they need to be on the lookout for a lot of Green Bay's roster. Their defense is red hot after a shutdown performance against Tulsa last week. While the Steamwheelers ranked 2nd in the IFL for team sacks, Green Bay is not far behind, sitting in 3rd with 18. DL Scean Mustin leads with the team with 5, but also missed several games this season. Last week, DL Tramond Lofton had two sacks, and Mustin came away with the lone fumble recovery in Green Bay's win against the Oilers. The next key piece is the Blizzard secondary. Especially DB Cail Jackson Jr., who snatched not one, but two interceptions in the semifinals last week. Jackson added a pass breakup and a TFL to go along with being in on seven tackles. DB Kevin Ransom II also ranks near the top of the IFL INT leaderboards with five on the season. However, Green Bay's offense has been the talk of the league all season! Averaging more than 52 points per game. It is hard not to talk about the man at the helm, QB Max Meylor, who is successful with both his arm and his legs. He ranks in the top 5 for rushing yards at 725, and rushing TD's with 26. He also ranks in the top 3 for passing yards at 2665, and passing TD's with 60, which is the highest in the league. Not to mention, Meylor has thrown just nine interceptions on the season, putting his TD/INT ratio at over 6:1. Green Bay's offense is not all about the QB either, the entire offense has been clicking, and a huge reason for that is the Blizzard offensive line. Offensive linemen Jake Parks, Andrew Carter, and Toree Boyd got the start in last week's game, but the entire OL group all season has only allowed five sacks through 17 games, and allowed zero in the game against Tulsa last week. This unit has kept the pocket clean, provided excellent running lanes, and has been a huge component of Green Bay's success. The last highlight has to be ATH TJ Davis. Davis ranks in the top 5 for receiving yards with 802 and receiving touchdowns with 21. The ball just seems to find TJ, or maybe it is the other way around. Davis has been a nightmare for defenses all season long.

This is going to be a classic, as it really is the definition of the unstoppable force meeting the immovable object. Despite the regular season series win for the Blizzard, this game means so much more, as a ticket to the IFL Championship is on the line. The winner of this rivalry battle moves on to play in Tucson on August 23rd and will face either the Vegas Knight Hawks or the San Diego Strike Force. But first, one of these teams needs to be crowned the Eastern Conference Champs. Tune into the IFL Network to watch the game on August 9th with a 7:05 PM CST kickoff.

Written By: Tyler Klackner



Indoor Football League Stories from August 8, 2025


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