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AAF San Antonio Commanders

San Antonio Commanders Host Orlando Apollos on Sunday, February 17

February 12, 2019 - Alliance of American Football (AAF)
San Antonio Commanders News Release


Setting the scene

- The San Antonio Commanders host the Orlando Apollos in the second week of the inaugural Alliance of American Football season on Sunday, February 17 at 3 p.m. The game will be televised on CBS Sports Network with Ben Holden (play-by-play), Adam Archuleta (analyst) and John Schriffen (sideline reporter) on the call.

- The San Antonio Commanders won its inaugural game of The Alliance last Saturday night when it defeated the San Diego Fleet, 15-6. Orlando also impressed when they beat the Atlanta Legends 40-6 at home.

- Both teams will look to improve to 2-0 on the season in their first non-conference games in team history. In the NFL, teams that start the year 2-0 make the playoffs 62.3 percent of the time.

Five key storylines

- HEAD COACHES: San Antonio's Mike Riley and Orlando's Steve Spurrier will face off for the first time ever as head coaches. The two combine for 340 FBS wins, 19 All-American selections and 18 bowl victories.

- San Antonio's Defense vs. ORLANDO's Offense: Orlando's offense took The Alliance by storm last Saturday when it scored 40 points against Atlanta. Led by quarterback Garrett Gilbert, the Apollos' offense will showcase a balanced attack that has the potential to score quickly. On the other side of the ball will be the San Antonio defense. The unit didn't allow a touchdown in the 15-6 win over San Diego in week 1. The defense, coordinated by former Baylor Bears' head coach Jim Grobe, forced a league-high three interceptions and tallied six sacks.

- AREA 51: The key matchup to watch on Sunday will be San Antonio's secondary vs. Orlando's receivers. San Antonio's DBs, dubbed "Area 51", by safety Orion Stewart, will be tasked with covering the Apollos' receiving corps that had four players with multiple receptions in week 1.

- HOME SWEET DOME: Over 27,000 people filed into San Antonio's Alamodome to witness the Commanders' historic victory in its inaugural game. The 27,857 marked the highest in The Alliance in the opening week, and a strong home field advantage will be expected for the Commanders again. Sunday's contest will mark San Antonio's last home game before a 4-game road trip.

- OFF TO THE RACES: San Antonio's running back room has been strong since its inception, but it will get even stronger this week as runnng back Trey Williams is projected to return from injury this week. He would complement San Antonio's stable of running backs that carried the ball 29 times for 125 yards in week 1.

Texas Produced ...

- Twenty-one (21) players of the Commanders 52-man active roster come from a Texas based university. TCU (WR #18 John Diarse , RB #22 Aaron Green, TE #83 Cole Hunt, FS #24 Nick Orr) and Houston (WR #14 De'Marcus Ayers, RB #20 Kenneth Farrow II, DT #90 Joey Mbu, WR #84 Greg Ward Jr.) both produced the most active players with four. Texas A&M (TE #85 Cam Clear, LB #54 Shaan Washington, RB #35 Trey Williams), Baylor (OL #70 Mo Porter, OL #73 Cyril Richardson, FS #28 Orion Stewart) each have three alums. Texas (CB #21 Duke Thomas, K #9 Nick Rose) features two players. Incarnate Word (P #6 Joseph Zema), SMU (OL #57 Mason Gentry), Texas A&M-Kingsville (TE #89 Stehly Reden), UTSA (WR #80 Josh Stewart) and West Texas A&M (QB #10 Dustin Vaughan) each have one.

... AND Texas Raised

- Twenty-four (24) overall players have ties to the state. On top of the 21 active players from Texas based colleges, both former Oklahoma CB's Zack Sanchez (Fort Worth) and Jordan Thomas (Klein) as well as RB David Cobb (Killeen) all were raised and played high school football in Texas.

SACK Antonio

- San Antonio tallied six sacks against the Fleet, more than any other team in the league. The first viral moment in the history of The Alliance came when Commanders' linebacker Shaan Washington came off the edge unblocked and sacked San Diego quarterback Mike Bercovici, knocking the quarterback's helmet off and forcing a fumble.

- The video of Washington's hit has over 5 million views on Twitter and drew praise from publications like The Ringer, Bleacher Report, Yahoo Sports and more. It has also been lauded by former NFL players such as Mike Golic and Shannon Sharpe. In addition, The Topps Company has already made the image into a trading card.

ALLIANCE SHINES in OPENING WEEKEND

- After three years of preparation, the Alliance finally got underway with a four-game slate last weekend.

- Saturday night featured two CBS primetime games in San Antonio and Orlando that received a 2.1 market rating, beating ESPN/ABC's NBA Primetime game between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Houston Rockets.

- At one point on Saturday night, The Alliance was responsible for 11 of the top 20 trending topics on Twitter.

- After the opening weekend The Alliance's groundbreaking app was the No. 1 sports app in both the Google Play and Apple app stores. The app had 125,000 active users competing in The Alliance's fantasy footbal game.

WOODSIDE CLUTCH WHEN NEEDED

- After being named the starting quarterback just 36 hours before the first snap, Logan Woodside led the Commanders to the first win in organization history. The former MAC Offensive Player of the Year was clutch when his team needed him to be. As the third quarter came to close in a tie game, Woodside dropped back and found Alonzo Moore for a 46-yard completion to move San Antonio to the Fleet's 1-yard line. On the next play, Kenneth Farrow II would find his way into the end zone for the first TD in team history.

- Woodside finished the night completing 18 of his 36 passes for 255 yards.

Wonderful ward jr.

- After an impressive training camp and week of practice, quarterback turned receiver, Greg Ward Jr., was highlighted by multiple publications as someone to watch heading into the first game. Ward Jr. delivered as the former Houston standout hauled in five catches for 65 yards. Ward's connection with quarterback Logan Woodside proved important, as Woodside looked Ward's way seven times in the win.

- Ward Jr. was also used as a quarterback against San Diego when he attempted a long pass to Mekale McKay on a reverse pass. McKay caught the pass wasn't able to get two feet in bounds before stepping out.

mckay shines in debut

- Wide receiver Mekale McKay starred under the lights in week 1. The former Cincinnati Bearcat and Dallas Cowboy demonstrated his ability to make plays on the first play of the game when he was on the receiving end of a 22-yard pass from Logan Woodside.

- McKay finished with a team-high 80 yards on five receptions in the victory. He was targeted by Woodside 12 times throughout the night.

But wait, there's Moore

- Alonzo Moore continued to make a name for himself against San Diego as the Nebraska product made big catch after big catch en route to a game-high 26 yards per catch. Moore consistently found himself behind the Fleet secondary on Saturday night, but his biggest play was the 46-yard reception that set up the game's only touchdown.

Rose's up and back

- From the beginning, The Alliance officials said if a player received an contract offer from the NFL, the player's Alliance contract would be terminated and the player would be permitted to return to The Alliance once his NFL contract was complete. Commanders kicker Nick Rose did just that in January as the Los Angeles Chargers signed the former Texas Longhorn for their AFC Divisional Round game at New England. Rose was released from his contract with the Commanders on Jan. 10, kicked off three times for the Chargers against New England on Jan. 13, was released by the Chargers on Jan. 15 and returned to the Commanders' active roster on Jan. 19.

- In the Commanders' week 1 win, Rose was perfect in his role as he nailed field goals from 23, 28 and 29 yards.

The Big 12 and B1G in San Antonio

- Based on The Alliance's geographic collegiate allocation process to build its eight teams, it is no surprise that the Big 12 is the most represented collegiate conference on the Commanders' roster with 12. However, the second-most represented conference in the San Antonio locker room is the Big 10 with nine. Most schools in the B1G were unallocated to Alliance teams, meaning their players were allocated based on previous professional experience. The Commanders professional allocation from the Dallas Cowboys, Houston Texans, Kansas City Chief, Philadelphia Eagles and Saskatchewan Roughriders led to the nine former B1G players. (Complete roster breakdown by college is on page four.)

Up next

- The Commanders will hit the road for the first time in team history next week when they travel to San Diego to take on the Fleet. The game will be broadcast on the NFL Network on February 24 at 7 p.m. CT. The first matchup between the two teams resulted in 15-6 San Antonio win.

- The game marks the first game in a 4-game road trip for the Commanders and also the first time in Alliance history that two teams will face off for the second time.



Alliance of American Football Stories from February 12, 2019


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

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