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AFL I Arena Football League (1987-2008)

The Deuce Scoop

May 21, 2003 - Arena Football League (1987-2008) (AFL I) News Release


HOME SWEET HOME: Home teams rebounded in Week 8, going 9-4 a .692 winning percentage. So far this season, home teams are 59-31 for a .656 win percentage. In 2002 home teams went 157-113 throughout the regular season for a .585 win percentage. The table below shows the best all-time home winning percentages among current af2 teams.

Regular Season at Home Record Pct. Streak
Quad City 25-3 .893 Won 3
Tulsa 25-3 .893 Won22*
Cape Fear 9-2 .818 Won 3
Norfolk 22-5 .815 Won 1
Tennessee Valley 22-5 .815 Won 3
Macon 16-4 .800 Won 4
Albany 7-2 .777 Won 3
Richmond 20-7 .741 Won 2
Birmingham 19-8 .704 Lost 1
Wichita 14-6 .700 Lost 1
*Tulsa's 49-28 win over Bossier City last weekend extended their af2-record regular season home win streak to 22 games. The longest overall home win streak (regular season and playoffs) is 25 held by the Quad City Steamwheelers, which spanned from 2000-2002. Tulsa lost at home in the playoffs last season, meaning its current overall streak is at four games.

POTEETE GOING FOR 1000: Bossier City QB SHERARD POTEETE rushed for 38 yards on four attempts in the 28-49 loss to Tulsa last week. For his career, Poteete is the af2's all-time leader in rushing attempts (258), yards gained (891) and touchdowns (60). Poteete can become the af2's first 1,000-yard rusher if he gets 109 more yards.

Game Rushing Yards Career Total Yards to 1,000
WK2 vs. Peoria 74 755 245
WK3 at Birmingham 15 770 230
WK4 vs. Cape Fear 19 789 211
WK5 at Arkansas 21 810 190
WK6 at Tennessee Valley 23 833 167
WK7 vs. Tennessee Valley 20 853 147
WK8 at Tulsa 38 891 109

UNDEFEATED VIPERS: The Tennessee Valley Vipers are af2's only undefeated team (6-0) and if they win this week to go to 7-0 they will be off to the best start in team history. The Vipers started the 2001 and 2002 seasons 6-0, but have never gone 7-0 to start a season.

THE BIG '5-0': In the high-scoring sport of Arena Football, reaching the 50-point mark typically serves as a good indicator of team success. In 2002, teams went 162-40 (80 percent) when they scored 50 or more points in a game. Whereas, they went 125-247 (34 percent) when they didn't get 50 points. In Week 8, 12 teams broke the 50-point barrier, going 9-3 in those games. Teams under 50 points went 4-10 in Week 8. For the season, teams that score better than 50 are 49-15, while teams under 50 have gone 41-75. Below is a breakdown:

2003 W-L Pct. All-time W-L Pct.
0-19 0-6 .000 0-19 2-74 .026
20-29 1-18 .053 20-29 15-159 .086
30-39 15-30 .333 30-39 92-210 .305
40-49 25-21 .543 40-49 198-184 .518
50-59 30-14 .682 50-59 197-83 .704
60-69 18-1 .947 60-69 153-21 .879
70-79 1-0 1.000 70-79 54-2 .964
80+ 0-0 .000 80+ 23-0 1.000

"ZIMMER" IS THE "MAN": Last week against Green Bay, Quad City QB TONY ZIMMERMAN went 15-of-27 passing for 280 yards and six touchdowns. He also rushed for two more scores. To date, Zimmerman has thrown for 1,996 yards and 40 touchdowns. He is first in the af2 in total offense (2,022 yards), total touchdowns (50), passing yards per game (285.1 yards), passing yards (1,996) and passing touchdowns (40). He is on a pace to eclipse the af2 record for most passing yards (4,417 - Jon Nielson, 2000) and touchdowns (86 - Matt Sauk, 2001) in a single season. Zimmerman is on pace for 4,562 yards and 91 touchdowns. And oh yeah, he only has two interceptions for a 20:1 touchdown-to-interception ratio.

PARITY RULES: In Week 8, only 3-of-13 games were decided by seven points or less, but that hasn't been the norm this year. For the season, 37 of the 90 (41.1%) games played have been decided by seven or fewer points, which equates to nearly a 10 percent increase from last season's average and an 13 percent increase from the all-time average. In addition, only one team remains undefeated, and only one team is still winless in 2003.

SCORING MACHINES: Wichita's MICHAEL DRITLEIN continues to pull away from the field in the chase for the all-time af2 scoring record. Through Week 8, Dritlein has 134 points. The all-time record for scoring in a single season is 284 points by SHON KING during the 2000 season. Below is an update of the current af2 scoring leaders and their projected pace.

Name - Team GP Points Projected Total
Michael Dritlein - WIC 7 134 306
Kevin Prentiss - MEM 7 120 274
Jack Walker - PEO 7 118 269
Jacques Rumph - MAC 7 108 246
Cainon Lamb - FLO 7 104 237

GIVE 'EM A BREAK ALREADY: The expansion Green Bay Blizzard has gone 0-6 this season, but to their credit they've faced some tough teams, including the defending champion Pirates and two-time ArenaCup champion Quad City Steamwheelers. The six teams they have played are a combined 30-17 and two of those teams sit in first in their division. This week the Blizzard plays the defending West Division champion Bakersfield Blitz.

FIVE-FOR-FIVE: Peoria WR/DB JACK WALKER caught five passes against Greensboro last week and they were all touchdown receptions. The Pirates cruised to a 63-37 win.

GIVE THEM FIVE: After starting the season 0-2, the Quad City Steamwheelers has won five straight games to take firm command of the Midwest Division lead.

GOING FOR FIVE: The Cape Fear Wildcats, behind the arm of QB BRYAN SYNDER, has put together a four-game win streak and looks to make it five by busting the Tennessee Valley Vipers perfect record this weekend.

INTERNATIONAL FLAIR: The first Japanese player in Swarm history made his debut on Saturday vs. San Diego. MUTSAMI TAKAHASHI served as the back-up offensive specialist behind James Scott. Takahashi made one catch for seven yards in his Swarm debut. He joins MATTHEW GORESKI (Canada) as the only international players in Swarm history. Japanese DS SATORU ABE is currently on the Swarm's international roster, but he has not appeared in a game this season.

WELCOME HOME: The Albany Conquest (5-1) finally return home this week after a long four-game road swing. Despite af2 teams winning only 34% of home games this season, the Conquest managed to go 4-1 on the trip and stay on top of the Northeast Division. In the team's two-year existence, they have been in first place every week except one. This weekend's matchup against Birmingham is only the second home game of the season for the Conquest. All other teams have played three or more at home by this point of the season.

DEFENSE HOLDS UNDER 40 - RIPTIDE 7-0: Over the past two regular seasons, the Riptide are 7-0 when they hold their opponents under 40 points - this includes all three wins this season. All three other Riptide wins when opponents scored over 40 were against West Division teams on the road - 4/11/02 - 69-52 over Fresno; 5/11/02 - 52-50 over Hawaii; 6/08/02 - 46-43 over Bakersfield. Of course, this does not include the playoffs when the Riptide beat Bakersfield 40-27, then lost to Peoria 22-12.

SHUT DOWN, BUT NOT OUT: The Florida Firecats' defense held the Columbus Wardogs scoreless for 59 minutes and 18 seconds last Saturday. MESIAH PORTER'S one-yard touchdown rush with 42 seconds was the only score of the game for the Wardogs, who fell 40-7 to the Firecats. Only the Quad City Steamwheelers has ever shutout a team for an entire game, when they did to the Peoria Pirates on March 29, 2001 (41-0).

IF THE SEASON ENDED TODAY: While it may be a little earlier to think playoffs, below is the breakdown of which teams would make it if the season ended today. Last season all the division leaders at Week 9 ended up making the postseason, with the exception of Quad City, who was banned from postseason play in 2002.

American Conference
1. Tennessee Valley (6-0)*
2. Cape Fear (5-1)* - Cape Fear holds strength of schedule over Albany
3. Albany (5-1)*
4. Macon (5-2)**
5. Mohegan (4-2)** - Mohegan has more total TDs than Norfolk
6. Norfolk (4-2)**

National Conference
1. Tulsa (6-1)*
2. Hawaii (5-2)* - Hawaii holds head-to-head advantage over Quad City
3. Quad City (5-2)*
4. Wichita (4-3)** - Holds strength of schedule over Arkansas and San Diego
5. Arkansas (4-3)** - Holds point differential in head-to-head matchups with San Diego
6. San Diego (4-3)**
*Denotes current division leader
** Wildcards are determined by best overall records

In the American Conference, Tennessee Valley and Cape Fear would have a bye in the first round. Albany would host Norfolk and Macon would host Mohegan. In the National Conference, Tulsa and Hawaii would have first round byes while Quad City would host San Diego and Wichita would host Arkansas.

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Arena Football League (1987-2008) Stories from May 21, 2003


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