Sports stats



AFL I Arena Football League (1987-2008)

The Deuce Scoop

June 4, 2003 - Arena Football League (1987-2008) (AFL I) News Release


AND THE AWARDS GO TO: Week 10 award winners are: Albany's RYAN VENA (Offensive Player of the Week), Birmingham's ANTHONY JORDAN (Ironman of the Week) and Quad City's JEFF HEWITT (ADT Defensive Player).

HOME SWEET HOME: Home teams went 8-5 in Week 10, continuing their season-long dominance. So far this season, home teams are 71-43 for a .623 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
Tulsa 26-3 .897 Won23*
Quad City 25-3 .893 Won 3
Tennessee Valley 23-5 .821 Won 4
Cape Fear 9-2 .818 Won 3
Albany 9-2 .818 Won 5
Macon 16-4 .800 Won 4
Norfolk 22-6 .786 Lost 1
Richmond 20-8 .714 Lost 1
Birmingham 20-8 .714 Won 1
Wichita 15-6 .714 Won 1

*Tulsa's 59-46 win over Arkansas in Week 10 extended their af2-record regular season home win streak to 23 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 five games.

NOT ALL TEAMS LOSE ON THE ROAD: The Tennessee Valley Vipers have gone 19-1 over since 2001 on the road, which is the best road record in af2 during that span. If they win their remaining four road games, they'll become the first team to record undefeated road records in more than one season. The Vipers went 8-0 on the road in 2001. The Albany Conquest has the next best road record with an 11-2 all-time mark on the road. The Norfolk Nighthawks are 3-1 on the road this season, despite going 5-19 away from Scope Arena during their first three seasons.

UNDEFEATED VIPERS: The Tennessee Valley Vipers rallied for a 61-55 win over Columbus on Saturday, improving to 8-0 for the season. The Vipers, the only undefeated team in af2 this season, are 8-0 for the first time in team history and now hold the record for the second best start to a season. The Quad City Steamwheelers are the only other team to get off to a better start in af2 history, as they went 16-0 during the 2000 season.

"ZIMMER" IS THE "MAN": Last week against Cincinnati, Quad City QB TONY ZIMMERMAN went 17-of-31 passing for 234 yards and six touchdowns as the Steamwheelers won its seventh straight game 48-21 over the Swarm. To date, Zimmerman has thrown for 2,476 yards and 51 touchdowns. He is first in the af2 in total offense (2,522 yards), total touchdowns (62), passing yards per game (275.1 yards), passing yards (2,476) and passing touchdowns (51). He is on a pace to challenge 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 4,402 yards and 90 touchdowns. And for added measure, he only has three interceptions for a 17:1 touchdown-to-interception ratio.

CONQUEST OFFENSE SIZLZING: The Albany Conquest has taken over the league lead in scoring with a 55.5 points per game average this season. Riding a five-game win streak, the Conquest has averaged 61.8 points per game during that span, while holding opponents to 41.8 along the way.

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 Week 11, 12 teams broke the 50-point barrier, going 10-2 in those games. Teams under 50 points went 3-11 in Week 10. For the season, teams that score better than 50 are 63-18, while teams under 50 have gone 50-97. 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 1-22 .043 20-29 15-163 .084
30-39 18-40 .310 30-39 95-220 .302
40-49 31-29 .517 40-49 204-192 .515
50-59 37-17 .685 50-59 204-86 .703
60-69 25-1 .962 60-69 160-21 .884
70-79 1-0 1.000 70-79 54-2 .964
80+ 0-0 .000 80+ 23-0 1.000

PARITY RULES: Week 10 strayed from the season-long trend of close games as only 3-of-13 games were decided by seven points or less. For the season, 46 of the 114 (40.3%) games played have been decided by seven or fewer points, which equates to nearly a nine percent increase from last season's average and an 12 percent increase from the all-time average. In addition, only one team remains undefeated, and only one team is still winless in 2003.

INJURY BUG BITES: League-leading scorers MICHAEL DRITLEIN and KEVIN PRENTISS suffered season-ending injuries last weekend, ending their pursuit of the all-time single season scoring record. Meanwhile, Peoria's JACK WALKER and Quad City's IRA GOOCH continue to climb the charts. Below is the updated scoring leaderboard. 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 9 152 Out for season
Jack Walker - PEO 8 142 284
Ira Gooch - QUA 9 132 235
Damon Thompson - RIC 7 128 274
Tacoma Fontaine - TUL 8 126 252

ON A ROLL: Not surprisingly, the five longest current win streaks belong to first place teams. Tennessee Valley's eight game win streak is followed by Quad City's seven-game streak and then five-game streaks from Albany and Tulsa. Hawaii has a four-game win streak.

PICKED OFF: There were 29 interceptions thrown during Week 10, with interceptions thrown in 12 of the 13 games played. The only contest without an interception was the Tennessee Valley/Columbus game quarterbacked by MATT SAUK and KYLE ROWLEY. Other QB's able to avoid the interception bug in Week 10 were: Albany's RYAN VENA, Cape Fear's BRYAN SNYDER, Birmingham's CHRIS WINDSOR, Tulsa's CRAIG STRICKLAND, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton's CHRIS BODEN and Hawaii's MIKE TILLIS. Snyder, who has played all eight games with Cape Fear this season, has only two interceptions all season.

O-MY: Rochester DS OMAR BAKER is having a solid rookie campaign leading the team with 30.5 tackles and passes defended with six. He set a team single game record last week with 12 tackles against Albany. The previous record was 10 set by both LARRY LONG and DWAINE CARPENTER in the same game June 29, 2001 vs. Quad City.

SPEAKING OF CARPENTER: The former Brigade DS signed a two-year contract with the San Francisco 49ers last week. Carp, who played the last two seasons down the Thruway for the Buffalo Destroyers, is the first player to play for Rochester and to move on to an NFL team.

SURVEY SAYS: According to the current Web poll on www.af2.com the Tennessee Valley Vipers are the best team in af2 right now. Of the responses, 36% picked Tennessee Valley, 12% picked Quad City, Hawaii and Albany, 11% chose none of the above, 10% said Tulsa and 6% felt Cape Fear is the best team in af2 today.

TOUGH LUCK: The Memphis Xplorers, who currently sit one game out of a wild card spot in the National Conference, have lost all five of their games by a combined total of 26 points. The Xplorers lost by one point in the season opener to Columbus, two points in Week 4 at Tulsa, 11 points in Week 5 versus Florida, four points in Week 6 against Tulsa and eight points in Week 7 at Arkansas, meaning the Xplorers have lost by an average of 5.2 points per game in all their losses this season.

BAKERSFIELD GETTING DEFENSIVE: The Bakersfield defense has been on fire the past three weeks. The defense has held each of its last three opponents under 200 yards of total offense. The San Diego Riptide offense was only able to record 163 yards of total offense. Quarterback Kane Claunch was pressured all night long by the Blitz front line. The line was able to tally five sacks and the secondary came up with two interceptions to help out. Overall the Blitz leads the league with 18 sacks and is second in total yardage allowed with 209 yards allowed per game. RICKY LEUNG'WAI is tied with Albany's SPENCER CONLEY for the league lead in sacks with six.

TILLIS COMES THROUGH AGAINST LOUISVILLE: Few backup quarterbacks live out a dream but last week, MIKE TILLIS not only came through in Hawaii's 67-48 win over Louisville, he sparkled with magnificent numbers. Tillis completed 17-of-30 passes for 250 yards and an Islander record-tying six touchdowns with no interceptions.

IF THE SEASON ENDED TODAY: Below is the breakdown of which teams would make it if the season ended today. Division winners grab the first three spots in each conference, based on overall records. Wildcard teams seed based on overall records for the final three spots in each conference. Bold teams are teams that would be in the playoffs if the season ended today.

American Conference
1. Tennessee Valley (8-0)*
2. Albany (7-1)*
3. Cape Fear (6-2)*
4. Macon (5-3)** - Macon holds strength of schedule over Mohegan and Norfolk
5. Mohegan (5-3)** - Mohegan holds head-to-head advantage over Norfolk
6. Norfolk (5-3)**
7. Richmond (4-4)** - Richmond has better win percentage against common opponents with Birmingham
8. Birmingham (4-4)
9. Greensboro (4-5)
10. Florida (3-5) - Florida holds head-to-head advantage over Charleston
11. Charleston (3-5)
12. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (3-6)
13. Columbus (2-6)
14. Rochester (1-8)

National Conference
1. Tulsa (8-1)*
2. Hawaii (7-2)* - Hawaii hold head-to-head advantage over Quad City
3. Quad City (7-2)*
4. Wichita (6-3)** - Holds strength of schedule over Arkansas and San Diego
5. Arkansas (4-4)** - Holds point differential in head-to-head matchups with San Diego
6. San Diego (4-5)**
7. Memphis (3-5) - Memphis holds better record over common opponents with Peoria
8. Peoria (3-5)
9. Bossier City (3-6) - Holds strength of schedule over LOU, CIN, BAK.
10. Louisville (3-6) - Holds strength of schedule over CIN, BAK.
11. Bakersfield (3-6) - Holds better record over common opponents with Cincinnati
12. Cincinnati (3-6)
13. Green Bay (0-8)

*Denotes current division leader
** Denotes wildcard

In the American Conference, Tennessee Valley and Albany would have a bye in the first round. Cape Fear 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.

• Discuss this story on the Arena Football League (1987-2008) message board...

Arena Football League (1987-2008) Stories from June 4, 2003


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.


Sports Statistics from the Stats Crew
OurSports Central