Getting back to a .500 win percentage, the Philadelphia Soul returned back to the Wells Fargo Center in an attempt to secure another win on the 2019 season. The task at hand was the reigning and defending Arena Football League Arena Bowl champions, the Washington Valor. As I mentioned in the Philly Sports Network article a week ago, previewing this game, the Soul had the game pulled out of their grasp in the first meeting of 2019 against the Valor with six seconds to play in the game.
With revenge on the mind and redemption as the opportunity, this game was a must win. In front of 7,164 Philadelphia fans, a changing of the tides back over to a winning season was on the line. Washington was also fighting to pick up their fourth win this season. When the clock hit zero and the final whistle was blown, the Valor left Philadelphia with a 48-41 win over the Soul.
In the post-game press conference, the Philadelphia Soul head coach, Clint Dolezel, was asked to describe the loss: "We didn't play well, that's the bottom line. We are not making plays, we're missing throws, dropping balls, it's the same old story when we lose. Not disciplined, that reflects me which we will resolve, I promise you that." Dolezel held his coaching of the players accountable for penalties on clutch drives such as a Torez Jones defensive holding and an earlier pass interference by Dwayne Hollis. Darius Prince had a couple of dropped touchdown catches on separate drives that he usually makes from Dan Raudabaugh on the offensive side. All the things that went right against the Columbus Destroyers didn't against the Washington Valor.
The Philadelphia Soul came out in their black, Military Appreciation Day uniforms with everything to gain. In the coin toss, the Washington Valor won the toss and deferred to the second half, allowing the Soul to begin the game on offense.
The first quarter was officially underway as Dan Raudabaugh and the Philadelphia Soul offense came onto the field on their first drive of the game. On the Soul's first play on offense, Raudabaugh found BJ Bunn for a nine-yard catch, but it was fumbled and recovered by the Washington Valor's Zack Bullock.
This allowed Arvell Nelson to take over in scoring range, but the Soul defense made a big play when James Romain intercepted Nelson to end the scoring threat on Washington's first play on offense. Romain was asked about this interception: "This league, big guys are in motion against little DBs, trying to cross our feet with big body routes. Just from my film study, that one play in film study worked to my favor. I knew the offense and the team needed to put out the fire from us turning over the ball. I just made a great play."
The Philadelphia Soul offense would recover after the quick turnovers from both teams, finishing their next drive with a two-yard touchdown run. As the Soul recovered on offense, so did the Washington Valor as they took advantage of a pass interference penalty against James Romain en route to scoring their first touchdown of the night. Arvell Nelson's first touchdown pass to Douglas McNeil III was the first of three for McNeil and of six for Nelson on the day. However, Pat Clarke would be the only kicker to miss an extra point in this game. One thing that, no pun intended, was kicking on all cylinders was Kenny Spencer who had a perfect night. The end of the first quarter saw the Soul lead the Valor, 7-6.
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"Kenny was kicking for his job this week and he knew it. I sat him down and told him, you need to do well this week. Guess what? He did well, he performed. He hit every PAT right down the pipe, did a good job of hitting around the iron all night. That's pressure when your coach tells you 'you aren't going to be around if you don't do well this week.' He did, so maybe I need to talk to some other guys like that," said Clint Dolezel of his kicker.
The Philadelphia Soul started the second quarter with possession, capitalizing from a Washington Valor pass interference call on Svante Davenport. Adrian Ferns would find the endzone again on this drive to extend the Soul lead, this time on a reception from Dan Raudabaugh. "His number was called and he made plays. Even though he's got a grade two MCL, he's still out there doing his job blocking and scoring touchdowns for us," said Clint Dolezel of Ferns, who sparked the offense in the first half.
Arvell Nelson walked back onto the field with the rest of the Washington Valor and was able to answer back with his second touchdown pass of the game to Doug McNeil III. This time, Pat Clark would convert the extra point. The Philadelphia Soul had their chance to keep the pace of the game on their side, but Dan Raudabaugh received a bad snap on the exchange from PK Manley, which gave possession right back to Washington on a fumble. Clint Dolezel commented on the turnover: "Not good, obviously. Those things frustrate me. PK is one of our veterans, been around for a while. Those things aggravate me more than anything. That's stuff your first day of seventh-grade practice, that you work snaps. If you can't get a center exchange with your quarterback, not much else is going to be good for you." Those same sentiments were echoed from Raudabaugh himself: "A fumbled snap going in to score, we can't have that. A lot of these wounds are self-inflicted, we have to look at ourselves in the mirror and figure out what it is and get it right."
After the Dan Raudabaugh fumble, Arvell Nelson connected with Reggie Gray for his first touchdown of the day and Nelson's third. The Philadelphia Soul had another opportunity to score before the first half was completed, but the ball was turned over on downs. While that wasn't a fumble or interception, it was just as costly as another opportunity was blown to get back into the pace of the game. This drive was the key point of inconsistency that seemed to separate the productivity between Raudabaugh and Darius Prince. The only pass completed on that drive was to Jordan Williams on six pass attempts. The Washington Valor led, 20-14, at halftime.
By deciding to defer to the second half, the Washington Valor began on offense after the Philadelphia Soul kicked off. Arvell Nelson threw an interception to Dwayne Hollis, again giving the Soul another opportunity to score on offense. This time, Dan Raudabaugh would find BJ Bunn for his third career touchdown reception and Raudabaugh's second touchdown pass of the day. Wanting to avoid another slow drive with no points to show for, the Valor found a way to rally on the next drive as Nelson completed his fourth touchdown pass of the game to Douglas Neil III, who found the endzone for the third time this game. As Nelson and Neil III partnered up for multiple touchdowns, so did Raudabaugh and Bunn. Bunn was the recipient of his fourth career touchdown reception and Raudabaugh's third of this game. The Soul did go for two on a pass from Bunn, but the conversion was no good. This came from a botched extra point hold. Going into the fourth quarter, the game was now tied at 27.
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Just as quickly as the Philadelphia Soul tied the game, the Washington Valor were able to take back the lead. Nelson Arvell connected with Jared Dangerfield for his fifth touchdown pass of the game, Dangerfield's first touchdown catch. In the next drive, the Soul worked in Darius Reynolds on offense to provide a different personnel look, but to no avail as the only target to Reynolds on that drive was incomplete. Dan Raudabaugh would finish this drive with his fourth touchdown of the game complete to Darius Prince who caught his first this game. When asked about working Reynolds into the offense, Raudabaugh replied: "He's a great player no matter where he is. He got a route out there tonight and we weren't on the same page. It's all about being ready when your number is called and we got banged up a little again tonight."
Arvell Nelson would answer for the Washington Valor once again, throwing a pass to Reggie Gray for a touchdown. This would be the sixth and final touchdown pass for Nelson on the day and second touchdown reception for Gray. Coming into this game, the Philadelphia Soul's gameplan was to limit and contain Nelson, but they failed to do so through the air.
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Dan Raudabaugh and Darius Prince connected on a quick score to tie the game back up with 1:44 left in the game. In the first half, Raudabaugh had a series of inconsistencies that ended in a turnover on downs. If this chemistry existed in the first half between Prince and Raudabaugh, it would have been a touchdown that maybe steals a win in favor of the Philadelphia Soul.
However, one man that was in a groove was Arvell Nelson and he found the endzone for the seventh total time, this time on a rushing touchdown. Shaken up just before this touchdown was Philadelphia Soul defensive back, James Romain. Romain was okay and spoke with us post-game, "I felt a little bit of numbness. I hit my neck weird, felt some numbness in my arms. Kinda freaked me out, I never really felt that before. I just wish I was in there on that last play. No disrespect to Dwayne Hollis, if I'm not in the middle, I trust him. I feel like if I was there I would have made a great play on that ball."
On the final Washington Valor drive when Arvell Nelson scored that rushing touchdown, Clint Dolezel had a particular observation about the play clock and the officiating crew. This happened when the Valor's drive began with 1:10 left in regulation and the first rush by Nelson to begin that drive, immediately after the onside kick that was originally recovered by the Soul but overturned. Dolezel stated, "It's pretty obvious, I don't know what they were doing out there. A minute and ten left, there's a thirty-five second clock, if they run at the same time, it doesn't go down to thirty seconds. They botched it."
Clearly, Clint Dolezel believes that with a few more seconds left in the game, they could have done more with the offensive play call. However, the final Philadelphia Soul drive ended when Dan Raudabaugh threw an interception to Jadar Johnson in double coverage, attempting to force a ball in a quick, long strike downfield to steal the win as the Valor did in the first meeting earlier this season. The final score of this game was in favor of the Washington Valor, 48-41.
This was another unfortunate loss for the Philadelphia Soul because of the fact that poor execution on routine things accumulated in this loss. The Dan Raudabaugh botched snap exchange from PK Manley, the turnover on downs, and the offensive line allowing their first sack of the season all were based on fine details but contributed to an overall losing effort.
On defense, plays were made, but equally other plays were not capitalized on. The Soul forced two fumbles that were recovered by the Washington Valor. No turnover. The Valor forced three fumbles, two of which were recovered for a forced turnover. While the Philadelphia Soul did intercept Arvell Nelson twice, Raudabaugh was included on one of those fumble recoveries by the Valor along with being intercepted at the end of the game and sacked. Washington won the turnover battle before including the turnover on downs. When the other team has more possessions than you, there is a higher probability that you gave the game away. That was the case for the week 7 performance from the Soul versus the Valor.
Jake Metz not being available for the Philadelphia Soul created a glaring hole in the defensive line. Uncharacteristically, the Soul's defense became one dimensional without a pass rush, having to rely on the secondary mostly. Isaiah Stephens forced a fumble, but as mentioned earlier, none of the Soul's forced fumbles were recovered for turnovers. The defensive line was largely a non-factor. "There was a pass rush? I didn't see that. I missed that part. We got to get better. We got to go beat the bushes and find somebody that can get some pressure. Jake has been our constant all year long with pass pressure. We need to light a fire under some guys, we have the tools in there. We need to add a guy here and there and we need to get healthy. If you're hurt, you're hurt. He had surgery and he's going to be out for a while. It's the next guy up," stated Clint Dolezel.
The optimist, James Romain, after a team performance described as undisciplined and without a pass rush by Clint Dolezel, had this to say, "I wouldn't say anything was wrong. I would say that Washington came out with a little bit different gameplan from what we studied through the week. Besides that, I just think that their guys came out a little more firey than us, they wanted to win, they wanted it a little bit more than us. We just didn't show up tonight." This game came down to converting opportunities and Romain is setting the attitude for the Philadelphia Soul heading back to the Wells Fargo Center to complete a three-game home stretch on Sunday against the Atlantic City Blackjacks.
This week is very important for Philadelphia Soul's season because it dictates whether the Soul can climb back to .500 and build momentum on the road to recapture a winning record and make a playoff push. The message is simple: "Win. I don't care how we got to do it, we have to win. By any means necessary. Scratching, crawling, punching, spitting, grabbing, eye gouging, mouth hooking, whatever we got to do to win, I'm for it. That's what I'm waiting for. As a leader, I'm going to go out there and give it my all." That's the fire from James Romain.
Offensively, Dan Raudabaugh was about simplifying the offense and perfecting the basics to extend drives and put the Philadelphia Soul in a better position to win. "We need to play catch. If they're going to play zone we need to take what they give us, we've been blocking pretty well, and make plays when they're there. AC stumbled a little bit this last week too, so they're gonna' be hungry. We need to come out with our hair on fire, for real, to send a message to ourselves this week at practice," said Raudabaugh. He captured the same fire that James Romain is bringing to the table. However, those words don't compare to how one look will make you feel.
"We know the look. He just came in and looked at us and we know that look. Go win. He's frustrated, coach's frustrated, I'm frustrated, fan's frustrated, I know you guys are frustrated asking these questions and stuff like that. This should be a wake-up call. I haven't started three and four here ever and we're swallowing a tough pill right now. I've gotta police myself to get the other guys right. Obviously, my leadership skills ain't getting the young guys ready, so I gotta' switch up something. AC's got something coming from me."
That was James Romain describing a silent visit to the team from Ron Jaworski following the home loss to the Washington Valor. Romain is connected to his team, coaches, owners, fans, and press. Being in the same room as that post-game press conference with Romain, he is going to be a man on a mission on Sunday.
When the Atlantic City Blackjacks come to visit a Philadelphia Soul team that is playing with everything to gain and nothing to lose, watch out. That whole locker room feels like Dan Raudabaugh, James Romain, Clint Dolezel, and the look that Ron Jaworski provides. Bring that energy to the table on Sunday and the Blackjacks are going to have to bring an army.
