Article:AFL Week 4 Preview (late)

20 Mar 08 Philadelphia (3-0) at Los Angeles (2-1): All time series: Philadelphia leads 1-0, last met in Philly in '06 LA is coming off an embarrasing 34 point performance on offense at Georgia, while Philadelphia is coming off a 21 point divisional win vs New York. Philly's QB, Tony Graziani is out with a sprained knee. When The G-man went out last year, Philly dropped 6 straight and the Soul will be looking to avoid a repeat of that performance. 21 Mar 08 Cleveland (3-0) at New Orleans (2-1): All time series, tied at 1-1, both games were in Las Vegas. After a putrid start in Los Angeles in week 1, the Voodoo have rebounded with two straight wins, including last week's 76-55 pasting of Tampa Bay. Super-revitalized Cleveland, in it's 4 incarnation in 12 years, has exceeded everyone's expectations by charging out the gate 3-0. This same franchise finished 2-14 last year and it's last winning season was in 2002. Columbus (0-3) at Utah (0-3): All time series: Never met This is a battle of on-the-brink teams. All but one of their combined six losses have been by a single digit. Last year's Arena Bowl runner up lost two of it's games by 5 points, and is only missing 1 key play per game. Utah is getting killed by it's kicking game. The hard luck ends this Friday for one of these teams. New York (1-2) at (Arizona (1-2): All time series: tied at 6-6 New York has turned in two bad road offensive performances, sandwiched around a close home win, while Arizona started off with a thrilling 66-63 win to open the season at Utah, has come completely unglued on offense, getting outscored 76-128 in it's past to games. Expect NY's Aaron Garcia to break out this game and rout Arizona in their house. 22 Mar 08 Georgia (1-2) at Orlando (1-2): All time series: Georgia leads 15-10 (and has won 6 of the last 10). Both teams are coming off their initial wins of the season, strange for both of these all-time successful league franchises, to start off so poorly. This should be an all-out brawl in the Jungle as both teams need this division win badly to keep up with the Storm and Voodoo. Colorado (1-1) at Chicago (2-1): All time series: Chicago leads 7-4 (and have split the last 6) Ditka hosting Elway, as the Crush visit Chicago. Colorado is coming off a rancid Monday night game in Dallas, and Chicago last Friday thumped Grand Rapids 64-35. Chicago's two HoFers on offense and 2 on defense should send the Crush back to Denver 1-2. Dallas (3-0) at San Jose (2-1): All time series: San Jose leads 3-2 Two of the league juggernauts meet in San Jose. Dallas lost it's starting QB in Week 1, but hasn't missed him too much (he's the OC, too) and the defense is allowing less than 40ppg. San Jose is 60-9 at home over the past 8 years and Dallas lost in it's two trips there during that span. 24 Mar 08: Grand Rapids (0-2) at Kansas City (0-2): All time series: Kansas City leads 2-0 Neil Smith's Brigade squad will try to get off the schnide by spanking the hapless Rampage. Grand Rapids is still trying to figure out what happened to their team, which went from winning the Arena Bowl in 2001 to winning a combined 15 games in the past 4+ seasons.