Article:AFL Preview: Week 7

11 Apr 08: 2-3 Colorado Crush at 3-2 Cleveland Gladiators: All time seriies: Colorado leads 4-1, but the one Gladiators' win came at home (Las Vegas). Crush QB John Dutton came out of his early season slump, going 32-50 with 8 TDs vs 1 INT vs LA, putting up their season high point total. Cleveland lost their second game in a row, but looked better doing it losing to Dallas 51-58. Cleveland needs to quit kicking FGs (3 last week) and turning the ball over (3 times) if they're going to get back on track. 12 Apr 08: 5-1 New Orleans VooDoo at 6-0 Dallas Desperados: All time series: Series tied at 1-1. This is the game ESPN should have on Monday, but it's a Saturday game. The VooDoo are coming off a punishing win over San Jose, 72-43. They dominated every phase of the game and look to stay on a roll and change the franchise's road woes. Dallas, on the other hand, defensed their way to a division win last weekend and enjoy having their starting QB back for a second week, look to put up a win before their bye week. 0-6 Utah Blaze at 2-4 Los Angeles Avengers: All time series: Utah leads 4-1, winning all 4 regular season games. Despite their records, this Western Division matchup is still a key game for both teams. With division leader San Jose at a mediocre 3-3, stringing 5 or 6 wins in a row together would push either team back into the playoff hunt. Utah still can't play defense (#17 in scoring defense) and LA hasn't sniffed a win since Week 2. 6-0 Philadelphia Soul at 3-3 San Jose SaberCats: All time series: San Jose leads 2-0. The Soul take their perfect record to an arena they've managed to score 62 points at in their two previous visits (while giving up 104). Meanwhile, San Jose is still attempting to figure out if the hex the VooDoo slapped on them last week will carry over. It's not like an Arbet team to lay and egg like last weekend's this late in the season. 13 Apr 08: 4-2 Orlando Predators at 2-3 Grand Rapids Rampage: All time series: Grand Rapids leads 3-1, including 2-0 at home Orlando beat the best of the American Conference at home last weekend in OT, and now travel to Grand Rapids see if they can beat the yoyo team in the American Conference at their place. Grand Rapids is trying to decide if they're a team that can barely manage 5 TDs in a game or they the team that can push the league single game scoring record on a weekly basis. 2-3 Arizona Rattlers at 2-3 Tampa Bay Storm: All time series: Tampa leads 9-4, 6-2 in Tampa It's kind of sad, these two all-time power franchises of the AFL, struggling just to break into mediocre. The Storm are in a slightly worse shape, being at the bottom of the Southern division 3 games back (and a half game out of the final playoff spot) while the Rattlers are only 1 game out of the division lead and a half game ahead in the race for the 5th playoff spot in the American Conference. (This meeting between these two teams in this situation is a lot like Duke/UNC playing to stay out of the bottom of the ACC basketball standings). 2-4 Columbus Destroyers at 2-4 New York Dragons: All time series: NY leads 9-7, 5-3 on the Island. Two teams with serious playoff aspirations at the beginning of the season, now they're playing just to stay relevant for a wild card spot. Columbus did a magic act beating Tampa at home, and take the worst active franchise road record to Nassau Coliseum to face the league's hottest pass defense, fresh off six turnover, 2 sack shellacking of Grand Rapids. 4-2 Chicago Rush at 0-5 Kansas City Brigade All time series: Tied at 1-1, each team holding serve at home When ESPN scheduled this game for their Monday night broadcast, the Brigade were coming off a 13-3 season and Chicago had played in the American Conference championship game Chicago is still the elite team in the AC, but Kansas City is a puzzling 0-5. Other than getting spanked senseless in Week 4 by Grand Rapids, KC has been in every game. It's been a play here, a bad bounce there, and they're 0-5. Getting to see Bonner-to-Harrell and James Baron on defense for Chicago will make this game entertaining....

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