Mid-Season Report Card

22 Apr 2008 The Philadelphia Soul are sitting pretty at the midway point of the season. The team is 8-0 overall with four wins at home and on the road. A game ahead of Dallas overall but a game behind in division and conference wins.

Here's how they rank with the rest of league stat wise: 5th in total offense; 15th in total defense.

Time to take a completely unwarranted and biased look at the organization and hand out some letter grades.

Offense: It's hard to argue with 528 points this season. Hard to argue with being the only team to have two WRs and two QBs in the top ten. Hard but not impossible. QB Matt D'Orazio is the team's leading rusher with 42 yards (3 yards per carry average) and 5 touchdowns. FB Clifton Smith has the sames totals and nine more carries (1.8 yards per carry average).
Grade:A-.

Defense: The D-line has been pretty good so far. With Bryan Save at nose, Gabe Nyehuis and the DL of the week are getting good penetration. Despite dropping off recently Nyenhuis, Save, and linebacker Anthony Dunn have 13 sacks between them so far. Rod Davis has done well at the Jack LB spot and has a couple of interceptions returning one for a TD. Sadly the defensive backs have not been as consistent. Mike Brown leads all DBs with 4 picks. Eddie Moten has... one. The defense is 15th in yards per game and 12th in yards per play allowed. So far the defense hasn't cost the Soul any wins but they are scored on too much, especially with big plays, and aren't getting the stops.
Grade:C+.

Special Teams: Rookie kicker Connor Hughes is third among kickers in scoring so far with 76 points. And with the Soul scoring so many TDs it should come as no surprise. Hughes is 55 of 63 on extra point attemtps. Not great but not terrible. Sadly he is just 4 of 8 on field goal attempts. The Soul lead the league in touchbacks (23) and average opponent start (9.9).

Pulling the grade up is the stellar performance of Mike Brown. Mike leads the league with 953 return yards. His three touchdown returns is good for second in the AFL.
Grade:B.

Intangibles: The team is playing like a team. They've met every challenge so far and struggled through some tough patches. They have yet to mail one in or roll over. The heart and desire to make this season special is evident. They've gotten good breaks and made some plays when it really mattered. Even when losing, the fans never feel the game is out of reach and something will happen to turn things around.
Grade:A.

Coaching: New adds Mays and Odom have injected something into the team, not sure what. Connell Maynor is coming into his own as coordinator and has added some new wrinkles to the offense. Head Coach Bret Munsey deserves credit for assembling the staff and keeping the focus on the task at hand. His hybrid zone/man defense still needs tweaking and the offense can still get predictable but overall an effective, productive job by all.
Grade:A.

Dance Team: More difficult rountines than in the past. More different types of routines. And with a couple of former captains and good friends helping keep things sharp, all choreographed perfectly and exectured with precision.
Grade:A+.
C'mon. I mean really what were you expecting? The fact that they tolerate me aside have you seen some of the other "dance" teams around the league? Thank heavens for Marla and the Soulmates.

The overall mid-season grade: B+

There's more credit to go around of course. GM Rich Lisk gets points for getting (read; paying) the players the coaching staff wants. Steve Schultz makes every game an event and helps keep people coming back. And the Sales staff does a good job of getting those people in the door to begin with. All of it contributes to the on field product in some way.