Soul Dan Raudabaugh says his team just needs to execute to make 2013 a successful season. Photo by T.J. Engle/ Contrastphotography.com

BY AL THOMPSON

The Arena Football League is all about scoring, scoring and scoring some more.

Yes, playing good defense and getting stops are up there but the team that can keep the pressure on offensively wins the majority of the time.

Like most of the teams in the AFL, the Soul will only go as far as its quarterback Dan Raudabaugh takes them.

In 2012, Raudabaugh played well, torching defenses for 4,790 yards passing and 115 touchdowns leading the the Soul to an ArenaBowl appearance.

This year the former Miami (OH) standout signal caller has not been as good, turning the ball over early in the season, and thus the Soul are off to a 3-4 start and have yet – as of the writing – to win a home game.

Last week Raudabaugh sat down with Footballstories to talk about his season what the team needs to do to get back on the winning track, especially at the Wells Fargo Center.

Raudabaugh also gave his insight on how his position is played in the AFL.

“In Arena football, everything is condensed everything is a little faster,” Raudabaugh said. “It’s more dictated on timing and throwing to spots. It is all about preparation. Early on, when we were struggling a little bit, we were missing some spots, we were out of sync a little bit, maybe missing some reads. You have to hit your spots in practice, you’ve got to pound the film room all week..and when you are out there, coach can tell you the X’s and O’s, but it’s about the Jimmy’s and Joe’s on the field.”

Raudabaugh admitted he must play well in order for the team to succeed.

“I touch the ball every play,” he said. “I am accountable for all my actions. When I’m playing well, we’re normally playing well and that is how it goes. What I need to do…I need to get back on my drop, make my read on time, make my throw to the right spots and we’re normally in good shape.

Raudabaugh talked about the rules that are unique to Arena Football…rules that tilt the scale a bit towards the offense.

“There is only so much a defense can do in Arena Football,” Raudabaugh said. “There only so may sets you can do. It’s about being in the right spot at the right time, then making a play. We’ve got great playmakers on the outside and we’ve got great guys blocking for us. If we just execute our game plan every week, we put ourselves in a very successful position in games.

“There are certain rules about who blitzes and who can’t,” Raudabaugh continued. “There’s one linebacker that’s designated to blitz, that’s the ‘Mac’ (rush linebacker) as opposed to the ‘Jack’ linebacker (coverage). The Mac linebacker can’t leave the tackle box (between hash marks depending where ball is spotted), he is the one who blitzes. The Jack can leave the tackle box be he can’t drop beyond five yards behind the line of scrimmage until the ball is thrown.”
It sounds like – by rule – there is always a soft spot over the middle on the defense that any AFL quarterback can exploit.

“Kind of,” Raudabaugh said. “The Jack, he’s the extra guy you’ve got to watch out there for because he can go sideline to sideline. Sometimes he’ll stay in the box to stop throws over the middle, sometimes he’ll run out to the wall to undercut a hitch route. But he should not get his hands on too many balls because he can’t go five yards down field. We’ve got a good Jack on our team, Joe Coosby, who is one of the better ones in the league. ”

Raudabaugh said the rules make it tougher for a defense to get to the quarterback.

“It makes it tough for those guys to get quarterback sacks,” Raudabaugh said. “But at the same time, everyone is so close…it can create instant pressure.”

Raudabaugh was asked what the Soul need to do to make this a a successful season going forward.

“There are three things we really need to accomplish,” Raudabaugh said. One is to protect the football and create turnovers when we are on the defensive side. Earlier in the year we had some turnover issues, I was throwing some interceptions and we had some costly fumbles and the defense wasn’t creating turnovers themselves. Now we are getting back on track. If you are on the plus side of the turnover ratio in any level of football, you have a good chance of success.

“Two: we have to protect our passer and get after theirs,” Raudabaugh continued. “That kind of ties back into the turnover thing. Three; We have to look at the season one day at a time. We can’t look too far ahead. You have to know your goals and how to accomplish them. But you can’t accomplish them all at one time. You can only score six points on any given play. We have to go step-by-step, play-by-play, quarter-by quarter, game-by-game. If we stay confident, stay within ourselves, but our of our minds, we’ll be in good shape.”

Email Al Thompson at the.magazine@footballstories.com