Soul offensive lineman Matt Smith (6-5, 325-pounds) show his quickness in the open field blocking for a big gain. Photo TJ Engler/contrastphotography.com

By AL THOMPSON

Talk to most coaches and players and they will tell there are no good losses. At the pro level, they will tell you there is no such thing as a moral victory. A loss is a loss.

But there may have been a silver lining inside a recent loss by the Philadelphia Soul, the Delaware Valley’s entry in the Arena Football League.

The Soul started the 2016 season with a convincing 60-41 win on the road against Cleveland.

On April 11, the Soul opened their home schedule with a 59-41 loss to the Jacksonville Sharks, the team that knock them out of the playoffs last year.

The game wasn’t as close as the already lopsided score might indicate. No one played well including Soul quarterback Dan Raudabaugh, reigning AFL MVP, who completed 24-of-36 passes for 306 yards, three touchdowns and three interceptions.

“We were off, which wasn’t the way that we wanted to start our season,” Soul head coach Clint Dolezel said after the game. “We did too much thinking, instead of just playing the game of football. We need to get back on the field as soon as possible and fix the errors we saw tonight.”

Sharks fullback Derrick Ross, who who was released by the Soul after the 2014 season said the key to beating his old team was to get physical with them. He even said the Soul were “soft.”

Soul standout offensive lineman Adam Smith said Ross may have been correct, at least for one game.

“I think that’s the key to every football game,” Smith said. “Especially in our position, the offensive line and defensive line, anywhere in the trenches., physicality definitely wins football games. So I don’t disagree with what he said. We have to try and out-physical them the next time.

“I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times, you go into every game wanting to win,” Smith continued. “Those guys, the past few times we’ve played them, they’ve had our number. Definitely disappointing, but we’ve got Portland this week, we’ll move on to Portland and worry about Jacksonville the next time we play them.”

Smith said the Soul have one goal this year and that is to win the Arena League title. Nothing else is acceptable. The Soul went to the ArenaBowl in 2013 and 2014 but came up short.

“Anything less than an ArenaBowl Championship this year is a failure for us,” the 6-foot-5, 325 pounder said. “That’s the big picture for us. But to get to that position we’ve got to look at it day by day, game by game to get to where we want to be. If you start to look too far into the future, you lose steps in the present.”

The Sou have been missing key players on defense. Beau Bell and James Romain. Both were major playmakers last year. Smith said it was no excuse.

“It’s the next guy up, that’s the way football goes,” Smith said. “There’s going to be guys who go down. It’s the nature of the sport we play. You’ve got to have somebody there who can step up and play. I think (Dwayne) Hollis is a great player, we have confidence e in every guy we have here. Coach Dolezel has done a great job of getting the guys here who get the job done.”

The coach said he was glad to see his player dejected after losing to Jacksonville.

“Any time you lose, if you’re happy after a loss, then I don’t want you around,” Dolezel said. “They better have long faces.”

The coach said he and his players only had one choice after the loss to the Sharks.

“We go back to work,” Dolezel said. “That’s part of why we brought these guys in here. They’re eager, it’s a short week for us, which we’re glad…we can get back out there and redeem ourselves and I think we’ll bounce back pretty well.”

They did.

Last week the Soul took out their frustration on Steel, cruising to a 42-6 lead at the half on route to an easy 70-32 victory against the Portland in front of 8,782 fans at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia on Sunday night.

“They let us play catch, so that is exactly what we did,” Dolezel said after the game. “We were able to take care of the ball and I was pleased with the rhythm of the offense. It is always challenging to adjust to new receivers and both Dan and the receiving core worked well together tonight.”

Receiver Ryan McDaniel led the Soul with five receptions for 78 yards and three touchdowns. Chris Duvalt added four receptions for 50 yards and three touchdowns.

Raudabaugh completed 17-of-25 passes for 221 yards and eight touchdowns.

The Soul hope to get their wounded players on defense back soon. The coach said his defense can only get better, especially with Romain coming back.

“Of course…he’s one of the top two safeties in the league if not the best safety in the league right now,” Dolezel said. “Anytime you miss him out there on the football field it is a lot. Good safeties are hard to come by in this league, also Beau Bell not playing last week hurt. We were a little lax in some defensive areas. So we’re hoping to get Romain back soon.

Dolezel said the Soul may be missing Bell for another month.

He was going to lean on Mack linebacker Wes Mauia, and defensive lineman Jake Metz until then. “We’ll be mixing some things up back there, we’ll be fine.”

In this case, a loss may have helped put the ultimate prize back in focus…the Arena Bowl.

“If you are a competitor and you play this game, in order to take that next step you have to hate to lose more than you like to win,” Raudabaugh said. “I can just feel the fire in our guys bellies right now. We’re ready and locked in.”

His head coach is not spewing any gracious party lines about this season, said Dolezel…

“It’s championship or bust for us.”