Soul Visit Orlando, Look To Get On Track
By Matt Leon
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - This season has not gone according to plan thus far for the Arena Football League's Philadelphia Soul.
The two-time defending American Conference champions have started out 0-3. Last time out on Friday night, they lost at Tampa Bay, 63-49.
That makes Thursday's night game in Orlando about as close to a must-win game as a team can have a month into the season.
"In our minds it definitely feels that way, and we're treating it that way," Soul head coach Clint Dolezel tells KYW Newsradio.
Philadelphia hasn't been helped by the schedule here early on. They have opened with four straight road games. First it was cross country trips to Arizona and California, now it's two straight games down in Florida. But Dolezel says their struggles are because of what they are or aren't doing on the field.
"It's been a little bit of everything," Dolezel says. "Honestly though, our playmakers need to make plays. That's the biggest thing for us. We've got to go out and play a complete game, we haven't done that in all three phases, yet. When you do that, if you win two out of the three, you win three out of the three phases, you usually come out on top. We haven't done that. We're looking to play some complete games and we're looking for our top stars to make the plays in the game."
Orlando brings a 3-1 record into this game.
"A lot of good young talent," Dolezel says. "They play hard. They make a lot of plays that obviously we're not at this point. I think they are playing with a lot of confidence, which, again, we're not playing with. We've got to go out and play a good, solid football game if we're going to plan on winning in their stadium."
The Soul and the Predators will kick-off at 7:30pm.
You can follow Matt on Twitter @mattleonkyw.