All the rules in Arena Football are built against the defense.
Have a man running toward the line of scrimmage just as the ball is getting ready to snap? Eliminate all stunts and twists against a three-man line? Contain one linebacker into an imaginary box?
This is life as a defender in the Arena Football League. It is a constant procession of failure. The other team will score and score often. The focus is on getting the most possessions you can. Turnovers are prized possessions.
As Orlando Predators coach Rob Keefe puts it though, offenses are the reason butts are in the seats across the league, but it is defense that wins championships. And after struggling on that end last year, it was Keefe’s focus to bring in a better defensive team and recruit some stellar players.
Through three games, there are still hiccups and adjustments to make, but there have also been some of the biggest plays of the season.
The defense dominated the Tampa Bay Storm in the season opener in a 76-25 slaughter. In the home opener against the Portland Steel, the Predators iced the game with an interception on Kent Richardson for the first stop of the game.
And then on Monday against the Jacksonville Sharks, the Predators forced and recovered a fumble to set up the game-winning touchdown with cornerback Varmah Sonie breaking up a pass in the endzone to secure the win and a 3-0 start.
There is no Predators victory this season without defense, despite all the rules stacked against them.
“I think when you are in an offensive league like this, a league that relies on how many offensive possessions a team can have, what you do is you teach pride,” Keefe said. “When we talk to the defense, the offense puts butts in the seats, but the defense wins championships. We’re very aware of that. We recruited a lot of players who take pride in the fact that you might not have all the glitz and glam on the defensive side of the ball, but you know you are a huge part of taking away points on the board in an offensive related game. You can take a lot of pride in that.”
In some ways the Predators can sit back and be proud of their accomplishments so far. Those big stops were big statements about what their defense can be. They are in this position because of their defense, one of the best in the league.
The Predators have four interceptions through three games this year and have given up 43.7 points per game, the second best in the league. However, the team is the middle-of-the-pack in yards allowed per game, giving up 243.3 yards per game. That is fourth in the eight-team league.
Orlando has had its mistakes. The team has given up big fourth downs (opponents are five for nine on fourth downs against the Predators) and committed the most penalties in the league (30 for 258 yards, averaging 86.0 yards per game). On a 50-yard field, even five yards can be costly.
Getting that discipline back will be a key for the Predators as they continue to improve.
“I think we’re doing pretty well right now,” safety Varmah Sonie said. “I don’t think we have reached our full potential. And that’s what we’re trying to do each and every game. There is a lot of room for improvement. We’re not where we want to be right now, but we’re going to get there.”
Sonie, an offseason acquisition the Predators had to recruit hard considering he spent much of last season on a NFL practice squad, currently leads the Arena league in tackles with 24.5 and has two interceptions to his credit. He has also has three pass breakups and five pass deflections in three games.
He has quickly become the leader of this unit. Especially considering how much passing is involved in this league, each one of those deflections becomes absolutely critical as they did Monday.
“He’s a warrior,” Keefe said. “He’s not afraid of anything. To have a guy like that back where the defensive line feels comfortable with someone like that taking all the motions and a person they can rely on, i think it takes stress off everybody up front. They can do their jobs. He is definitely a leader of the defense.”
But it is also a team effort from the defensive line to the linebackers to the cornerbacks to lock things down for the Predators. Or at least slow things down.
Richardson has five pass break ups and six pass deflections already this year in addition to the game-clinching interception against the Steel. These are important numbers coming from the Predators’ top two defensive backs.
Keefe noted the team has done a good job contesting touchdown catches Monday against Jacksonville — similar to contesting jumpers that just happen to go in. The defense did a good job bouncing back and recovering as they have to do in this environment and league.
Keefe said the goal of the defense is to make everything tough and not give things up easy. The defense has to be aggressive and not let up as the game goes on.
Orlando has not played a great defensive performance since that opener at Tampa Bay. But each time the team made a play and got the stop. Like Keefe wanted, the defense wore the offense down and had that big play in them to ice the victory.
“We’ve got a lot of dogs on the defense,” Sonie said. “Our D-line, our Mack [linebacker] and our DBs, we all play really well together. Just keep playing together and making big plays within the game is, of course going to help our offense out.”
There are still plenty of things to clean up. Many of the defense’s issues this year are their own doing — penalties specifically. Once they get that precision and that discipline this defense could continue to get better.
And that is a scary prospect for the rest of the league. The Predators are already boasting the second-best scoring offense in the league. They did not get stopped for the first two games.
A strong defense — even in this offense-driven league — is still a valuable commodity.
“Just us working together as a team — offense scoring and us making those stops for them,” Sonie said. “It all comes together and works out for both at the end of the game.”
