It occurs to me that we’ve never made our predictions. Who will, with effort, hoist the 800,000-pound James Foster Trophy?
The Case for Columbus:
(TC)
- On their way here, they overcame the odds and defeated arguably the two best teams in the league whose name doesn’t rhyme with Man Fosé. Handily.
- Wily veteran coach Doug Kay don’t take no shit off nobody.
- Opportunistic on defense – converts turnovers into points.
- Kicker Peter Martinez is a pretty cool guy, and has tackled a couple guys but good.
- Matt Nagy’s mistakes tend to fly thirty rows deep into the stands. Hard to turn those into points.
(JM)
- Since everyone else that covers this league has mentioned it already, we’ll just repeat: Chicago was 7-9 heading into the playoffs last season (historical note: Chicago won).
- A QB that grows a beard means business, or maybe is just lazy (see: Kyle Orton). We suspect Matt Nagy is the former and not the latter.
- A team that’s made us eat this much crow has to be for real.
The Case For San José:
(TC)
- Hey! San José rhymes with Tan Flosé! Did I intentionally set it up so that mean’s they’re one of the top few teams in the league? (Hint: Yes.)
- Defense. Lots of it. A defense that tends to make it’s own opportunities.
- Coach Darren Arbet has a couple of rings, so that’s got to count for something, even if he hasn’t the demeanor of Emperor Palpatine.
- AFL stalwart Grieb > AFL stalwart Nagy. Sorry, Matt.
- I’ve been on the SaberCats bandwagon since week 7, with a one-week abstention in the hopes that Chicago’d make the Arena Bowl.
(JM)
- Coach Arbet – cool and composed.
- Mark Grieb – laser vision.
- In my experience, TC is a pretty smart hombre. He’s been singing San Jose’s praises since week 7.
- So far as Columbus in concerned, all good things must come to an end.
(TC) What it comes down to is that I keep saying to myself, “Really? Columbus? Where was this team all year? They’re not going to peel off their faces, Mission: Impossible-style, and turn out to be the Dallas Desperados in disguise, right?” San Jose hasn’t made any mistakes to speak of, and I stand by my statement that, even in the points-happy Arena League, defense wins championships. (JM) Verily.
(TC) Prediction: San Jose 60, Columbus 35. (JM) San Jose 62, Columbus 56.
