Arena Football: Divisional Playoff Matchups/Predictions

The first round of the AFL playoffs proved to be a great one last weekend. The 8-8 New York Dragons kicked off the 2008 playoffs last Friday night by upsetting Clint Dolezel and his Dallas Desperados, 77-63. The NY upset ended up being the only Wild Card game I predicted wrong. If you don't believe me, just look for yourself...

Well, this week should get even better. The top two seeds of each conference join the action, which includes the Arena Bowl favorite, Philadelphia Soul. The Soul will try to crush the NY Dragons Arena Bowl run tomorrow night at 7 PM ET. Here is a closer look at all four of this weekend's games, along with the Conference Championship matchups (according to my Divisional round predictions, of course).

Saturday July 5th

5 Colorado @ 2 San Jose

I am calling another upset. The John Dutton-led Crush will upset the heavy favorite, and defending Champion SaberCats. It will be a close duel between Dutton, and SJ's QB Mark Grieb, who threw 100 TD's, and just 18 INT's during the regular season, but Colorado will prevail in the end. COL 48, SJ 42

6 New York @ 1 Philadelphia

I'm sorry New York (well, not really), but the Soul are going to demolish the Dragons. No one expects the Soul to even lose the Arena Bowl, much less a lousy ol' second round game. Aaron Garcia will most certainly not have another field day against this Philadelphia defense. Soul 66, NY 51

Sunday July 6th

6 Grand Rapids @ 1 Chicago Rush

The Rampage another number six seed looking to do the unexpected; knock off the number one seed in the second round. It's a daunting task, and Grand Rapids just aren't the kind of team that could pull off such a feat. Chicago is looking for their second Arena Bowl Championship in three years, and they look like they have a good shot at winning their conference championship. The 6-10 Grand Rapids Rampage aren't going to be the one's to stop them from doing so. CHI 58, GR 42

Monday July 7th

4 Cleveland Gladiators @ 2 Georiga

I am really going out on a limb this week. I am going for 50/50 in upsets. The Cleveland Gladiators seem to have alot of fight in them, and I believe in Raymond Philyaw as their QB. Philyaw has thrown just 10 interceptions in 514 pass attempts during the regular season as Cleveland's QB, and he has the leadership skills to get them by the 10-6 Georgia Force, who, by the way, won just one more regular season game than the Glads. CLE 55, GE 52

Conference Championship Matchups:

American Conference

5 Colorado Crush @ 1 Chicago Rush: Nothing like the classic battle of the Crush/Rush...Elway v.s. Ditka.....

National Conference

4 Cleveland Gladiators @ 1 Philadelphia Soul: Don't plan a nation-wide tour for next weekend, Bon Jovi. There's a good chance your team could be playing for a spot in the 2008 Arena Bowl.