The San Antonio Commanders of the Alliance of American Football kick off week two of their inaugural season on Sunday, Feb. 17. San Antonio will host the Orlando Apollo at 3 p.m. Feb. 17 at the Alamodome.
The AAF consists of 8 teams; the Atlanta Legends, the Orlando Apollos, the Fleet, the Commanders, the Memphis Express, the Birmingham Iron, the Salt Lake Stallions and the Arizona Hotshots. Each team will play weekly during the 10-week regular season. Afterward, the top four teams will go into a playoff for the championship.
Head coach Mike Riley and quarterback Logan Woodside, with help from a dominating defensive performance, won big in their first game last week against the San Diego Fleet. Woodside completed 18 of 36 passes (50%) for 255 yards and two interceptions. The offense uses a balanced attack predicated on running the ball effectively between the tackles — 34 attempts for 125 yards– to set up a deep passing attack.
Orlando also came away from their week one matchup with a win. Quarterback Garrett Gilbert led the Apollos offense to 40 points on a hapless Atlanta defense, and stifled their offense to the tune of 224 total yards on 62 plays (3.8 yards-per-play). No team in week one put up a more complete game than the Orlando Apollos.
Of course, with only one week of football in the history of this league, it’s difficult to know what to expect this week. Both teams were impressive on defense, and feature solid weapons on offense. Orlando looks stronger at quarterback, but San Antonio features a fierce pass rush. This game figures to be close and low-scoring.
The Mesquite will have a live audio play-by-play broadcast of the game. To listen, go to Mixlr.com/Mesquite-Football-Coverage
All statistics courtesy of AAF Game Statistics Information System.
