Orlando is the best defensive team in the AFL, and if it can play exceptionally well on offense as it has through the middle stretch of the schedule, the Predators will be a formidable threat to win ArenaBowl XIX.

A different
approach
Orlando's coach Jay Gruden has gone about building his team differently than most of his counterparts in this league.

Gruden turned his attention first to defense not offense, and more specifically to putting pressure on opposing quarterbacks and defending against their passing proficiency.

That being the case stocking the roster with top-notch pass rushers and defensive specialists has been a priority for Gruden.

Up front on defense he has E.J. Burt and William Carr starting at the tackles, and Just Cleveland getting the nod at nose guard.

In only his third season with Orlando, Burt is already the Predators all-time sack leader.

With seven sacks in his first ten games, the 6-foot-2, 265-pounder is on pace to break the club record for sacks in a season (9.5) which Burt jointly holds with Rupert Grant.

There is no player in the league that combines rushing the passer and forcing fumbles better than Burt.

Gruden calls Carr "instant pressure."

Kenny McEntyre, who has had a stellar AFL career, holds down one of the two starting slots for defensive specialists.

McEntyre holds AFL records for career regular season interceptions (58), postseason interceptions (11) and total interceptions (69).

The other starting defensive specialist is Johnnie Harris, who has also played in the NFL.

Harris, a former AFL Defensive Player of the Year with Tampa Bay in 1998, was signed in the last week of March.

Gruden has high praise for Harris, calling him one of the two all-time best defensive specialists to play in the AFL.

Once Harris gets in top physical shape, Gruden feels Orlando will have a shutdown defense.

Hamilton turns it up a notch
Orlando quarterback Joe Hamilton has really picked up his play over the last month after getting off to a less-than-sizzling start to 2005.

Hamilton had modest numbers until about four weeks ago when he really started to come on.

In the first six games of the season, the former Georgia Tech standout had 24 touchdown passes and seven interceptions.

In his next four games, Hamilton had 23 scoring strikes while being picked off just three times.

Some of the improvement in Hamilton's numbers can be attributed to Orlando getting Cory Fleming back from injury.

Fleming a veteran wide receiver and linebacker is still playing at a very high level coming off a 2004 season in which he was chosen the league's Ironman of the Year.

Hamilton is still getting used to the new faces in his receiving corps, and he's had to do so with pass protection that hasn't been all that great.

He has shown flashes of being able to throw good passes when off balance, a skill that a quarterback clearly needs if he is to be successful in the AFL.

With the caliber of defense Orlando plays, Hamilton doesn't have to be the best quarterback in the league, but he has to be mentally tough enough to handle the pressure of the position.

That pressure is much greater than it is on NFL quarterbacks since AFL offenses are geared around the pass, and so many AFL games are decided in the final seconds.