AF1 Week 5: What We Learned

Week 5 is a wrap and we had a little bit of a shakeup in the AF1 world!

We had our first of two matchups between Billings & Albany, Corpus Christi had their first true road test in Everett, WA and the battle for supremacy in the state of Kansas had to be won by SOMEBODY.

What did we learn in Week 4?

Southwest Kansas @ Salina Liberty

Result: 22-20 Southwest Kansas

What We Learned: Southwest Kansas continues to play terrible situational football & Salina needs a hard reset.

In the solo Saturday night game for the AF1, the Salina Liberty hosted their rivals from the west, the Southwest Kansas Storm in a matchup that asked the question, "What if we forced somebody to win a football game, no matter how hard they tried to lose it?"

Storm WR Demarius Washington had a big game in this one, coming down with multiple clutch grabs and a pair of touchdowns in his own personal Revenge Game -- having played for Salina last season -- but outside of Washington, there really wasn't a lot that was going really well for Southwest Kansas on offense.

The Storm defense did their job in this one and was able to stop Salina nearly the entire game, but the Southwest Kansas offense had multiple opportunities to put this game away (again) in the second half, but just couldn't (again). They gave the Liberty every chance to make this a game and Salina very nearly pulled off the comeback in the 4th quarter. The Storm have to get better at closing out games and using what makes them successful to their advantage to ice the game. The Storm managed to hold on for dear life to get the win, but it was not very encouraging for their outlook on the rest of the season.

For Salina, it's time. They just gotta blow this thing up on offense and try something new.

The QB play isn't working, but even bigger than that it seems like the entire offensive scheme just doesn't appear to be working. They have been running the shotgun based offense all season and have tried with both rostered QBs, but it just isn't getting the job done.

As friend of the program Zach Keilman mentioned on X when discussing Salina, "This team's choice to not adapt and stick to their guns is killing them, and the rest of the teams in AF1 are passing them by because of it."

You get the sense that this team would benefit immensely from going under center and being a little more 'traditional arena' with their style with the talent that they have at the skill positions on offense.

WR Malik Honeycutt had another strong game and they FINALLY got RB Tracy Brooks involved and in the end zone, but it has been clear for multiple games that what Salina was doing on offense wasn't working and they kept..doing..the..saaaaaame thing. It's just sad to see such a talented roster go to waste like this. The Liberty are sitting at 0-4 and it's a very real possibility that this team ends up with double digit losses unless things change very quickly.

Corpus Christi @ Washington Wolfpack

Result: 61-21 Corpus Christi

What We Learned: Corpus Christi is on the verge of being elite & Washington continues to Washington.

I was having a chat with some fellow arena football fans about Corpus Christi, and an interesting question was brought up:

• Is Corpus Christi a legit contender, or have they benefited from a schedule of bad teams up to this point in the season?

Salina has been bad and Washington has only been marginally better, but Corpus Christi beat those teams soundly -- annihilating Salina in their first game, coming back to beat them by double digits in the second and soundly beating the Wolfpack this past weekend.

Despite the soft schedule to open the season, the fact that they are manhandling these teams makes me believe they are a legit contender in this league. They've outscored their opponents 152 to 70 in 3 games and they are getting great production from both their offense and their defense -- including more Pick Sixes than Salina might have offensive passing touchdowns this year.

WR Darius Prince is opening things up for this entire offense and they are finding ways to get the ball in WR Quintavius Workman's 6'7 direction as often as they can. The scariest part about this Corpus Christi offense is that they still have some apparent flaws, but are scorching teams despite them.

If they can get those things dialed in, the matchup with Albany in a couple weeks gets a LOT more interesting.

For Washington, the slump continues -- and you can make a case that this team is actively getting worse despite the player acquisitions they have made during the season.

• Scored 33 points in Week 1 loss vs Southwest Kansas

• Scored 35 points in Week 2 win vs Oregon

• Scored 23 points in Week 4 loss vs Billings

• Scored 21 points in Week 5 loss vs Corpus Christi

This offense HAS to get going and, to me, it starts on the offensive line. Corpus Christi's defensive line was having their way and absolutely steamrolling the Wolfpack O-line and making Ed Crouch run for his life all game long.

You could literally watch ANY play in the second half and see what I am talking about. It is evident that Washington's O-line has gotta work some stuff out, so why not focus on the shorter stuff to give your QB a fighting chance to get the ball out consistently? I feel like a broken record but here I am yet again in this What We Learned talking about the unfulfilled potential of this Wolfpack offense -- and to me it starts with the guy wearing WR gloves with the play sheet.

The Washington defense managed to come up with multiple turnovers in the second half, but it was all for nothing with how this Wolfpack offense has played.

Washington gets a visit from Nashville this upcoming week and we could have another ugly one on our hands. If Nashville is favored by less than double digits, I'd be shocked.

Billings Outlaws @ Albany Firebirds

Result: 62-24 Albany

What We Learned: Billings has to avoid catastrophic nightmare starts & this is Albany's world -- we're just living in it

This was far and away one of the most anticipated matchups of the entire arena football season across all leagues and it turned into an absolute beatdown almost immediately.

Billings had a great opening drive where they were able to slowly work their way down the field and follow a similar script from last year's ArenaBowl -- if Albany doesn't have the ball, their explosive offense can't hurt you. Seems like a decent plan.

But when the Outlaws offense has back to back turnovers and gives that explosive Albany offense the ball at the 1 & 7-yard lines -- you're asking for trouble. Billings simply had a no good, bad bad, terrible start to this game and it put them in a 35-7 hole early.

Despite the lopsided loss, I wouldn't write Billings off just yet. As silly as it may sound, I liked what Billings was going for offensively -- they just weren't executing and not getting what they needed precision wise from QB Braden Wingle. He was rattled and never got fully settled down and the Outlaws came unraveled because of it.

The Outlaws get the rematch next week at home in Montana and will look to make this more of a game for everyone's sake.

For Albany, it had to feel good to get this one. After the 2 losses to Billings last season, their fanbase, their staff & their returning players had revenge on their mind and were out for blood from the opening whistle.

QB Sam Castronova had another great game with 129 passing yards & 6 total TDs, but truthfully the Firebirds didn't need him to be the All-AF1 QB that he is.

To put this in perspective:

At one point in the 2nd quarter, Albany's offense had only run 5 plays from scrimmage..

..but they were winning 35-7. The offense was delivering, defense was stout and creating turnovers early & often, and the special teams was world class with a kick return TD, a bar ball recovery TD on a kickoff & K Henry Nell being the deuce god that he is.

WR Darien Townsend also had multiple TD grabs in this one and was the usual vocal participant that he is known to be in a number of post-play 'discussions' and getting himself an early exit in the second half.

This was a game where Albany got to let out a lot of frustration and avenge the 2024 squad that came up short twice vs the Outlaws. But can they do it again next week, this time in Billings?

What were your biggest takeaways from Week 5? Follow Off The Wall on Twitter/X, Instagram, TikTok & BlueSky and let me know!