The Orlando Predators are living off of borrowed time entering Saturday night’s road game at Milwaukee. Following last week’s 45-34 win over Alabama the Preds currently hold down the fourth and final playoff spot in the American Conference with just a 6-7 record.

Oklahoma City (6-7) and Alabama (6-7) are the odd teams out so far while Tampa Bay (10-3), Tulsa (8-5) and Jacksonville (9-4) look pretty secure following 15 weeks of play.

But as tough as it was to pull out the win over the Vipers at home on Friday, in front of an announced crowd of 10,504 rowdy fans, hitting the highway to take on the Iron (8-5) presents a completely different challenge altogether.

“We can’t make mistakes if we’re going to take this thing any further,” said Preds Coach Pat O’Hara following Friday’s win. “It’s a critical three-game stretch here and it starts in Milwaukee.”

While the Orlando defense dominated and were clearly the stars in the win over Alabama, the Preds offense went nearly two full quarters without reaching the end zone.

Frisner Nelson recorded two sacks on the night while Mark Robinson, Arrion Dixon and Johnnie Balous each got to the quarterback once for a sack. What didn’t show up in the box score though were the countless times the Preds pressured quarterback Tim Hicks, who fumbled twice and was picked off three times.

“They say defense wins games, so that’s what we came out to do,” said Rayshaun Kizer. “We just try to come out here and get as many stops as we can.”

In the second quarter Kizer made a huge tackle at the 1-yard line on fourth down to force a turnover-on-downs after Alabama ran nearly nine minutes off the clock. With Orlando leading 31-14 in the final seconds of the first half, Kizer then intercepted a deep pass downfield before intermission.

The importance of this particular win was not lost on the second-year arena football player.

“This was huge,” said Kizer. “This still keeps us in the playoff hunt.”

Kenny McEntyre, who suffered a minor concussion with less than nine minutes to play following a big hit on a receiver over the middle, intercepted two passes in the second half before being lost for the night.

Yet Alabama would not go away. Orlando missed a field goal in the third quarter and fumbled at the goal line in the final minutes of the fourth quarter to set the Vipers up for a chance at a miracle finish.

But a sack by Nelson, a pass defense in the end zone by C.L. Grogan, and a tackle on fourth down by Josh Bush (who returned a missed field goal for a touchdown in the game) held off the threat.

“We’re going to have to play like this throughout (the rest of the season) if we’re going to win,” said McEntyre afterwards. “If we don’t play good on defense we’re likely going to lose. It has come to that. We had too many stops to only score 45 points and that’s not good.”

The Preds will need to put up some points in order to keep up with Milwaukee, the leagues most potent offense at 65.9 points per game. And to do so, it’ll have to start with quarterback Nick Hill.

Hill had his moments on Friday – both good and bad – as he finished 19-of-28 for 206 yards, five touchdowns, an interception (that went back for a score to make it a 38-27 game with 12:26 to go) and was stripped of the ball in the fourth just before crossing into the end zone.

Still, he’s confident that the chemistry on that side of the ball is coming around with enough time left to spare Orlando’s season.

“We’ve been up and down all year,” said Hill. “We know what it’s like to get beat close, we know what it’s like to win. We’ve got three games left, three weeks where we all just got to sellout for each other and get some wins.”

– (Contact Orlando Sports Central at JC@OrlandoSportsCentral.com) –

– Photos by Chris Schubert –