Six observations from Soul-Rattlers game

The score does not tell the entire story of the game, however.

With that said, let’s take a look at six observations from Saturday night’s tilt.

Derrick Ross’ fumbling issues not a new thing

All-Arena fullback Derrick Ross fumbled twice Saturday, which were both recovered by Arizona. Believe it or not, this is not a new phenomenon with Ross.

He showed problems at times holding on to the ball last season, but those issues were overshadowed by his great season and that fact that his fumbles never really cost the Soul games.

Saturday night, however, his issues of holding on to the football came to light on the national stage and it cost the Soul in a big way.

His second fumble was returned 44 yards for a touchdown, which turned the tide in the Rattlers’ favor for good.

Needless to say, Ross is not invincible and will need to clean up that major flaw in his otherwise spectacular game.

The Soul special teams needs a lot of work

The special teams for the Soul was…special Saturday night.

The unit had a number of mistakes, mishaps, screw-ups, flubs and any other adjectives that could be used to describe the three-ring circus it was in the opener.

The Soul failed on three extra point attempts with two being flat out missed and the other failing because of a botched hold that turned into a circus all its own.

The Soul have not and will not put a huge emphasis on special teams going forward. They attempted one field goal all of last season and that came in the final regular season game. They did not attempt any Saturday night.

But when you miss extra points, it’s literally taking points off the scoreboard. It wasn’t the lone reason they lost the game, but it is a definite area of concern moving forward.

Soul DB David Richardson struggled

Welcome back to the AFL, David Richardson. Your first assignment: Maurice Purify.

Talk about baptism by fire. And that’s exactly what happened Richardson on Saturday night.

Saying that Richardson struggled in his first AFL game since 2011 would be an understatement. He was given the unenviable task of lining up across from Purify and like most defensive backs, didn’t look good.

Purify caught 10 passes for 141 yards and three touchdowns. But it wasn’t just Purify that made Richardson’s night rough. He looked lost in general at times.

To his defense, the AFL doesn’t have much of a preseason to get guys back into the flow and speed of the game, but the Soul cannot afford to have a weak link in the secondary much longer.

Arizona WR Rod Windsor was invisible

The Rattlers sent shockwaves throughout the league when they announced they were bringing back former Cleveland Brown Rod Windsor to lineup with Purify, pairing one dominant AFL receiver with another, but you couldn’t see what was all the fuss was about Saturday night at least.

Windsor caught only two passes for 26 yards and did not find the end zone.

His performance could be attributed to a number of things. Like Richardson, Windsor hasn’t played in the AFL since 2011. Maybe he’s still adjusting back to the indoor game after spending 2012 with the Browns.

Windsor was also matched up against Soul defensive backs Rayshaun Kizer (one of the best in the game) and LaRico Stevenson.

Either way you slice it, Windsor was missing in action in the season opener.

Tiger Jones still has it

While Windsor struggled in his AFL return, Jones was the best player on the field for the Soul in Week 1.

Jones hauled in nine passes for 169 yards and three touchdowns against the Rattlers and showed no AFL rust.

He looks poised for another 2,000-yard season in Philadelphia.

The Soul miss Donovan Morgan

The Soul traded Morgan to his hometown New Orleans VooDo this past offseason so he could be closer to his family.

To replace him, the Soul picked up AFL veteran Andrae Thurman and the productive Alvance Robinson.

Thurman and Robinson could have had better outings in the Soul debuts.

They combined for 10 catches for 135 yards and two touchdowns with 97 of those yards and both of those touchdowns coming from Robinson.

Robinson had a solid game, but Thurman was another receiver missing in action.

If the Soul want to make a return trip to the Arena Bowl, they will need more from the receiving core than just the “Tiger Jones Show.”