With eight teams in The Alliance of American Football, it can be a small world for the 52 players on each roster. It’s hardly uncommon for former college teammates to be lining up against each other each weekend.
Since Week 1, San Diego Fleet defensive tackle, Gelen Robinson, has apparently received a sportive earful from a pair of his former Purdue defensive mates - linebackers Austin Larkin and Danny Ezechukwu of the San Antonio Commanders.
San Antonio topped San Diego 15-6 in that season opener in the Alamodome. Now, just two weeks later, Robinson and the Fleet will look to get revenge against the Commanders this Sunday at 5 p.m. PT at SDCCU Stadium in San Diego in a game televised on NFL Network.
Tickets are available here.
“It’s a little different playing a team twice in two weeks, but it’s important to look at what we did wrong in the first game and turn it around and change it,” Robinson said. “It’s a great opportunity to come out and do what we should have done the first game and play a little bit better. It’s definitely a game that we have to have.”
San Diego-San Antonio has emerged early in the season as a top rivalry in The Alliance. Theirs is one of two games in Week 3 featuring the first rematches on The Alliance schedule (Arizona at Salt Lake is the other.) Fleet offensive lineman Damien Mama and Commanders wide receiver De'Marcus Ayers are taking their smack talk public in a video produced by The Alliance called “Cali vs. Texas.”
Football --, burgers --, beaches ----. Cali just does it better. ---- #ChangeOfCommand #AllHandsOnDeck ⚓️-- pic.twitter.com/6I3W7bOiqa
— San Diego Fleet (@AAFFleet)
February 21, 2019 In the first game, the Commanders sacked the Fleet quarterbacks six times leading to Mike Bercovici being benched for Philip Nelson. Coach Martz also informed the media earlier this week that Kam Kelly had moved back to defense.
Mike Martz on the decision to move Kam Kelly back to the @AAFFleet secondary: “We have so many guys injured on defense, and with his length and his speed, I think he can help us a bit more on defense. We’re good at receiver right now. It gives us a little bit of wiggle room."
— SDFleetBeat (@SDFleetBeat)
February 21, 2019 “I think they’re very well coached. I really like their players up front,” Fleet head coach Mike Martz said, “They’ve got some pass rushers on the outside that you absolutely have to contend with. Defensively, they’re very active and create problems for you.”
The Fleet will counter those pass rushers with a heavy running game. The Fleet are the best running team in the league, seriously, you can look it up. The Fleet are averaging 5.5 yards per carry after two games and no other team in the league is averaging more than 4.8. The Fleet’s average actually came down this week after rushing 36 times for 185 yards. Ja'quan Gardner's 104 yards rushing last week is the highest total rushing yards in a game so far in the league. He joins Zac Stacy of the Memphis Express as the only running backs to rush for over a 100 yards in the season.
“We were in a tough game that took the whole game to win the last time we played San Diego,” Commanders head coach Mike Riley said, “We know this game will be very competitive. They did a great job defensively against us. They were very well coached and very sound. We had opportunities and failed in the red zone a number of times. That’s a concern. We have to do a better job there.”
Hopefully with no rain in the forecast last Sundays attendance of 20,019 fans can be broken. Former San Diego Chargers linebacker Shawne Merriman will be the Fleet's honorary team captian for this game as well. So come one and come all to support the new pro football team in San Diego! #ALLHANDSONDECK
We are excited to announce @shawnemerriman as the #SDFleet Honorary Captain for Week 3! #ChangeOfCommand #AllHandsOnDeck pic.twitter.com/nTLrCm9Ub9
— San Diego Fleet (@AAFFleet)
February 21, 2019
