Shock, SaberCats collide at Arena

The last time the Shock and SaberCats hooked up, Kyle Rowley threw a last-play Hail Mary touchdown pass to Randy Hymes — it was such a crazy scene that Rowley thought Adron Tennell caught the ball — to give Spokane a victory and a berth in the 2011 playoffs. Considering San Jose has played a couple of a one-point games thus far in 2012 and Spokane has lost in overtime and won by three points, it figures to be another close game in an AFL season that’s been filled with them so far.

That was one of the themes in my preview in today’s S-R. Some of that information is in need of updating because the AFL’s whacky schedule — in the first month there have been games on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday — called for three Thursday night games. So there are still three winless teams (Orlando, Kansas City and New Orleans) and still two unbeatens (Chicago and Philadelphia), but the number of 1-1 teams dropped from 10 to 6 after last night’s results. West Division rival Arizona improved to 2-1 with an easy road win over Kansas City.

There’s a preview in the San Jose newspaper that points out DL Jermaine Smith and ex-Shock DB Mervin Brookins will miss the game with injuries.

In-game updates from tonight’s 5 p.m. contest at twitter.com/SRjimm.