TAMPA — The Arena League playoffs don't start for another two weeks, but for the Storm, elimination games begin tonight.
Tampa Bay has its playoff life on the line when it hosts Los Angeles on Fan Appreciation Night at Amalie Arena.
"It's a two-game season for us, and we need to handle our business," quarterback Jason Boltus said. "But we need some help."
The Storm must win both its final games — it ends the regular season a week from tonight against rival Orlando — to have any chance of reaching the postseason. But the Storm also needs Cleveland to lose its final two games for it to reach the postseason for the first time since 2013.
"We can't control what happens up in Cleveland," coach Lawrence Samuels said. "That part of it is out of our hands."
It has been tough sledding for the Storm since the Arena Football League resumed play after the suspended 2009 season. Tampa Bay lost in the ArenaBowl in 2010 but has reached the playoffs just once since. The Storm has finished below .500 in each of the past five seasons.
"It's do-or-die time now," Boltus said.
Cleveland hosts Spokane tonight and kicks off 30 minutes before the Storm and Kiss start. Though Samuels insisted there won't be any scoreboard watching by the Storm, Boltus said news of the Gladiators' game will trickle in somehow.
"Somehow, some way, someone will be following the (Cleveland) score, and we'll get wind of it," Boltus said. "But either way, we have to come out fast and score points."
Tampa Bay enters the game on a four-game losing skid. It hasn't won since a 52-48 victory at Cleveland on June 19.
"It's been tough because we've done some good things during that stretch," Boltus said. "But we've also made too many mistakes.
"We need to come out firing in all phases of the game (tonight)."
Perhaps the second of those four losses was the most damaging. The Storm lost on the last play to visiting Orlando 69-62 on July 11. Tampa Bay reached the Predators 1-yard line but was unable to call a timeout despite replays showing two seconds on the clock when receiver Julius Gregory hit the turf after catching a Boltus pass.
"If we would have got that game, the guys would have been super-motivated and hyped heading into New Orleans (the next week, a 65-53 loss)," Samuels said. "But we have no excuses."
Boltus said the Storm isn't in the position that it's in due to one missed call.
"There's a number of plays you can go back and forth on and look at — would of, could of, should of," he said.
"We, as a team, got ourselves into this situation."