By Ryan Altizer -- I give up trying to figure out this game.

Okay, well maybe not. After all, it sure is a lot of fun trying to solve an impossible riddle. And that is exactly what the Arena Football League seems to have become.

This did not happen overnight. After all, we saw this coming each of the last two years when a sure-fire champion failed to make it to the ArenaBowl two years in a row, a team without a winning regular season record took home the title one year and another team that was a complete afterthought advanced to the title game the next.

But last week takes the cake. Philadelphia, a team that people thought might go unbeaten just two weeks ago, managed to blow a 21-point lead to Georgia and drop their second straight. Utah, a team left for dead after starting out 0-9, absolutely blasted the team many thought was the second-best in the American Conference (Colorado), and now the Blaze looks like the hottest team in that conference outside of Chicago. New Orleans and Orlando, who looked to be in firm control of the Southern Division, both fell flat, and have now opened the door for Tampa Bay and Georgia to get back into things. After starting a dismal 1-4, New York won its fifth straight and suddenly looks like one of the best teams in the league.

Okay, any of you that predicted all of this last week, please raise your hands. (Cue the tumbleweeds).

So what is going on here? What does all of this tell us?

Well, the answer is not a simple one, because last week’s unpredictability tells us nothing and everything all at the same time.

What do I mean by that?

The truth is that we know as much about who the teams to beat in this league really are at this point in the 2008 season as we did in each of the previous two... not much. What you can take to the bank, though, is the simple truth that there are teams lurking out there outside of the Dallas, Chicago and Philadelphia area codes that have a real shot at getting to the ArenaBowl.

As much as “experts” like me have been matching up Chicago against either Dallas or Philly for months now, the truth is that there is a good chance that matchup may never actually happen. Things are rarely ever as they seem in this league.

Take the National Conference, for instance. The two supposed powerhouses in Philly and Dallas have looked anything but unbeatable as of late. The Soul are beat up and look to be hung over from their big win over the Desperados two weeks ago. Dallas got its offense going last week in a win over Grand Rapids, but had looked pretty pedestrian in moving the ball the previous two games.

Until recently, it looked like the teams that may have the best chance to challenge the two big boys in the National Conference would be Orlando and New Orleans. But Orlando is caught in the midst of a quarterback controversy and looks surprisingly inconsistent, while New Orleans can’t seem to win away from home.

Meanwhile, teams like New York, Cleveland, Tampa Bay and Georgia are getting hot just in the nick of time. No one should be surprised if one of these teams becomes the proverbial fly in the ointment come playoff time.

In the world of Arena Football, the only real surprise would be if there were no surprises at all. By now, we are so used to seeing teams come from out of nowhere to get to the ArenaBowl that we have come to expect it.

The best fans and writers like me can do is try to predict where the surprises will come.

That being said, even I would be shocked if anyone other than Chicago comes out of the lowly American Conference.

That leaves the National Conference, where teams can go from front-runners to also-rans and vice-versa in the span of a week.

If fans are going to be convinced that the front-runners are really in control of that conference, they must see proof that these teams can handle prosperity as well as adversity.

Until then, expect the unexpected.