One Down, Two to Go for the Rattlers
Patrick Daly
Saturday August 10, 2002
“When you look at what happened in the second half, we had a couple of defensive breakdowns,” Rattlers head coach Danny White said. “We shut them out in the third quarter, which got us back in the game. [We] scored six touchdowns on six possessions and made the play at the end of the game. And every guy that dropped passes in the first half made big plays in the second half. That’s a big turnaround and that takes a lot of character to do that.”
For a team as talented as Arizona, they have not yet been able to put together the perfect game. In baseball, a perfect game means retiring 27 straight batters without giving up a hit or walk. In the Arena Football League, a perfect game would include a touchdown on every possession and at least a couple of stops on defense. Even if the Rattlers don’t put that type of game together, they certainly can’t afford to dig another hole.
“It was a first quarter, third quarter, fourth quarter,” Rattlers quarterback Sherdrick Bonner said about the game against Carolina. “That’s when we decided to play. In the second quarter we just shut it down. We put ourselves in bad situations. That’s the frustrating part. We’re still trying to play that complete game. I think it’s out there for us. I think it’s there somewhere, but we just have to do it.
“I think sometimes we might relax a little bit if we get a big lead or something and not really focus the way we should focus. You can’t really do that, especially in the playoffs. That’s going to hurt you. We put ourselves in a big hole last week. We were definitely fortunate to get out of it.”
This week, they’ll face a Chicago Rush team that has won five of their last six games, which includes a 60-47 win over Dallas last week. With weapons like potential Rookie of the Year OS Antonio Chatman and receiver/defensive back Dameon Porter, scoring should not be a problem for the Rush. Add a strong line anchored by James Baron, who can take the game over up front, and an opportunistic defense, and it’s not hard to see why Chicago has gotten this far.
“I think the fact that it’s the semifinals, and the fact they’re peaking – they’re a very, very good football team,” Rattlers offensive specialist Chris Horn said. “Their receivers are good. They’re good. They’re quick and they’re fast. Their cover guys are physical and they stick on the receivers they’re guarding. Their line is very talented; they put a lot of pressure on the quarterback. The bottom line is they’re a good football team. We’re going to have to play well and execute well in every aspect of the game to win this.
“I guarantee you we cannot dig ourselves a hole against them and expect to come out and win. The bottom line is: we just can’t put ourselves in a hole. That means we’ve got to come out of the gate and play good football from start to finish.”
One familiar face for Arizona on the Chicago roster is defensive specialist Cedric Walker. When Walker and Rattlers defensive specialist Cecil Doggette lined up together in Arizona from 1997 through 2000, opposing receivers knew they were in for a long night. Even though now Walker plays for the enemy, some Arizona players have remained friends with him. It’s been a difficult transition for Bonner, but he’s certainly adjusted.
“I used to have problems with that for a long time, like it was making me kind of relax,” Bonner said. “It’s just the nature of the business, unfortunately. Guys are going to come and go. The good thing is you do maintain a relationship with those guys during the offseason, and even during the season. I call him and talk to him a few times a week. He calls Cecil at least once a week, so we stay in touch with him. It’s good to see him having the success he’s having.”
As is always the case in this league, the most pressure lands on the backs of the defensive specialist. Doggette and Derek Stingley have each shined at times during the season, but they’ll need to set the tone early against a team that has some speed and likes to use it.
“They want to throw deep every single play. I think they don’t have as much patience as we might. We’ll take an 11-play drive for a touchdown and it won’t be any problem for us. They want it now and they’ve got some super guys on offense, so it’s going to be hard for our DBs. They’re going to have to work hard. They’ve been working hard in practice so far and we’ve just take care of the ball and not turn the ball over. If our line dominates the way they can dominate, we’ll be in good shape.”
After some early season struggles, the Rush have come together to become a force in the playoffs. After winning their first division title, Chicago has gained some confidence, which will serve to make them even more dangerous. The Rattlers beat the Rush earlier in the season, but Chicago has made some improvements since then.
“They’re the same group of guys, and they’ve worked together,” White said. “They haven’t had a lot of injuries, so they’ve got a good chemistry going. It doesn’t look to me that they’re relying as much on trick plays. They’re just playing good solid, sound football. They’re a confident team now, probably much more so than they were then. A big part of this game is getting a group of guys on the field and keeping them together and letting them play together and they’ve been able to do that.”
One noticeable area the Rattlers have tried to improve on this week is the kicking game. The Rattlers signed Scott Cannon earlier in the season to replace a slumping Chris Sailer, but Cannon was inconsistent on extra points and didn’t get the needed distance on kickoffs. Cannon was released on Monday and his replacement should be familiar, as Sailer was resigned after beating out another former Rattler, Kyle Pooler.
“Kickers are like hitters or free-throw shooters or golfers,” White said. “You try to get one that’s hot. I would love to have a kicker that we have year in and year out. We haven’t had that good fortune. We had it with Luis Zendejas early, but lately we’ve struggled with that. Kickers go through cycles and they go into slumps. I told Chris Sailer, when we made a change earlier in the year, it wouldn’t surprise me to have him back in a few weeks because he just needed to get out of his slump. But as a team we just couldn’t afford to wait for him.”
With games coming down to the wire, the kicking game could be the difference between a win and a loss.
“You’re constantly on the lookout for the perfect kicker, the guys that’s got the perfect height kickoffs, makes all the extra points, has all the onside kicks, can do all the trick kicks,” White said. “Scott Cannon was a guy that was consistent on the short kicks, but didn’t have a great leg on the kickoffs and that was his downfall. We’ve got to have the ball on the net, because that’s a big play. You hit that net ten times, you’re going to get it once or twice. That’s several points per game that it costs us.”
Even though one more game stands between Arizona and an ArenaBowl appearance, the Rattlers can sense what sits right around the corner. The Rattlers have been this close many times before and have tasted ultimate victory twice before. However, they have also experienced the frustration of getting so close without completing the journey.
“It’s always frustrating not to make the next step,” White said. “Someone once asked Marv Levy, ‘how in the world can you lose four Super Bowls in a row?’ He said, ‘you have to get to four Super Bowls in a row.’ I guess there’s two way to look at it. It’s a great thing to be there every year. It is very frustrating to get close and not win it all, but we’ve won it all a couple of times. You just keep getting there.
“I think the nemesis for us is staying healthy. In the past, we’ve just been snake bit with injuries to key players in the playoffs. A couple of times we’ve overcome it. Donnie Davis kind of brought us back in ’97. That’s a big part of it. San Jose might overcome it this year. The kind of thing that happened to them with [Mark Grieb] is what’ s happened to us in the past.”
For Sherdrick Bonner, he’s personally experienced the frustration that injuries will have during a playoff run. While the Rattlers did win ArenaBowl XI in 1997, Bonner missed the game due to a broken leg suffered in the semifinal win against Tampa Bay. As much as he enjoyed the team victory, the experience has left him hungry for another 1994 when he helped lead the Rattlers to their first championship.
“It’ll be ten years in a couple of years since I’ve been in the championship game,” Bonner said. “Although I was a big part of that ’97 team, I just felt like my personal season—I’m not a selfish guy in any way—but I felt like my personal season was incomplete with the injury. We still got the jewelry and the championship, but I just wanted to be able to complete that season. It wasn’t meant to be—God had other plans for me at the time—but it does make me hungry to try to get back there this year.”
 Chris Horn reaches for a TD pass Image courtesy of Michael Wright |
“My senior year at Rocky Mountain we were the number one ranked team in the country and we ended up losing in overtime to Central Washington in the playoffs,” Horn said. “If we had won that I really believe we would have won the national championship that year. I’ve been close before, and been on some good teams before, but every year is different. Every year is unique. We’ve got the capability, but we’ve got to take the steps to get there.”
Horn is also one major factor in the success of the Rattlers in 2002. In his second season, Horn has become a major part of the offense. After a strong rookie campaign that required learning the offensive system in Arizona, in addition to learning the game itself, Horn has settled into a bigger role.
“Going into this year, I knew what to expect. Plus, I’ve been given the opportunity to play a bigger role. Those things, as well as continuing to get to play with great players around me and good coaches is what helped me to progress steadily from my first to second year.”
Fortunately, the Rattlers have other options, which helps keep opposing defenses from focusing solely on stopping Horn. Experienced veterans like Randy Gatewood and Hunkie Cooper have helped take some pressure off, while Orshawante Bryant has improved as an offensive threat.
“I guess you could say that at the start of the season they just didn’t have film, enough film to study,” Horn said. “As the year has gone on they have plenty of film to study. They know that I’m a big part of the offense, or have been this year.
“The big thing is we’ve got more than one good player. We’ve got many good players. Fortunately, because of that, they can’t necessarily just key in and stop one guy and expect to win the game.”
Even with his overall success, Horn has experienced some of the ups and downs that come during a long season. However, he’s overcome those issues and continues to be a major part of a talented team, as well as a contender for Offensive Player of the Year.
“He’s progressed tremendously," said White. "We knew last year what kind of potential he had. We saw that and I’ve just been salivating, waiting for this season to really put him in a key role. More than anything, what Chris has gotten out of this year is he now realizes what it’s like to be the go-to guy.
“There was a time during the year where he was struggling a bit. He started to lose his legs a little. He was no longer the new kid on the block; teams were focusing on him. It’s one thing to come on as a newcomer and put up good numbers, but when everyone in the league knows who you are and what you’re capable of doing it’s a lot tougher. When this season is over, he’s going to take a deep breath and say, ‘it’s not as easy as I thought it was going to be.’ But he’s a much better player for it, and he’s a smarter player now than he was last year.”
Going back to the win over Carolina, was it luck or something else?
“All this talk about us just being lucky—I don’t like the term luck as much as maybe it’s a team of destiny," said White. "Maybe that play at the end was something these guys have earned, rather than something that was just luck. A perfect throw—you say what you want to, but it was absolutely a perfect throw to do what we were trying to do.
“Chris Horn stands out there on the day before every game and Sherdrick throws balls off the net to him because he’s simulating kickoffs, because our kickers don’t kick the day before a game. So he knew exactly where it was going to spin.
“I think, more than anything else, we’ve got a group of guys that have a lot of chips stored up. Chris cashed a bunch of his in the other night and all of us benefited from that. I look for players with a lot of chips because I know when they come to our team; their chips become our chips. Chris Horn has got a lot of chips. He does all the little things. He earns them. He studies hard. He works hard. Sherdrick Bonner has a lot of chips. He prepares himself to play the game. He does all the little things. We’ve got a lot of players I think that still have chips.”
Through the years, professional football has built a library of key plays, plays that have meant the difference between victory and defeat during a championship season. The Rattlers still have to get the job done on the field, but maybe, just maybe, this is their year. Who knows? The highlight reel for the 2002 season could focus on one catch that may have saved the season.
“I kind of put that in the category of the ‘Hail Mary’ and ‘The Catch’ and the ‘Immaculate Reception’, which were all plays that were not by design, but they all happened to great teams that went on to win the championship. I’d like to think of it as something of destiny rather than something of luck.”
Players to watch
OS/WR/LB Chris Horn, Arizona—The potential Offensive Player of the Year helped turn a huge deficit into a wild victory that included four second half touchdowns by Horn.
DS Cedric Walker and Marvin Taylor, Chicago—The Chicago defense held Dallas quarterback Andy Kelly to three touchdowns and put the clamps down on the Dallas receivers. They’ll need a similar performance against the Rattlers to come away with the win on Sunday.
OS Antonio Chatman, Chicago—Chatman had 10 catches for 180 yards and four touchdowns last week against Dallas.
QB Sherdrick Bonner, Arizona—A key to Arizona’s success on Sunday is the performance of Bonner. Two costly interceptions that were returned for touchdowns late in the first half against Carolina dug a big hole. However, his nine touchdown passes were a big part of the victory.
Patrick Daly has been an Arena Football League enthusiast since he first stumbled across the late-night ESPN broadcasts and has followed the Arizona Rattlers since their inaugural season in 1992. He graduated from Arizona State University with an engineering degree and is currently a member of a web development team for Direct Alliance in Tempe. Patrick currently resides in the Phoenix suburb of Chandler, Arizona with his beautiful wife, son and a very large football helmet collection.
