Rattlers Get Early Surge, Defeat Rush
Patrick Daly
Tuesday August 13, 2002
“This one wasn’t quite as exciting as last week’s game,” Rattlers head coach Danny White said. “It was close though. It ranks right up there. The difference is the league is so much more competitive now. Last time we went there were probably a couple of games where we just kind of cruised through. You’ve got to earn everything you get in this league these days. To be in the final game is a great tribute to these players and the fact that they finished every game.”
By turning back the clock, White may have helped each player focus on shutting Chicago down early.
“I told them before the game,” White said, “‘Just close your eyes and visualize. Just pretend we’re down 19 and it’s halftime. Let’s go out and play this half like we played the second half last week.’ And at halftime I gave them the same speech. I don’t know if that had anything to do with it. I don’t think anybody was even paying attention to what I was saying. They were so psyched up.”
Whatever they believed, the Rattlers brought early pressure on Chicago quarterback Billy Dicken and opened up a 21-0 first half lead en route to a 46-35 victory over the visiting Rush, which earned the Rattlers their third trip to the ArenaBowl. That pressure also played a part in holding Chicago’s offensive star, Antonio Chatman, to 28 yards on seven catches.
“Guys were physical all night long,” Rattlers receiver/linebacker Hunkie Cooper said. “Chatman is an excellent receiver and Dicken is an excellent quarterback, but when you have pressure on them it takes away from their aggression. We had them on their heels all night.”
“That was pretty much the key, to play physical and keep hitting number 18 every time he catches the ball,” Rattlers defensive specialist Ricky Parker said. “Pressure is key in this league. If you harass the quarterback, you don’t have to cover for very long.”
So what was the difference on Sunday? Both teams put good pressure on the quarterback, but it was Arizona that capitalized early with two defensive stops, one of which came on a Cecil Doggette interception.
“It was mostly the pressure we were able to get on Dicken,” White said. “I think that’ll take an offense out of its game quicker than anything. To a large extent, they took us out of ours, too. We had to go to all quick sets and throw quick passes and we just weren’t getting enough time to get the ball down the field. We knew if we could get time that we could score points and we could beat their defenses, but their pass rush was so strong we simply didn’t have the time.”
While Chicago did get good pressure on Rattlers quarterback Sherdrick Bonner, the Rattlers responded with just as much pressure on Dicken.
“It kind of offset the pressure they were putting on Sherdrick; way too much pressure,” White said. “A lot of it was missed assignments. A lot of it was just getting beat. That’s stuff we’ve got to improve. Tonight, we overcame it because of our pass rush defensively. You’d like to have the pass rush and still protect your quarterback at the same time. In this league, where it’s the same guys on offense and defense, it seems that they either come to play defense or they come to play offense. It’s hard to get guys to play both.”
The Rattlers even took advantage of the strong Chicago pass rush by running screens to get receivers behind the Rush defensive line and out into the open field.
“We finally got a couple of screens going in the second half and that helped,” White said. “Our game plan wasn’t exactly how we drew up it prior to the game either. I think it was both teams just kind of scrambling and getting what they could get.”
Maurice Bryant and John Peaua turned out to be the offensive stars of the game for the Rattlers, although the decision to dress Bryant was virtually a game time decision. When Chris Horn left the game early in the second quarter, the primary offensive responsibility fell to Bryant.
“It came down to game time before we decided to dress Maurice,” White said. “Boy, it’s a good thing we did. With Chris going out, we would have really struggled if we hadn’t had him out there. To his credit, he came to play tonight. He played well. He was sharp. He won the game for us as far as I’m concerned.”
Bryant stepped up in place of the injured Horn with six catches for 119 yards and a touchdown, including a scoring grab on fourth down during the Rattlers’ opening drive.
“It was an awesome feeling,” Bryant said. “We worked hard all week to prepare ourselves for this day and we just came out there and just executed. A couple plays I wish we could’ve got back and do a little better, but a victory is a victory and I just can’t wait to get to San Jose.”
After shining defensively with an interception and fumble recovery against Carolina last week, Peaua scored on a 17-yard screen pass and one-yard plunge during the second half. Peaua saw more playing time this week because Arizona’s starting fullback, Bo Kelly, got hurt on the first play of the game and didn’t see much further action. By using the strong Chicago pass rush to set up the screen, Peaua was able to enjoy his opportunities to make plays.
“It feels good,” Peaua said about his contribution on Sunday. “Coach [White] is always talking about ‘don’t wait for people to make plays.’ Go out there and make the best of your opportunities. This is for all the marbles. You’ve got nothing to lose but to go out there and play your hardest.
“You’re always looking for a great opportunity to help the team as much as you can, whether it be blocking or running the ball.”
Even though his playing time has been limited this season, White had no doubts about Peaua’s ability to contribute.
“We know he’s got it in him,” White said. “When Bo got hurt on the first play of the game a little bit, and he was kind of limping around, we knew that [Peaua] was going to have to go be a big part of the game, and he did. He made some huge plays and played his best game ever, I’m sure, when we needed it.”
As well as the fullback screen worked, the Rattlers could have run it all day because the Rush never seemed to back off.
“We thought the screens would slow their pass rush down a little bit and they’d back off, but they never did,” White said. “They just kept coming.”
While the Arizona line may not have excelled on offense, they did manage to give Rattlers quarterback Sherdrick Bonner just enough time. However, White was not pleased that his offense was not able to get a first down late in the fourth quarter that could have ended the game.
“We still were never safe,” White said. “We should have been. We should be able to get a first down at the end when they’re trying to stop us. All we’ve got to do is get one first down and win the game. You ought to be able to do it. That’s a little bit of a blow to my offensive ego when we can’t do that.
“Between that and pass protection we’ve got to do a better job next week, protecting Sherdrick. That was the one big thing tonight that was very disappointing.”
One other disappointing aspect of the game may have actually helped set up the biggest play of the game. While Chris Sailer missed three field goal attempts (one was blocked) and three PATs (Sailer was forced to recover one bad snap), his miss on a 48-yard try at the end of the first half turned out to be a blessing in disguise as lineman Mark Tucker, the long snapper on the play, hustled downfield to recover the missed attempt in the end zone for a touchdown. Rather than be in danger of allowing Chicago to completely erase a three-touchdown deficit, the touchdown put the Rattlers up by two scores at the half.
“That was the play of the game,” White said. “Otherwise, we go in [to halftime] up one touchdown with them getting the ball and it’s a tie game all of a sudden. We go from being up three touchdowns to it being a tie game, just like that. If you could find one play that was a key to the game, it was that play. It had to be. That’s why Mark Tucker is on this team. He doesn’t know anything else. He just goes a 100% all the time.”
White joked after the game that, while he was looking for the hot kicker when he brought Sailer back to replace Scott Cannon, he’s only been able to manage to find kickers suffering through a slump. Assuming next week’s game in San Jose will be close, the Rattlers can ill afford any further mistakes in the kicking game.
“Our kicking game is an adventure,” White said. “There’s no question about it. I’m not satisfied at all. The kicking cost us I don’t know how many points—five or six at least. You can’t afford five or six points against a team like San Jose.
“Playing hard on offense and defense can overcome a lot, but it’d sure be nice to have a good, solid kicking game next week.”
In the end, the Rattlers were fortunate to get a solid defensive performance that began with Doggette’s interception and ended with a game-ending pick by Rattlers receiver/defensive back Randy Gatewood on Chicago’s final drive.
“It was going to be a big part, because we knew, being up in this league, a lead is never safe,” Gatewood said about the team’s strong defensive performance. “We told ourselves we need to make one last stop here after we recovered the onside kick. We need one more stop and we had the game. The fortunate thing about it is we sat back in the zone and we knew they were going to try to make something and throw the ball to the end zone. The great thing about it is I was in great position and made a play on the ball.”
One of the most disappointing aspects of the win was that their emerging star didn’t figure prominently in the game. Because Horn has been such a big part of the Rattlers’ success this season, his injury could be a big blow to the team. Although he’s bounced back from some pretty vicious hits in the pass, the knee injury he suffered in the second quarter could put his status for ArenaBowl XVI in question.
“In my book, he’s the offensive player of the year in the league,” White said of Horn. “He’s made more big plays in more situations than anybody I can think of. It would be a total shame for him not to be able to play. So we’ll do everything humanly possible to get him ready.”
Fortunately, the Rattlers had players that stepped up to take up the slack when needed.
“We just relied on all the guys that have been there before,” Gatewood said. “Chris makes a lot of plays, but that’s one thing about the game of football, everybody is never safe. Guys get hurt and we need guys to step up when that happens. Tonight, Maurice came in and stepped up big time and made some plays. We had other guys on the team, too, stepping up. So any time you lose one of your best players, somebody else has to step in and say, ‘Look, I’m going to be the guy to get it done.’ And I think, tonight, several guys did that.”
This victory is one more win that the Rattlers can savor only for a short time. One final piece of the championship puzzle remains for a team that must go into San Jose for ArenaBowl XVI. After escaping with the win over Carolina, followed by a relatively convincing win over Chicago, this team knows that one more step remains.
“We pulled through last week,” Cooper said. “That’s the sign of a true champion; to play bad and still have success. Tonight, we came out and we put it together for our fans. We’ve got one more. We wanted to be 3-0 in the postseason, and two of them are down.”
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.
