Refs Just Verified That Dallas Played Well
Brian Knapp
Tuesday March 4, 2003
The frustration for Rattler fans began when Garner missed what would have been the game-winning field goal as time expired. Unfortunately, his kick sailed wide left and the game was headed to overtime.
The Rattlers won the toss and elected to kick-off, as they had done to start the game. Arizona head coach Danny White reached into his bag of tricks, as he often does, calling an onside kick to begin the overtime session.
Now, it seemed to me that the onside kick recovered by Arizona would have resulted in a loss of possession for Dallas. Therefore, if Arizona scored, the game would be over. However, according to official Arena Football League rules, an onside kick does not count as a possession unless the receiving team gets the ball.
“It makes common sense to me that an onside kick should count as a possession,” White said. “They’re right; I was wrong. It’s an obscure rule that’s never been tested, obviously, but we checked the rule book and an onside kick is not considered a possession.”
Unaware of the rule, Rattler fans and players celebrated, convinced that OS Chris Horn’s one-yard TD catch ended the game. “I thought the game was over,” Horn said. “As far as I knew, we onside kicked, got the ball, scored, game over. But apparently not.” Following a brief discussion on the field, the head official came to the conclusion that Dallas would be awarded a series due to the fact that they never had a possession.
Gene Nudo, the Rattlers VP of Operations, as well as a member of the AFL rules committee, said the officials were correct in their ruling. “It’s not even contact; it’s got to be possession of the ball,” Nudo said. “They never had possession of the ball.”
To add insult to injury, Garner missed the extra point. The Desperadoes charged downfield for a TD of their own, and then K Jason Wells hit the extra point to give Dallas a 65-64 victory.
As much as I would like to blame someone else for the disappointing home loss, I can’t. The blame belongs mainly in the hands of the Rattler defense. “The bottom line is it should not have come down to that,” White said. “Very, very disappointing game for us defensively.”
The Desperados were scoring at will, making the Rattler defense look flat. The one bright spot for the Rattlers defense lasted approximately seven seconds. DS Mark Ricks intercepted an arrant pass by Kubiak, only to fumble it back to Dallas during the return.
The Rattler offense performed very well on Sunday. QB Sherdrick Bonner lit up the Desperado defense for 338 yards and 8 touchdowns. Rattler WR/DB Orshawonte Bryant made some incredible catches including a 36-yard touchdown reception in the third quarter.
WR/LB Tom Pace had his most impressive outing of the season catching a team high 6 catches for 89 yards and 2 touchdowns. From what fans saw on Sunday, Pace is going to be fun to watch this season.
“I’m impressed with him (Pace), but not surprised,” White said. “He’s a playmaker. He’s one of those guys we need on the field, and he’s going to be a great player for us as long as he chooses to keep playing, and I hope he does.”
The Rattlers have a short week to figure out what happened against Dallas and make sure it doesn’t happen again. Aside from a controversial call, Arizona couldn’t maintain the Dallas offense or make points off the tee. If they continue on that vein, it wouldn’t matter if White memorized the entire rulebook.
But he might want to try it anyway… just to be on the safe side.
Brian Knapp was a writer for ArenaFan Online from 2003 to 2005.
