Rattlers Moving in Right Direction
Patrick Daly
Tuesday March 11, 2003
This week, despite adding eight more penalties to the pile that keeps Arizona near the top – or is it bottom – of the league in total penalties, the Rattlers were able to grab three interceptions and hold Detroit scoreless in the second quarter before cruising to a 51-41 win over the Detroit Fury.
“Coming off a short week, guys were tired,” said Rattlers head coach Danny White. “We played basically like we practiced all week. A lot of energy, but we’re still not executing; too many penalties. That’s the big thing right now.”
In fact, if I’m Arizona, I look at three things: One, cut down on penalties. Two, petition the league to make every week an even numbered week – the Rattlers are now 3-0 over weeks two, four and six. Three, make sure WR/DB Randy Gatewood gets his allotment of two interceptions – the Rattlers are also 3-0 when Gatewood grabs two picks.
All kidding aside, after some hard work to prepare himself physically in the offseason, Gatewood has reaped the benefit of that hard work. Although, some of his success -- especially on defense -- has come from taking care of the little things, like putting himself in the right place to make a play.
“I don’t know if it’s anything he’s doing other than he is very aware,” said White about Gatewood. “It’s like everybody else is just running, they’re just running trying to catch up with people and ‘Wood is just standing back there where he’s supposed to be. He’s positioning himself well and he’s getting interceptions because he’s facing the quarterback. Everybody else seems like they’re running with their backs to the quarterback trying to catch somebody. It’s his experience starting to show and he’s just playing well on both sides of the ball, having his best year ever.”
Overall, White felt the whole defense played much better, but they still had a number of breakdowns that need to be eliminated over the coming weeks. With DS Kelvin Hunter returning to the lineup from injured reserve, some of the rust showed through.
“We still had lacks of communication in the secondary and left people running wide open several times,” said White. “We’ve just got to keep working on it. It was Kelvin’s first game back and he’s the quarterback back there. He’s got to communicate and there were a couple of times he didn’t and we ended up leaving guys wide open down the field. Our pass rush was much better. The energy was just better. Physically, we got after them a little bit better tonight, which was really good to see.”
It also helped the Rattler offense gain some confidence, knowing that the defense was able to make a few stops.
“That makes a big difference,” said Rattlers QB Sherdrick Bonner. “If you know your defense is going to go out there and get some steals for you, then sometimes you get to a point where you feel a little invincible and where you can maybe take a chance and get a big play out of something where you wouldn’t have been able to before.
“But at the same time, it put us in too much of a relaxed state. Any time you’re trying to get things turned around – get things going – you never want to end a game like we just did. I don’t care if we’re up by 100 points. It’s something we’re going to have to work on and make sure we maintain focus.”
That focus was also lacking early in the game, when, after the defense held Detroit to a missed field goal attempt in the first quarter, the Rattler offense turned the ball over on the very next play.
“I was wondering if we were going to fall back into our same mode of close games, but we eventually got a couple stops and scored off of them and pulled away,” said OS Chris Horn.
And, unlike previous weeks, the Rattlers were able build a solid lead by taking advantage of opportunities that, in previous games, Arizona would either squander or never see.
“We did better tonight,” said White. “We took advantage of several [opportunities], obviously, to be able to get up by over two scores, which allows you to do a lot of different things once you do that. Overall, it was just better and that’s what we’re looking for. We’ve just got to improve this week.”
After the win in Indiana, this was Arizona’s best performance of the young season despite a short week of practice after a heartbreaking loss to Dallas last Sunday.
“The only good thing about having a quick week was that we got to get out there quick and do it over again and try to get a win,” said Bonner. “The tempo in practice was phenomenal. Guys were really getting after each other. It didn’t look like it was a short week of practice the way guys were banging each other around and getting after it.”
With Colorado coming to town this Sunday, the Rattlers still have a ways to go, but consider this a move in the right direction, especially in a 16-game season that should be considered a marathon and not a sprint.
“A lot of the talk in the locker room was we need to fix what’s wrong and get this thing going in the right direction,” said Horn. “I think we made a big step in that direction today. It pulled us back to .500. From here, we need to reel off a few wins in a row.”
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.
