Rattlers` Playoff Momentum in the Works Despite Bye Week
Brian Knapp
Monday June 16, 2003
Now, although a bye week between games has a tendency to slow down a team’s momentum, the Rattlers are confident that only positives can come out of their two-week break. “The week off is really going to help us,” said line coach and former All-American at Penn State Chris Conlin. “We’re just hoping to get everybody back healthy and strength-wise we should be OK.”
In their three victories thus far in the playoffs, the Rattler defense has outplayed their opponent, causing key turnovers and putting up important stops, especially in the second half. Against Las Vegas in the opening round, the Rattler defensive line gave quarterbacks Todd Hammel and Jay McDonagh no time to do anything productive on offense. In that game, it seemed as though Arizona’s secondary, led by DS Ricky Parker, just toyed with the Gladiator offense, holding Las Vegas to just 26 total points.
In the second round, it was the same story, except this time head coach Danny White’s boys were faced with a more difficult task. Once again, Arizona’s defense, behind defensive coordinator Doug Plank, forced the Los Angeles Avengers into four turnovers. Keep in mind it was this same Avenger team that was never stopped on offense, going 9 for 9 on drives for touchdowns against Arizona in the regular season.
And finally, in the most important victory for the Rattlers this season, Arizona took the ball from San Jose three times, putting an end to the SaberCats championship repeat hopes, and more importantly keeping their own hopes alive for a third title.
“Last year was sickening. I’ve never been to a championship game and lost, and that game still rides in me,” Rattler receiver Hunkie Cooper said about last year’s loss to San Jose in the ArenaBowl. “Now, we’ve got San Jose off our back, we beat the world champs, and no better way to win the championship then to go through the world champs. Tampa Bay is a tough team, I think even tougher than San Jose, so we just have to be fundamentally sound on offense, defense, and more than anything, special teams.”
Against Tampa Bay on Sunday it’s going to take another strong effort from the Rattler defense, as well as an almost flawless game put up by their offense led by quarterback Sherdrick Bonner.
If Arizona can show up and play as hard for 60 minutes as they have in their three playoff games so far, they should have no trouble staying one step ahead of the Storm. “They’re (Tampa Bay) a fundamentally sound football team,” Cooper said. “They’re going to put pressure on the quarterback all night long. On offense, they’ve got some good guys, they’ve got John Kaleo who is a very accurate quarterback and he’s comfortable in the pocket, and I think if we can get some pressure on him and force him to move around a little bit, give our secondary some confidence early in the first half, we can do this thing.”
Each week has provided a more difficult step for the Rattlers as they inch toward another championship, and it is obvious that this group of guys is more than ready for Sunday’s title game against the best team in the AFL.
Brian Knapp was a writer for ArenaFan Online from 2003 to 2005.
