Rattlers Working to Stop the Slump
Patrick Daly
Saturday March 5, 2005
At 1-4, the Arizona Rattlers are enduring their worst losing streak in franchise history, but that doesn’t mean this season is over. It does mean that each additional loss will close the door just a little more or dig the hole just a little deeper. It also means that this team, despite its talent, needs to eliminate mistakes and play to their ability to turn this season around.
"If you look at what’s happened the last four weeks, we’re just killing ourselves," said Arizona head coach Todd Shell. "It’s mental mistakes and not taking care of the football, which the number one fundamental thing in football is that you can’t turn the ball over. We’ve got 15 turnovers in four games and you’re not going to win at any level with that, especially not in this game."
Shell appears to have stepped up his intensity during the week in an attempt to get his team’s attention when they’re not executing on the practice field. He’s a believer in the concept that what happens in the practice will dictate what happens on gameday. In practice on Friday, after the defense blew coverage on a few consecutive plays Shell stormed onto the field to get their attention and make his point.
"We’re continuing to make mistakes," said Shell. "If it’s the time to get emotional, then I’m going to do it. I just felt like we made a couple mistakes in a row and I needed to get their attention."
It’s on that practice field where the Rattlers have continued to work this week on correcting the mistakes, which have hurt them in all four losses and those mistakes were even more evident in last week’s loss in New York.
"We’ve worked hard this week and we’re trying to put that behind us," said Arizona quarterback Sherdrick Bonner. "It was one guy, including myself, on every play doing something stupid. You do those kind of things and that’s what happens. I think we’ve come out this week and had a lot emotion."
It’s been emotion that the Rattlers seem to have lacked the last few weeks when they’ve fallen into an early hole.
"The way we’ve come out flat the last few weeks, we’ve had no emotion, no fire," said Bonner. "We’ve come out waiting for it to happen rather than going out and trying to make it happen. I expect us to come out with a full head of steam this week."
With the Western Division leading Los Angeles Avengers coming to town, the Rattlers need to get off to a quick start and avoid allowing the Avengers to dictate the course of the game. In the opening night win over the Grand Rapids Rampage, the Rattlers controlled the pace of the game, but since then Arizona’s opponents have built early leads that have taken the Rattlers out of their game plan and put them in uncomfortable situations.
"The one game we had success we came out and had success early and continued to be consistent," said Bonner. "We dictated to the defense what we wanted them to do. In the last few losses, especially last week, there were times where we let them dictate what we were trying to do. We want to control them and we want to beat the defense down and do what we want to do to them. We don’t want them to force us into doing things that we’re not comfortable doing."
The Avengers are a different team under head coach Ed Hodgkiss, with QB Tony Graziani and OS Chris Jackson no longer working the post-corner routes for easy touchdowns. In Graziani’s place, veteran QB John Kaleo has had an up and down season, but he’s been able to rely on veteran’s like WR/LB Greg Hopkins and WR/DB Kevin Ingram along with a promising newcomer in OS Tony Locke.
"John Kaleo has been around," said Shell. "He won a championship with Tampa Bay. He’s been with Hodgkiss in the past. They’re probably now a team that will take what the defense gives them, get the ball out quick and put it in the hands of playmakers.
"They’ve got this kid [Tony] Locke who’s a big playmaker. Of course, there’s Greg Hopkins, who’s one of the all-time greats. They’re a quality football team. Right now, they’re leading our division. We’re going to have to sweep the West to win our division, and that’s probably what it’s going to take to make the playoffs at this point."
That the playoffs are still a possibility may sound odd at 1-4, but the Rattlers can keep those hopes alive by earning a win this weekend rather than dwelling on a past they can’t change.
"We know we can’t look back, so we’re trying to move forward," said Bonner. "The longer we look back, the more we’ll be held back by what we’re doing. We know that’s not us. We haven’t played well and we haven’t done a good job for the coaching staff; we haven’t done what they’ve asked all the time. All those things add up to losses and everybody’s sick of it."
Kicking
Last week’s replacement for kicker Anthony Brenner didn’t work out anywhere as well as Shell hoped, with kicker Danny Kight hitting only one of his four extra point attempts and putting two kickoffs out of bounds.
One of the contributing factors was the limited time Kight had to prepare for the game since the Rattlers remained hopeful that Brenner
"We were in a situation where we didn’t know up until mid-week that Anthony wasn’t going to be able to go," said Shell. "He finished the game the week before so we thought there was a possibility he could go."
"I’d seen this kid kick in af2 and he was unbelievable," said Shell about Kight. "He’s been in NFL camps and he’s a quality kicker. We flew him in the day before the game. As it turns out, it was a bad decision for us. But that’s not what lost the game for us."
With Kight out, the Rattlers have brought in veteran kicker Steve McLaughlin, who was released by the Orlando Predators after a poor Week 2 outing that just happened to be against the Rattlers at America West Arena. McLaughlin was signed just prior to the season by the Predators to replace kicker Jay Taylor who played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2004, but he hit only six of 13 extra point attempts and missed all four field goal tries before being replaced in Orlando by Brian Gowins.
Thank you, Hunkie
Quite frankly, this will be a different Rattlers team without WR/LB Hunkie Cooper involved and he will missed. Rattler fans have watched Cooper lead this team on and off the field, being vocal when necessary and putting his body on the line on each and every play, which I have always appreciated.
For those players that have been here long enough to know Hunkie, like Bonner, this is a change that will be hard to take, but they also know that you have to move forward with the players that are here.
"I’m always going to feel like there’s a piece of me missing," said Bonner. "You have to regroup. Unfortunately that’s the nature of the business. It’s a part about the game that I hate the most; losing friends and guys I think add a lot of character to the team. That’s a tough thing to deal with, but we know we still have a job to go out there and do."
Even with Cooper no longer on the field or in the locker room, his legacy will continue.
"I’m going to do what he would do," said Bonner. "I’m going to go out and play my ass off for him and let him know I can be a leader when he’s not here. If it was the opposite way I’d expect him to do the same thing."
One of my favorite quotes from Cooper was "trade six yards for a headache." To me, that explained his philosophy on the field. Simply, in Arena Football teams, it meant he understood that this game is built for the offense, but you can make them pay dearly for every yard they gain. It meant putting your body on the line. And it meant he knew what he was talking about.
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.
