Rattlers Looking for Positives
Patrick Daly
Saturday March 12, 2005
"I’m trying to keep them mentally in the deal," said Rattlers head coach Todd Shell. "The biggest fear I have is that in their minds that they shut down because we’re 1-5. We still control our own destiny if we go out here and we run the table. I think we can and we’re capable of beating anybody in this league if we line up and play like we’re capable of playing."
For the players, each one will handle this adversity differently, but many are taking the sound approach of putting past behind them and looking towards the next opportunity on the field.
"Personally, I just try to put each week behind me and tell myself it’s going to get better," said veteran WR/DB Randy Gatewood. "That’s probably the mindset of a lot of guys right now. Coach says it every week. We’re probably the most talented 1-5 team to ever play the game of Arena Football. There’s got to be a solution and I think, to a certain extent, we know what it is. We watch the film every week after the game and we see the problems, the mental mistakes, everything that’s going on. We know what the solution is; we, as players, need to go out and execute."
During the losing streak the Rattlers have essentially shot themselves in the foot with a number of mistakes at crucial times in the game. In last week’s loss to the Los Angeles Avengers, the Rattlers had a chance late in the game to virtually put the game out of reach. However, two failed drives that stalled after reaching first and goal left the door open for the Avengers.
"You look at it on film and it makes you sick," said Shell. "We missed a couple of assignments when we had the ball with first and goal. We walked a little more through the assignments. It’s really a matter of going out and mentally executing what we’re doing. Right now, that’s our biggest problem, so that’s what I focused on this week."
It’s the lack of execution, by different individuals in different ways, that’s made the slump so frustrating for the players and coaches. It’s been equally frustrating for the team to look at the losses and know that they could have ended up with a winning record at the point of the season.
"If we look at the five games we lost, we lost them ourselves," said Shell. "It’s not like we’ve gotten beat, we beat ourselves and that’s what the frustrating part of this is.
"We could be 5-1. The game against New York was a blowout game because we turned over the ball so many times. Other than that, we’ve been in every game and then we have a couple of mistakes. We’ve battled back. We’ve been down at times and we’ve come back and played great football. You have to be consistent for 60 minutes and that’s what it’s all about."
Consistency has eluded Arizona so far, with the team struggling to shed familiarity with the old playbook that was built over 13 years under former head coach Danny White and find some sense of comfort in the new scheme. Until the Rattlers can reach a reasonable level of comfort in the current system, which comes primarily through repetition, you’ll continue to see the mistakes that have plagued this team.
"I think at times – and we’re all doing it – we’re all trying too hard," said Gatewood. "It is a new system and it’s tough to work out all the kinks in the first year. A lot of guys aren’t 100% sure what to do on every play. Some of the guys are still set in Danny’s old blocking scheme or his old play calls. So it takes time to work out those kinks, to rep it over and over and over until you get to the point where you’re 100% comfortable with it. Unfortunately, we have done that hardly at all this year. I think the guys are confident and the guys are starting to understand the offense a lot more, but we’re just still struggling right now. We just have to find ourselves as a team in the next week or so, or we can forget about the playoffs."
To get started in the right direction the goal now is to find a way to end the streak and earn a win that can serve as the foundation of a turnaround. However, the door continues to swing closer to shutting the Rattlers out of the postseason race with each loss
"We’re going into a situation where if we go into Tampa and play well and beat them then I think our guys have to get a boost of confidence in the fact that they can play anybody in the league," said Shell.
Going into Sunday’s game against a Tampa Bay team that has seen key players like OS Freddie Solomon, WR/DB T.T. Toliver, FB/LB David White and OL/DL Kelvin Kinney return from injured reserve, the Rattlers are looking to build their confidence against a tough opponent. However, it’s the type of game that’ll go a long way to heading this club in the right direction with a win.
"Once we get a win, guys will understand what it’s like," said Gatewood. "It’s just sad that five weeks have gone by and we haven’t put together a complete game yet. We can’t look back and worry about what we did in the past, who we didn’t beat. We’ve just got focus on the task at hand and take each week one week at a time, and go out and continue to work hard like we do in practice."
That a 1-5 team still has its eye on the playoffs is a credit to the team’s resiliency and confidence in the talent that is here. But talent isn’t enough as it’ll come down to eliminating mistakes and playing this game the way the Rattlers know how to play it.
"We’ve just got to go out and execute," said Gatewood. "I’m confident that if we execute for four quarters like we’re capable of playing this game, I’m think we’ll show the fans and everybody that these guys can still play football around here. We’ve got a ton of talent and these guys understand that, but we’ve just to find a way to get it done on the field and win a game."
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.
