Austin Assumes Role of Spoiler
Patrick Daly
Tuesday April 26, 2005
It was a script we’ve seen a number of times throughout the history of the Arena Football League. If you can get a few early stops and capitalize with scores you can build an advantage that is tough for your opponent to come back from. Unfortunately for the Wranglers they came out on the wrong side of that advantage.
"It’s the story of the game," said Wranglers QB John Fitzgerald. "Their defense stopped our offense. Our defense didn’t stop their offense.
"You look at the score, they had four stops and that’s what they ended up beating us by."
Austin struggled to find any rhythm on offense, especially after falling behind during the second quarter despite playing to a 7-7 tie through the first quarter.
"We didn’t play well on offense," said Wranglers WR/LB Darrin Chiaverini. "We made way too many mistakes. Even though Arizona has been struggling it doesn’t matter. You get down against any football team it’s hard to come back in this league."
Penalties dominated the game on both sides of the ball, but it seemed to be Austin that suffered the most with penalties that extended drives.
"That’s been our M.O. all year," said Chiaverini. "We get penalized way too much every game. I don’t know if we’re just undisciplined. Sometimes it might be a bad call, but I think we’re not being very disciplined right now."
With the playoffs now out of the picture in Austin, the Wranglers still have reasons to play out their remaining games against teams in the playoff hunt, particularly the Orlando Predators and New Orleans VooDoo.
"You’ve got to play for yourself and your teammates," said Fitzgerald. "We’ve worked too hard and too long to get to this situation and there’s some guys who may hang it up after the season and there’s some guys that aren’t going to be here next year. You’ve got to go out and enjoy every minute that you’re playing and hopefully you can be the spoiler now."
With wins over teams like the New York Dragons, Las Vegas Gladiators and the VooDoo, the Wranglers have shown the ability to beat good teams, so finding them on your schedule doesn’t mean an easy win. And as professionals, the Wranglers still have plenty to play for.
"We’ve got to be professional," said Chiaverini. "This is professional football and you get paid to play. You can’t sink your head even though it’s been a rough season."
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.
