Arizona-San Jose Still Means Something
Patrick Daly
Saturday May 14, 2005
This season, it’s less about jockeying for playoff position or winning the Western Division, which has been won by either Arizona or San Jose since the division was formed in 1995, San Jose’s first season in the league. In that year, current Rattlers head coach Todd Shell guided the SaberCats a year after helping Arizona win their first ArenaBowl as the defensive coordinator. The SaberCats have stumbled the past two weeks and sit one game behind the Los Angeles Avengers. The Rattlers, with their playoff chances a memory, would love nothing more than to add to San Jose’s woes.
"With San Jose coming in it has always been a rivalry, so that’s motivation itself," said Rattlers WR/DB Randy Gatewood. "They get motivated to play us just like we get motivated to play those guys. The rivalry hasn’t gotten any smaller in the ten years I’ve been here. They’re a good team. They’re well coached and they don’t make a lot of mistakes. Yeah, they’ve lost two in a row, but they’re still going to be a tough team coming in here and fighting for position. They’re well aware of what’s at stake for them, so I expect them to come in and play hard."
The last time the SaberCats left the field at America West Arena they had earned their second AFL title in three seasons. Going into 2004, following two ArenaBowl losses on the road the Rattlers had set the goal of hosting the championship game, which, despite some early adversity, they were able to accomplish. Nowhere in that plan did the Rattlers have losing to San Jose as one of the outcomes. However, despite that entry in the ever-growing history that’s part of this rivalry, it doesn’t seem to be a factor going into Saturday night’s contest.
"I don’t think it’s ever talked about," said Gatewood. "From a personal standpoint, after the ArenaBowl I tried to let it go as quickly as possible. Of course you have to answer questions from friends and relatives and everybody else, but lately it hasn’t come up. As a matter of fact, I haven’t seen the last three ArenaBowl games."
Spoken like a true defensive back, where you can never let your last play haunt you.
The role of spoiler is new to a Rattlers franchise that had not missed the playoffs since their inaugural season in 1992, but it’s a role that they’ve taken to heart. Even though they can’t make the playoffs themselves, the Rattlers last three games, which includes last week’s win over the Chicago Rush, will have an impact on the American Conference race.
"What happened was that that was our goal – to just try to make it rough on our last three opponents to get into the playoffs," said Gatewood. "We’re well aware of the fact that we’re not going to the playoffs this year, so we’re just going to try to ruin it for some of the other teams and also find ourselves as a team. We can’t just give up because we’re not in the playoffs. We’ve got to go out and play hard like we did last week and find a way to play with the emotion that we had on Hunkie Cooper’s night and do it all again this weekend."
In addition to the spoiler role, the Rattlers are also playing for themselves. Playing for pride.
"It’s about having pride," said Rattlers OS Siaha Burley. "With the players and the character of this team when we go out there to battle, I don’t care who it is or what’s on the line, we’re going to play hard even if we’re oh and whatever."
The most amazing thing last week was how differently the team played in their convincing win over the Rush. While the emotion of having Cooper present played a role, for the first time this season it appeared that the Rattlers loosened up a little and it showed.
"I think last week the guys finally played a game worry-free," said Gatewood. "We went out and had fun that night. We weren’t afraid to make mistakes. We just left it all out there on the field that night. It’s unfortunate that we didn’t do that more this year. I think at times over the course of the year we didn’t play as loose and as confident as we played the other night.
"Hopefully we can build over these last two weeks and use that momentum into next year. Maybe we can get a bunch of the players back here and try to do it again next year."
Speaking of next year, it’s hard not to start to look ahead, even when some work remains.
"I really haven’t looked that far ahead," said Gatewood. "I’ve thought about it, but I’m the type that I want to wait and get through this year and see what happens. I know there’s things going on that I don’t have any control over. I want to see what takes place in that respect. We’ll just see what happens."
For the record…
Despite the down season, Rattlers OS Siaha Burley continues to be a bright spot. So bright, in fact, that he’s now within five receiving touchdowns of tying the single season record. Even as he closes in on that record, it’s not something Burley dwells on, particularly in the game.
"During the game you respect your opponent," said Burley. "You focus on the game plan and winning each battle on each play. You can sit back and think about it later, but during the heat of battle you don’t have time to think about that.
"I’m aware of it, but once you hit the field it’s all about winning on that play."
What’s even more amazing is that this is the fourth offensive scheme that Burley has played in over the past four years. By design, the offensive specialist spot is generally the biggest piece of the offense, but how the position is played varies from team to team.
"It’s been rough," said Burley. "If you look at my production in the first four weeks over the past three years it’s been low compared to where I’ve finished in the last four games of the season. This offense is more OS friendly because there’s a lot of one-on-one stuff and you just have to win your battles. It’s knowing what the coach expects from you as far as running different routes and having different styles."
One advantage that Burley has had this season is that the offensive scheme designed by offensive coordinator Lary Kuharich is similar in terminology to the one run by Predators head coach Jay Gruden in Orlando. That link is not surprising given that Gruden was Kuharich’s quarterback in Tampa Bay in the early 1990’s and it’s that link that has shortened the learning curve for Burley.
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.
