SaberCats Ready to Bounce Back at Home against the Rattlers
Leanne Cozart
Thursday June 20, 2013
In San Jose this week the San Jose SaberCats (8-4) will be looking to bounce back from a week thirteen 73-68 loss to the Iowa Barnstormers (6-7). The ‘Cats will be facing West division rivals the Arizona Rattlers who are currently 12-1 and will be coming into the ‘Cats Lair riding on a nine game winning streak.
Reflecting on last week’s loss and looking ahead to this week fourteen matchup, Head Coach and Owner Darren Arbet said, “We’re going to play football, that’s all you can do. There are a lot of good things that happened last week and I think we’re making progress as a football team. Our confidence is still there and I have confidence in them.”
Looking back to week three when these two teams met in Arizona, the Rattlers came out on top in a 73-47 victory. A lot has changed since that last matchup as the ‘Cats have Russ Michna starting at quarterback and have also added some new offensive weapons.
The Rattlers are on a hot streak having just avenged their week four loss against the Spokane Shock (9-4) last week with a 59-42 victory. Executing well on every level, the Rattlers are the team to beat at this point in the season. With playoff implications in mind and the SaberCats facing a must win situation, defeating this dominant team could be a huge stride towards success for the SaberCats. A win would mean closing the gap on Spokane and Arizona in the West Division.
Coach Arbet has an ample amount of respect for the tough opponent he’s preparing to face.
“Their quarterback is the best in the league right now, their defense is the best in the league right now, and their offense is the best in the league right now. Kevin, Omar and Kani are doing a tremendous job coaching those guys,” said Arbet.
Arizona’s offense leads the league in points per game with an average of 67.1 and they also have the fewest offensive turnovers in the league with only 12. The SaberCats defense will have to shake things up to gain an advantage this week and luckily for them they’ve got the league’s interception leader Clevan Thomas, who’s brought in nine interceptions so far this season.
The SaberCats defense had an uneventful performance last week allowing the Barnstormers to convert on every possession but one. Defensive lineman and fullback Jabari Fletcher shares some insight into this week’s keys to the game as they prepare to face a potent offense.
“What we did was we got back to the basics, the fundamentals. Know your assignment, do your job, and everything will be crisp and fine,” said Fletcher.
On the other side of the ball, the Rattler’s defense leads the league in turnovers forced with 42, impressively 29 of those have been interceptions. Michna will need to protect the ball this week as he has since joining the SaberCats earlier in the year. In his seven games played, Michna has displayed his ability to be careful and smart with the ball throwing only five interceptions thus far.
“Russ is getting better and better every week. He’s been here about seven or eight weeks now. He’s starting to learn a lot about the guys on this team and they’re starting to learn a lot about him. I think we’re making a lot of progress,” said Arbet.
Even though this game has the power to set the tone for the remainder of the season, the SaberCats will treat this game just like any other. History shows that in a matchup between the ‘Cats and the Rattlers, really anything can happen.
