Arizona Needs to go Mental Against Wranglers
Patrick Daly
Saturday June 9, 2001
This week, the Rattlers start the second half of their season by hosting the division rival Oklahoma Wranglers. With a disappointing 4-3 record, Arizona can ill-afford another loss before the team heads back across the country to face Tampa Bay next week.
“I feel like we’re right back where we were two weeks ago,” said Rattlers coach Danny White about the team’s performance against New York in relation to the team’s loss two weeks ago against Indiana. “If it’s one guy, sometimes you can identify the problem and work with that one player and try to correct it. When it’s everybody, you have to look at what you’re doing from a staff standpoint, from a practice standpoint.”
Physical talent is certainly not at issue for the Rattlers, but it’s not the only requirement to win in the Arena Football League. Without focus on the mental and emotional aspects, every week is an uphill battle, even on the line where size and quickness count.
“We know the players can play,” said White. “We know they’re capable of playing and playing well.”
“If they’re playing like they’re capable of playing they can match up against anybody,” said White.
“Where the fullback/linebacker position is concerned we’re young. We dressed our two rookies last week and maybe that was a mistake. We felt like we needed their size against New York’s linebackers.”
“But that’s not the case with our linemen,” White continued. “Our linemen are all veteran linemen. They’re at least as big or bigger than most teams in the league. They’re as athletic. So, it’s strictly a mental issue of getting ready to play and dealing with the adversity that you get during the game. If you get behind, you battle back; you don’t quit.”
White then came back to one of the oldest adages in football to sum up the importance of Arizona’s play on the line: “It’s what’s up front that counts.”
In addition to focus and the drive to win, it’s also crucial to avoid mental breakdowns that result in penalties and turnovers. Oklahoma will surely take advantage of the breakdowns that cost Arizona the game in New York.
“We couldn’t protect,” said DS Ricky Parker. “We couldn’t get pressure on their quarterback. They got all of the breaks. They had turnovers, but yet we had penalties. They won the turnover war and when a team does that you don’t have a real good chance of winning.”
With half of the season’s 14 games in the books, the Rattlers have seven games to work out the problems. Unfortunately, the task gets harder as the season winds down.
“We’re at a point where we’re running out of games,” said White. “We’re running out of weeks to take steps backwards. We’re past the midpoint of the season now, so every game becomes more and more important as the season goes on.”
“I hate to lose and it’s just completely unfathomable to me to imagine that the Rattlers, after seven games, are 4-3,” said Arizona WR/DB Muhammad Oliver about their current record. “We’ve got seven games left to turn this thing around and end the regular season with the type of record that is representative of the Arizona Rattlers.”
In the end, the game comes down to execution on the field, both mentally and physically.
“There comes a time when you’ve done all you can do as coaches from a motivational standpoint and the players have to take care of it,” said White. “That’s what we’re counting on.”
The Rattlers may also be able to count on additional help in the defensive backfield if DS Cecil Doggette suits up this week after missing the last week due to a foot injury suffered two weeks ago against Buffalo. He’s listed as probable, and against a hungry Oklahoma team the Rattlers could certainly use Doggette’s help. A win this week would pull the Rattlers even with San Jose at 5-3 atop the Western Division and would maintain Arizona’s control over their own destiny.
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.
