Rattlers Looking to Avoid Let Down Against LA
Patrick Daly
Friday June 22, 2001
There is no doubt that last week’s win was extremely important for Arizona’s confidence. The win also kept Arizona even with San Jose atop the Western Division. But the Rattlers can’t overlook this important division contest with the Avengers.
“We’ve got to get consistent with our energy level,” said Rattlers coach Danny White. “It’s one week on; one week off. It was that way for four or five weeks there. I’m proud of the way that the team has responded to that challenge. You expect a great energy level when you’re playing a team like Tampa. That’s not something that you have to conjure up.
“I can’t say enough about the turn around,” said White about the improved effort over the last few weeks. “It was all a matter of that last extra effort at the end of the play, and it happened over and over again in the Tampa game. A guy gets blocked and he gets up and gets to the quarterback just as he’s let the ball go, just enough to affect the throw. Whereas before he probably would have just been blocked and stayed down. It’s tough running 30 yards down the field getting a block that turns a nice gain on a quick screen to Chris Horn into a touchdown. It’s that difference. It’s that last half a second of the play that we’re getting out of them now, especially the linemen, that we weren’t getting early in the season.”
“That game last week showed me a lot about our team,” said Rattlers lineman Mark Tucker about the win in Tampa. “I’ve always believed in the guys, but it showed a lot of character in our team. Being up 14 [points] in this league really doesn’t mean anything, but at the same time we had a chance to put them away but we didn’t. With the overtime we were still able to pull it out. I think guys are just realizing that we need to show up to play every single week. We’re capable of beating anybody in this league if we show up and play the way we’re capable of playing.”
With five regular season games remaining, including consecutive division games against Los Angeles, Houston and San Jose over the next three weeks, the Rattlers know that there’s still plenty of work to do. This is especially true with a number of teams holding 7-2 or 6-3 records.
“The standings are really balanced right now,” said Tucker. “You’ve got a lot of teams with two or three losses. Coach White said it’s going to be really critical over the last few games. Our whole purpose right now is pretty much to win out the rest of the season.”
Offensive specialist Calvin Schexnayder may be the key to that plan for the remainder of the season. Tampa seemed to have no response to Schexnayder last week, and could only watch him grab 13 receptions for 163 yards and five touchdowns. As Arizona’s leader in touchdown receptions with 17, Schexnayder has come back strong after missing the first four games of the season, but he’s not completely satisfied.
“I’ve still got some improving to do,” said Schexnayder about his performance so far. “I’m not at the form where I want to be, where I know I can be.”
The Avengers lost five in a row to open the season before stringing together wins over Oklahoma, San Jose and Houston. Former head coach Stan Brock was fired after the team started 0-3. The team promoted defensive coordinator Robert Lyles to head coach to replace Brock and the Avengers have responded well.
“Any time a team loses its head coach there’s going to be a change,” said White about the changes in Los Angeles. “When that team’s down, which they usually are, that change is going to be for the better.
“That’s what has happened with Los Angeles,” continued White. “I see them making moves. I see them suspending players. I see that they’re not taking any more nonsense from their players and I think that they’re doing it the right way. That’s good to see as a member of this league. It’s also a little bit scary to think that that’s going to pay dividends for them, especially in the long run. It may not turn things around in a week or two, but that thinking, that philosophy, will make them a stronger team in the future.”
As a veteran team, Arizona also knows what needs to be done this week to take care of business against Los Angeles. The Rattlers have won all three meetings against the Avengers, but that won’t guarantee a victory on Saturday.
“We need to come out in the first quarter with the guns blazing,” said Tucker. “You don’t want to come out flat. You don’t want to come out falling down. You just want to come out and set the tone for the game; don’t let the other team set the tone for the game. They’re much improved. They’re playing a lot better. They’ve got a lot more confidence and it’s going to be a competitive game.”
“We have to do it week in and week out,” said White about maintaining the level of energy the Rattlers have shown in their recent wins. “We can’t play to the level of the environment or the level of the opponent. We’ll see if we’ve learned that lesson this week.”
One final note for the week concerns a major milestone for the Rattlers organization, and, on a more personal level, for Coach White. The next Rattlers victory will give White his 100th win, making him the second person to reach that mark and the first person to record 100 victories with one Arena Football League team. White would join current Tampa Bay coach Tim Marcum as the only other coach to reach the century mark. Since White has remained the only head coach for the Rattlers since they began play in 1992, the next win will also mark Arizona’s 100th victory.
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.
