Rattlers Facing Another Early Test
Patrick Daly
Friday April 26, 2002
Arizona split two games with the Avengers last season, winning in Los Angeles after a season opening loss in San Jose but they closed the series with an overtime loss in week 11. The Avengers already appear to be much improved with former Indiana Firebird coach Ed Hodgkiss now at the helm. Los Angeles opened the 2002 season with an impressive 43-25 win over New York and is looking to move to 2-0.
“It’s very impressive when you consider what New York did offensively last year,” said Rattlers head coach Danny White. “I know (New York) doesn’t have Aaron Garcia, but LA has done some good things in the offseason with some of their free agent signings.”
With fewer teams on the field this season, each week presents a new challenge with no truly weak teams to push around. The talent level improves with each season and dynasties will be a thing of the past.
“I think it just keeps getting better and better,” said White. “It’s just hard to find any really weak teams. It’s a great thing for the league. We’ve got to play at our top level every weekend.”
This means the Rattlers need to stay focused week in and week out to avoid the roller coaster ride they took last season.
“The attitude of this team is completely different,” said offensive specialist Chris Horn. “You can see fight in the team. I think there’s a lot of determination and there’s some good chemistry.”
After a great rookie season Horn has picked up right where he left off, leading the team with four touchdowns in the opener. With a year of seasoning under his belt to go with the physical and mental tools Horn will be a bigger force in Arizona. An example of his intelligence came through at the end of the first half when the Rattlers drove deep into San Jose territory. With only seconds remaining and no timeouts left, he grabbed a seven-yard pass for a touchdown on a play that only called for five yards.
“He was bright enough and alert enough to realize that it’s a five-yard route in our offense, but we were on the seven-yard line and we were out of timeouts,” said White. “If he catches that ball on the two-yard line the half is over. Instead he runs it into the endzone, makes his move and catches it for the touchdown. It’s little things like that that probably separate him from a lot of receivers. He knows our offense better this year than he did last year and he’s just always thinking.”
Another spot to watch this season is how the defensive backs handle the opposing receivers. Playing a bit more conservatively last week, the Rattler defense avoided giving up the big plays that hurt them at times last season. By keeping the play in front of the defensive backs, opposing offenses are forced to throw the ball underneath the defense and work their way down the field.
“That’s the name of this game,” said defensive specialist Cecil Doggette. “If you get them down in the red zone it’s tough to score.
“The longer they hold onto the ball, the better the chance for us to get a turnover. Instead of giving up that deep ball right away to put up six points, make them work for it.”
The Avengers do not resemble the team that stumbled through the 2001 season. With Hodgkiss in place a new attitude is already evident in Los Angeles. With his experience with successful Firebird teams in Indiana and Albany, Hodgkiss knows the game. The Rattlers need to stop offensive specialist Chris Jackson, but the Avengers won’t make it easy.
“Hodgkiss changes things up every week so there’s nothing you can really focus on,” said Doggette. “They’ll run numerous formations and find different ways to get receivers open. We’ve just got to play them honest and play our game.”
Arizona needs the win to keep pace in the Western Division and avoid being left behind at 0-2. It may sound strange to call this a must-win game so early in the year, but with an even tighter league this season division wins are at a premium.
“You look at our division this year—everybody is good,” said White. “Dallas is an excellent team. LA is an improved team. We need to get all the division wins we can. I don’t care how we get them, what we have to do. We’ve got to get them, especially at home.”
The Rattlers failed to defend their home turf in 2001, which also makes this game important, again even if it’s only week two. In fact, the 3-4 record in Arizona last season marked the Rattlers’ first losing record at home since 1993.
“It’s a huge game,” said Horn. “We can’t drop two division games. That puts us in a huge hole. LA is a very good football team, especially defensively. Watching them on film they’re a solid defensive football team. This is a big game for us. It’s going to test us early to see what kind of team we are and what we’re made of.”
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.
