Arizona Survives Avenger Attack
Patrick Daly
Monday April 29, 2002
Despite opening the game with two defensive stops, Arizona squandered two 14-point leads in the first half and needed the veteran leadership that culminated in a Sherdrick Bonner to Hunkie Cooper touchdown pass with only two seconds left to play to fend off the much improved Los Angeles Avengers. The 63-59 victory put the Rattlers in the win column and helped avoid a repeat of last season’s late game letdowns.
“That’s what it looked like for a minute,” said Cooper. “That mentality had started to set in. But that’s the good thing about having a good veteran club, in the end they’re going to be there for you.”
Avenger offensive specialist Chris Jackson kept Los Angeles in the game when opportunities presented themselves. He seemed to be quarterback Tony Graziani’s only target for much of the evening, finishing with 11 of Graziani’s 16 completions on the night.
“[Jackson] is a good route runner and a good receiver, and Cecil [Doggette] struggled with him tonight,” said White. “There’s no question about it.”
Although, without the early Rattler mistakes, Los Angeles might not have been able to make it a game, let alone come within two seconds of improving to 2-0.
“The first half we felt like it wasn’t so much what they were doing as much as it was what we were doing,” said White. “At halftime they were still in the game, because of our mistakes, not so much what they were doing. In the second half just what I was afraid would happen happened. They were back in it. They obviously went in the locker room and had a talk with themselves and said, ‘Hey, we’re lucky to be in this game. Now let’s go win it.’ They played pretty darn well in the second half. It was all we could do to scratch out a win.”
Los Angeles used onsides kicks to their advantage twice during the game, even though the Rattlers were expecting it. On the first attempt, an offsides penalty negated an Avenger recovery. However, the second try netted Los Angeles a ten-point swing that allowed the Avengers to take their first lead of the game midway through the fourth quarter.
“To know an onsides kick is coming and not get them twice, it’s something ridiculous,” said Cooper. “As professional players you’ve got to work on that. That’s something I’m sure will be a big part of practice. If not, we’ll see onsides kicks every week.”
“It’s a tough play to defend, even when you know it’s coming,” added White. “And we knew it was coming. We told them on every kick it’s coming.”
The Arizona line put good pressure on Graziani even though they never recorded a sack. Los Angeles ran a number of plays with the motion man stopping at the line of scrimmage to slow down the pash rush or provoke an offsides penalty. When a defensive lineman times the snap based on the when the motion man reaches the line of scrimmage, he can be lured offsides when the motion man suddenly comes to a stop.
“We were getting a lot of heat and one of the first things you do is run that motion,” said White. “The lineman will watch him and time it up and go when he gets to the line of scrimmage. They’re not trying to cross us up, they’re just trying to slow down our pass rush and keep us from guessing.”
Rookie offensive specialist Orshawante Bryant played the entire fourth quarter both ways after defensive specialist Cecil Doggette went down in the third quarter with a sprained right knee. The Rattlers were already short at the defensive specialist spot with only Doggette and Jerrick Bledsoe active. Derek Stingley is still a few weeks away from suiting up and Kevin Cobb was released earlier in the week due to poor play in the week one loss to San Jose.
“The one thing we’ve got to find is someone to play the middle,” said White. “Jerrick did a pretty nice job tonight. He was soft and didn’t give up any big plays like we did in the first half.”
Fortunately, the Rattlers have some options to fill the middle while Doggette recovers—early indications are Doggette will miss two to four weeks. Ricky Parker filled the defensive specialist role next to Doggette last season and will likely be called upon to step in, although Doggette leaves behind big shoes to fill.
“He’s our best cover guy,” said offensive specialist Chris Horn about Doggette. “He’s what makes us good in practice, going against him everyday.”
The continued development of Bryant and Horn were important in this game, but clutch performances from veterans Randy Gatewood and Cooper made the difference in the end. On a drive that started late in the third quarter, Bonner found Gatewood on three separate occasions, including a touchdown that gave Arizona a temporary 49-42 lead.
During the final drive of the game, Arizona ran off over four and a half minutes by mixing in a few runs with short passes from Bonner to Horn and Cooper. The final score brought back memories of seasons past when Bonner worked to give himself time to find Cooper in the endzone for the game winner.
“If the ball gets in his area he’s going to catch it,” said Bonner. “That’s a play where it’s designed out for him. When he tried to break out initially the guy just grabbed him and held onto him. He’s such a fighter. He kept working, and the line gave me enough time to buy a little time and roll out a little bit to get some separation.
“He doesn’t cease to amaze me. Just when you think you’re not going to get anything more from him, you get some big plays on both sides of the ball. That’s just the way he’s been. He’s always been there when we needed him.”
In all, it’s a big win for a Rattler team that defended its home turf in the home opener, even if it required some last-play heroics.
“I kind of wish we could win it a little bit sooner than with two seconds to go in the game, but a win is a win,” said White. “We beat a good team tonight. LA is going to win a lot of games this year.”
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.
