Rattlers have "One of Those Nights"
Patrick Daly
Wednesday June 5, 2002
The Rattlers did get a break on the opening kickoff when Arizona fullback/linebacker Greg Gales recorded a safety, but that was the last time that Arizona would stop the Rampage until the final gun sounded. When it was over, the defending champion Rampage rolled off with a 71-53 win, their first in Arizona.
With a laundry list of things that went wrong, you won’t find just one player or play that contributed to the loss. From a lack of execution on offense to a lack of pressure on Grand Rapids’ quarterback Clint Dolezel, the Rattlers struggled.
“We couldn’t get to the quarterback all night,” Rattlers receiver/linebacker Hunkie Cooper said. “We knew Clint Dolezel was a tough quarterback coming in and he came in and showed it. They exploited our defense and they found the weaknesses in it all night.
“So what if we won five games? Now we’re on a one-game losing streak. We didn’t play well. We got beat.”
Riding that five-game win streak, the Rattlers may have gotten a little too comfortable, which is disappointing for a team that prides itself on consistency.
“It’s very disappointing,” Rattlers head coach Danny White said. “We should have been up for those guys. They’re the world champions. We didn’t coach well. We didn’t play well. We didn’t get any breaks. Penalties went against us. I think the only break we got was the first play of the game on the kickoff.
“We didn’t help ourselves any. There are no excuses. They just took it to us. They beat us up front. They beat us in the secondary. They beat us with their receivers. I would say that, in all three phases of the game, we got whipped tonight. That’s very disappointing.”
Offenses generally rely on timing, but quarterback Sherdrick Bonner didn’t quite have it on Friday night. For any quarterback, it’s tough enough to succeed when you’re out of sync or when the defense gets pressure on you. When both happen, it’s a recipe for a long night.
“[I was] just a little bit out of sync, they weren’t getting to me too much,” Bonner said. “We’ve got guys running down the field, trying to get away from the defenders and they’re holding them, and we can’t catch a break and get a call. It does throw us out of sync and then it makes us feel like we’ve got to press to do things because we can’t play like we’re supposed to play.”
“He was overthrowing a lot of balls,” White said. “Throwing them out the back of the end zone. I think it was just because of pressure. We’ll have to watch the film. I’m generally watching the coverage and I turn around and he’s on his back. He wasn’t sharp tonight, but it was across the board. I don’t think there was anybody who can really say they played well tonight. Including the coaches.”
Speaking of coaches, White held the coaching staff responsible as well.
“We weren’t prepared proper for them offensively or defensively,” White said. “From a coaching standpoint, we’ve got to get better. We’re as much to blame for this loss as anybody, because a lot of the things they did offensively and defensively against us were a result of the scheme.”
Even when the Rattlers were in a position to make plays, they didn’t execute. Despite all of the problems the Rattlers faced, they remained in the game until very late in the fourth quarter. However, Rampage receiver/linebacker Gary Compton picked off Bonner on a tipped pass, then scored on a six-yard reception a moment later, which ultimately sealed the win for Grand Rapids.
“You’ve got to take advantage of the opportunities that we get and we didn’t help the defense out at all,” Bonner said. “It’s just one of those games and those guys aren’t world champs for nothing.”
“This game is a game of stops and we couldn’t get the stop when we needed it,” Horn said. “That’s frustrating.
“They did a good job of taking away some of the deep routes. We didn’t have a lot time to get into some of the deeper routes. You’ve got to hand it to them. They came out and they stuck it to us.”
A few good things can come out of a loss like this, especially when the season has only reached its midpoint. Emotionally, the Rattlers have to put the loss behind them, but it doesn’t mean they won’t learn from it.
“We won’t write it off to the extent that we forget about it,” White said. “We won’t write it off to the extent that we don’t watch the film and learn from it. This is going to be a long painful film session. If nothing else, we’ve got to get something positive out of this. About the only thing that can come out of this that is positive is regrouping, changing attitude and learning from our mistakes.”
The loss overshadowed another strong performance from offensive specialist Chris Horn, who finished the night with 13 receptions, 126 yards and four touchdowns. Except for a team player like Horn, only one statistic truly mattered.
“The only thing that matters is winning,” Horn said. “For some reason, offensively, especially in the first half, we were really out of sync. It was pretty tough. I don’t know what it was.
“I don’t think it was matter of lack of effort or desire. We knew it was a big game and a good test for our football team, but it was just one of those nights.”
The loss also kept Cooper and Bonner from enjoying milestones that each player achieved during the game. Cooper’s second quarter touchdown put him over the 1,000-point mark for his career, making him only the sixth player to do so, while Bonner surpassed Aaron Garcia for the all-time lead in passing touchdowns on the same play.
In the end, it was one of those nights.
“It’s just one of those nights,” Bonner said. “Sometimes you have them. We’ve just got to keep working hard and not get discouraged about it. The good thing is that we’ve still got guys working hard until the end of the game.”
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.
