Rattlers Falter against Dallas
Patrick Daly
Tuesday June 18, 2002
That was the first half score of the nationally televised Sunday affair that ended with Dallas kicker Jason Wells hitting his fifth field goal of the game as time expired in the Desperados’ 36-33 win over the Arizona Rattlers.
The Rattlers haven’t given an offensive performance that anemic during the first half of any game since their inaugural season when they were held to seven points on three different occasions. Only a scoreless second half in Orlando in 1994 kept this from being the worst showing in either half.
Arizona may also ask that TNN no longer carry another Rattler game. In their last three contests televised on TNN, the Rattlers are 0-3. While the new NBC deal may make it a moot point, this was another national game that Arizona should try to forget.
The Rattlers buried themselves early, sputtering on offense with errant throws and dropped passes. Rattlers head coach Danny White pulled quarterback Sherdrick Bonner late in the second quarter after he managed to complete only three of his first thirteen attempts. Chris Hixson threw darts during his two drives and managed to lead the Rattlers to their only score of the first half, although it took an Orshawante Bryant endzone recovery of a Chris Horn fumble to get on the board. Bonner returned for the final series of the half, but he understood the move.
“I didn’t throw the ball where it’s supposed to be thrown,” Bonner said. “It’s pretty obvious. I had plenty of time. I had guys open, but it just wasn’t there. [White] did what he’s supposed to do; he took me out. I settled down a little bit.”
Even with Bonner’s shaky start, was the team just flat?
“That’s kind of an understatement,” White said. “The quarterback was off tonight. I think he made a lot of bad decisions, several bad throws. The rest of us kind of compounded it. The receivers started dropping balls, receivers running the wrong routes. Most of it, in the beginning, was that we had guys open and just missed the throws. It’s a frustrating thing because, when that guy’s off, there’s not much anybody else can do. I felt he came back in the second half and was sharp and played better, but that was not a typical Sherdrick Bonner night.”
And come back in the second half he did. The Rattlers did manage to outscore Dallas 27-16 in the second half, mainly on the strength of two Andy Kelly interceptions, stronger pressure on Kelly and a strong return by Bonner. However, the hole was just a little too deep.
“We fought, but the way they’ve been playing lately you can’t give them a 20-point lead, even at home. That’s a lot to overcome,” Bonner said.
It certainly wasn’t the type of performance that’ll help Arizona catch the steamrolling San Jose SaberCats. In fact, with only five games remaining, including one head-to-head game with San Jose in Arizona on July 12th, it’ll take a complete collapse by the 9-0 SaberCats to give Arizona any hope of snaring the division title. Even with the division title a less likely outcome, the stretch run is extremely important.
“It’s a pretty important time. This is kind of where we were last year and the response was very negative [last year]. We never did snap out of it. This is probably three weeks in a row now that we have not played the way we’re capable of playing. I just haven’t been happy with the play up front. Tonight, we did better up front. It was, like I said, the other guys.”
One of the good things that Rattlers got out of the game, and there were a couple of positive notes, was the first appearance of defensive specialist Derek Stingley. Arizona signed Stingley during the offseason to complement defensive specialist Cecil Doggette after Chicago released him following the 2001 season. Prior to his season in Chicago, Stingley spent five seasons in Albany, but he had missed the first eight games of the 2002 season due to a shoulder injury suffered during the preseason. While getting back on the field is a first step, Stingley would have been much more satisfied with a win.
“Losing always sucks, but it was great to get back out there and compete,” Stingley said. “I wish we would have won. I just need to be a little more physical out there. It wasn’t tough for me, it was just the pace was a little quicker, but I feel fine.”
Even with two key Dallas players out with injuries, Dallas didn’t really bring anything the Rattlers didn’t expect. Defensive specialist Lamar Grant filled in nicely for Hassan Shamsid-Deen, while Shannon Culver led the Desperados with 10 catches for 113 yards and a touchdown in place of Dialleo Burks.
“What we saw on film is what we got,” Stingley said. “The first half we came out a little off. I thought we played better in the second half as a whole team.”
With another unimpressive performance, the Rattlers must now turn their attention to Indiana. The Firebirds have struggled through the first part of the season and stand a 4-5, but they come off of an impressive 56-38 win over Detroit. The key for the Rattlers during the upcoming week is to focus on the basics and keep the team moving in the same direction.
“I think the best thing to do is focus on execution,” White said. “The energy—there’s nothing I can do about the energy. That’s something that comes from each guy. Each player has got to have enough pride to go out and play the game as hard as he can play it, with as much energy as he can play it. What we, as coaches, have to do is focus on the execution and correct those problems.”
How will the Rattlers make that happen?
“Just keep working hard,” Bonner said. “You’re always going to have slumps throughout the season—I don’t care where you’re playing—you’ve just got to try to ride them out and keep everybody upbeat and try to keep the emotions high with each other and stay together. This is a time where dissension can happen, but I don’t see that in this group. It’s a situation where we’ve just got to keep focused and keep working hard and play ourselves through it.”
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.
