Feisty Rattlers Return To ArenaBowl Looking For Title, Vengeance, & Respect

Adam Markowitz
Thursday August 9, 2012

NEW ORLEANS -- Pretty much every single team that loses a championship game at any level comes into the next season with a chip on its shoulder. For the Arizona Rattlers, the chip is a whole heck of a lot bigger this year. Not only are the Rats coming into this one trying to erase the memories of a brutal 73-70 loss on the last play of the game against the Jacksonville Sharks in ArenaBowl XXIV, but they are trying to prove that they are the superior team in this game against the Philadelphia Soul.

Of course, it's easy to say that the Soul have had the best team in the league this year. They went 15-3, and according to our own, Andy Lopusnak, broke the record for the most points in a season (1,228), most points per game in a season (68.2 PPG), most touchdowns scored (177), total takeaways (64), and total fumbles recovered (30). Philly outscored its foes by a whopping 17.1 points per game and had a +23 turnover margin, easily the best in the game. The Soul knew that they were going to be the No. 1 seed in the American Conference playoffs way back on June 16th, and they finished up the year with four totally meaningless regular season games.

Yet that didn't matter to the Soul. They finished up the regular season with eight straight wins, and now they can add two more victories to that. In those games, they outscored opponents by the margin of 70.3-45.2, a margin of 25.1 points per game. Now, they also own the record for the biggest margin of victory in a playoff game after last week's triumph over the Sharks 89-34.

"There were a lot of predictions. They were pretty much crowned before the season started," said Arizona Head Coach Kevin Guy. "And we're not scared."

And why should the Rattlers be scared? They are clearly the more experienced of these two teams in terms of the ArenaBowl. QB Nick Davila now has an ArenaBowl under his belt, and he did everything that he could to beat the Sharks a year ago. Men like Kerry Reed, Odie Armstrong, Marquis Floyd, Virgil Gray, Kevin McCullough, Tyre Glasper, Anttaj Hawthorne… all of them played in the ArenaBowl a campaign ago, and most played quite well.

It's also not like Arizona had a slouch of a season this year. The team went 13-5 and won the Western Division. The Rattlers ranked fourth in the league in scoring (62.1 PPG), second in scoring defense (48.9 PPG), third in passing offense (312.0 YPG), second in total offense (332.0 YPG), second in pass efficiency (123.3 rating), fourth in turnover margin (+10), and second in pass defense efficiency (96.2 rating). Sure, they haven't been slaughtering teams left and right, but their defense has allowed just 47.3 points per game since May 26th, and that came against a heck of a schedule that included games against the Utah Blaze (twice), Spokane Shock, San Antonio Talons, and San Jose SaberCats.

"I feel like our defense is really being disrespected, especially during the preseason when they just announced the Soul secondary was the 'Soul Patrol,'" said Rattlers DB Virgil Gray. "We kept our same guys [from the start of the year], and we've been doing a good job."

Gray, who suffered what looked like a devastating leg injury last week in the National Conference Championship Game against the Blaze, admitted that he wasn't a sure thing to go on Friday, but that he is doing everything that he can to get back out on the field for the biggest game of the season. Gray plays the de facto safety spot in Arizona's defensive scheme, and it is crucial to have him on the field to call the plays and the checks for the secondary.

Coach Guy was also quick to point out the weapon that his kicker, Chris Gould has been this year. "Chris must lead the league in touchbacks. He's done a great job keeping teams down on their own 5, and that makes playing defense a heck of a lot easier." Arizona led the league this year in touchbacks (57) and net average on kickoffs (42.5 yards per KO). Philadelphia has used a plethora of different kickers, and now it has resorted to Fabrizio Scaccia, who has just one game under his belt played this year, last week's win over Jacksonville.

The Rattlers also ranked first in the league in red zone defense (73.3%), and third in red zone offense (85.6%). Even with all of the hullabaloo about how great FB Derrick Ross has been for the Soul this year, they ranked just 13th in red zone scoring percentage at just 78.4%.

Philadelphia Head Coach Doug Plank was quick to point out that a win on Friday night would give the Soul victories against every team in the Western Division. However, Coach Guy had the perfect retort, stating, "We feel like we played in the best division in the AFL."

It's not hard to see why Coach Guy has the better argument. The Western Division featured four teams that finished with at least 10 wins, all of which would have been in the playoffs had they played in the American Conference instead of the National Conference. If you add up all of the teams on Philadelphia's schedule this year, their winning percentage was .435. Do the same with the Rattlers, and their opponents' winning percentage came to .488. The two teams that Philly beat in the playoffs combined to go 18-18. The two that Arizona played to reach the ArenaBowl were a combined 24-12.

After losing last year's ArenaBowl, Davila knows that this isn't going to be an easy game. When asked what it would be like to go against this Philadelphia squad, he replied, "It's going to be a challenge, and we're up to it."

Even one of the newer members of the Rattlers, WR Maurice Purify has no fear whatsoever about going up against RevHoney Defensive Back of the Year DB Kent Richardson. In an exclusive ArenaFan Interview at Media Day on Wednesday, Purify proclaimed, "I feel like I can beat [Kent Richardson] on some things. We're going to take our shots where we have them."

Perhaps the voters for the All-Arena Team knew what they were doing. There were three members of the current Soul team (not including WR Tiger Jones, who is now with the Philadelphia Eagles) on the squad (Ross, Richardson, and DL Bryan Robinson), while there were a total of five members of the Rattlers (OL Kyle Young, OL Michael Huey, Purify, Davila, and FB Odie Armstrong).

Guy admitted that, "Philly had a lot to say about its offensive linemen not making All-Arena." He continued to go on, describing how the Rattlers used mostly five-step drops this year, whereas Philadelphia runs a lot of one-step and three-step drops to go with its running plays. Guy concluded, "We feel like our guys went out and earned [their place on the All-Arena Team]."

I might not be the most old school guy in the world, but to me, dem's fightin' words. Needless to say, ArenaBowl XXV represents a whole heck of a lot for the Rattlers. It's about pride. It's about vengeance. It's about proving who the best team in the Arena Football League really is.

As Coach Guy so eloquently put it when asked whether his team was being disrespected when compared to the Soul, "We'll find out if that's the case on Friday night."