Special Teams and Penalties Doom Arizona in First Home Loss
By Nickolas Montei ꟾ Rattlers Media
While the Arizona Rattlers had one of their best defensive performances of the season, special teams and penalties were their downfall in a 37-36 loss to Fishers Freight at Desert Diamond Arena, the Rattlers' first home loss of the season.
Matt Cook missed an 18-yard field goal as time expired, thwarting a last-second comeback. A missed extra-point earlier in the fourth quarter also figured into the one-point loss.
Sunday's loss was a far cry from the first meeting in April when Fishers dominated in a 63-42 victory at Fishers. The Rattlers held the league's leading rushing attack to 64 yards this time around.
But two missed field goals and two missed extra point attempts, one of those blocked, were the difference in the defensive battle.
The lone bright spot on special teams was a kickoff return by Ron Brown Jr. to open the second half which gave Arizona a lead following a low-scoring first half. The Freight led 16-14 at the midway point. It was Brown's second kickoff return for a touchdown this season, the first coming in the IFL Cup against New Mexico.
"Our field goal and extra point operations were terrible the whole night," Rattlers Head Coach Kevin Guy said after the game. "Obviously special teams is one-third of the game, and you've got to play that too. We work on that more than anybody."
But penalties ultimately put Arizona in the situation to need to execute that game-winning field goal.
On the Rattlers' last scoring drive, Drew Powell rushed for his fourth touchdown of the game. But a holding penalty on the subsequent extra point pushed Cook back 10 yards and he missed on the opportunity to tie the game at 37 with 46 seconds left to play
The Rattlers got the ball back with 30 seconds left in the game, and Powell once again punched it in for what would have been his fifth score of the game. That was also called back for holding, leading to the missed field goal as time expired.
"Just the penalties," Guy said as he cited reasons for the loss. "Lack of technique and fundamentals, just basic stuff."
Despite the special teams mishaps, the Rattlers had one of their best defensive performances of the season. The Freight's 64 yards rushing was less than half of their season average of 133.5, which leads the league by just under 45 yards per game.
"The first time we played them this year up at their place, they just killed us, ran all over us," Guy said. "I thought we played pretty well against the run. They're good. They're No. 1 in the league in rushing, and we held them to 64 yards."
Linebacker DJ Lundy recorded two sacks in the first half, but left the game late in the third quarter with an injury. Hayden Hatcher had two more tackles for loss in an overall impressive showing defensively.
The loss drops the Rattlers to 7-4 overall, two games in the loss column behind second-place San Diego in the Western Conference standings. Fishers ended a five-game losing streak with the victory and squared its season record at 6-6.
Arizona will travel down Interstate 10 to Tucson next Saturday to face the surging Tucson Sugar Skulls at 7:00 p.m. MST at Tucson Arena. The Sugar Skulls have won three in a row after a 2-6 start and are coming off a victory over the first-place Vegas Knight Hawks.
The Rattlers return to Desert Diamond Arena on June 27 to face the New Mexico Chupacabras.