Rattlers shake off 2nd-half lapse, holds off Northern Arizona in regular-season finale
The Rattlers are billing this season as "decades of dominance."
Playing perhaps their most dominant half to start their final regular-season game in their 30th year as a franchise on Saturday night, the Rattlers took a 35-8 lead but had to overcome Northern Arizona's new big weapon — its drop-kicking kicker — to roll into the IFL playoffs with a 55-39 victory before 9,405 fans at Footprint Center.
And it's going to be NAZ (7-8) again next Saturday, same time, same place. And the Rattlers (11-4) hope the same result.
They are 3-0 against the defending IFL champions, but they'll have to clean up on the 16 penalties they made Saturday and the anticipated on-side kicks directed at them.
Kicker Conor Mangan, who converted three drop-kick extra points (which are worth two points each) and banged two onside kicks to start the second half that the Wranglers turned into touchdowns to steal the momentum away from the Rattlers, who led 35-8 on defensive lineman Chris Terrell's fumble recovery return for a TD, before Mangan's half-expiring 40-yard field goal.
It was a 38-33 game with 5:16 left in the third quarter, before quarterback Drew Powell calmed everybody down and threw TD passes of 12 yards to Isaiah Huston and 45 yards to Jamal Miles to get the Rattlers back in control with a 52-33 lead with 10:26 left.
"I wasn't fazed at all," Powell said about NAZ striking fast with two quick scores out of the second-half gate to cut it to 35-25. "I was trying to get my teammates to understand that (the Wranglers) were still losing by two possessions. All we had to do was score the ball.
"If we secure the ball, we're good."
Powell has been as good at securing the ball during this eight-game winning streak than any time in his Rattlers tenure.
And it has led to coach Kevin Guy's 250th win as a head coach in the indoor game. Most of those have come with the Rattlers, where he won three ArenaBowls in a row, and led the Rattlers to the IFL crown in their first year in the league in 2017,
But it's been a chase back to the crown ever since that '17 title, not just for Guy but for Powell with so many down-to-the-wire heartbreakers stacked up.
"It's time," said Powell, who was 11 of 15 for 189 yards and three TDs passing and ran for a score on Saturday. "We've fallen short. But I think this year this is a different team. There are different guys in the locker room. I think Coach is a different coach this year. I'm a different quarterback. Everything is different. We're just going to focus on moving forward."
During this winning streak, it's not just Powell being calm and cool and collective, but kicker Shane McInerney being automatic on extra points, and now, in the past two games, on field goals.
He kicked two more field goals Saturday, a 42-yarder that extended the Rattlers lead to 38-25 in the third quarter and an 18-yarder in the final minute to make it 55-39.
When the Rattlers were 3-4, there was no panic. With Powell out with an injury, the Rattlers went 2-2 with Jorge Reyna at quarterback. Guy plugged in parts with so many injuries without losing an edge.
"We've had a playoff mindset for eight weeks now," Guy said. "We knew we had to win out. We kind of put ourselves in a hole. A lot of that had to do with injuries. I felt the coaching staff made a great decision. We talked about it. We said, 'Hey, we're good as an organization. We're just going to concentrate on getting the young guys ready to play.' "
And through it all veteran wide receiver Jamal Miles has been the most dependable player in the locker room. If the Rattlers hadn't had a bye last week, Miles wouldn't have played after suffering an injury in the win over Massachusetts two weeks ago.
But Miles worked in the training room and got himself ready Saturday. His 45-yard score early in the final quarter was huge.
"He attacked it through the bye week and into this week," Guy said about Miles. "He didn't practice the first day. We trust what he says. When he said he was ready, he made some plays tonight.
"He caught a beautiful post, a great play, when they had us backed up in the fourth quarter. There has to be trust. Any business that you run, the top two things you've got to have are communication and trust."
In the first half, when they built a 35-8 lead, they look ready to finally get that Indoor Football League championship trophy that's been eluding them since 2017. But NAZ quarterback Nick Watson, after a rough first half, bounced back in the second half to through four TD passes. And, if nothing else, the Wranglers proved the Rattlers are going to be in a fight in the first round of the playoffs.
"I thought we started fast," Guy said. "We preached that we've got to get better playing with a lead. We have to learn to finish teams off. We didn't play well in the third quarter at all. And we picked it back up toward the end of the third and the fourth quarter.
"We play NAZ again next week. I thought we gave them a little bit of confidence in the third quarter. There are things we have to address starting tomorrow. This NAZ team has been a problem."
To suggest human-interest story ideas and other news, reach Obert atrichard.obert@arizonarepublic.com or 602-316-8827. Follow him on Twitter@azc_obert
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Rattlers shake off 2nd-half lapse, holds off Northern Arizona
