2008 Rattler Season

[Angel]

Our "Playoff Guaranteed" season will start soon.

“ARIZONA RATTLERS VS LA AVENGERS
OPEN SCRIMMAGE - February 12th at 12Noon
Come watch your 2008 Arizona Rattlers on as they scrimmage LA.
US Airways Center - Free Admission, the doors will open at 11:00am.
Come catch the new team in action!”

For those of you who have nothing else to do in the middle of a workday.

…course I work in downtown Phoenix so I will be spending the lunch hour there.

 

[BigShtank]

Too bad I carpool with the wife and she'll have the car. I'm 5 minutes from the stadium, by car anyways.

 

[Nasser22]

I can't wait for the season. I'll miss Bonner, but am looking forward to seeing what this team can do.

 

[Yuma]

Bonner was getting stale here in AZ. It was time for new blood. I'm just hoping our OL is better than last year. Giving up sacks in the Arena League is a killer. The new coaches should be a plus, too! We were out-coached last year, too. I'm used to the Rattlers winning more games and being a playoff team. Here's hoping we return to prominence in the AFL this year!

 

[coyoteshockeyfan]

New uniform:

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Yuck, this is an "if it isn't broken, don't fix it" situation if I have ever seen one.

 

[Nasser22]

Disgusting. The Rattlers had some very nice uni's before this. Even though I loved Colangelo, this change bothers me much more than the D-Backs uni/team change.

And Bonner would have never become "stale" to me. He's my second favorite AZ athlete of all-time, right behind Randy Johnson.

 

[Nasser22]

Good way to start off the season, a 63-62 win over the rival Blaze in Utah. I believe the new QB threw 8 TD's..

 

[Angel]

Our playoff guaranteed Arizona Rattlers are one for one. The team took down (read; sneaked by but we’ll take it) the Utah Blaze by a score of 63-62 in Salt Lake City Saturday.

The new generation Rattlers (don’t like the unis either but they can wear whatever they like if the keep winning) weathered a series of high and lows, down two scores in the second quarter before taking the lead late in the third. The teams slugged it out all night (tied score at last count 6 times, could have been more but it is dang hard to keep track of the game on radio when you haven’t learned your own players names yet ), and it all came down to a defensive stand in the game’s waning seconds, forcing Utah into a missed long field goal attempt (from the AFL’s most accurate kicker).

“Seven rookies. Six first year players,” said Head Coach Kevin Guy. “We showed mental toughness throughout the game. We got the win, and we’re only going to get better.”

Campbell who took the Offensive Player of the Game award, tossed eight touchdowns, going 31 of 47 with 319 yards he was efficient and spread the ball amongst his receivers.

The last-minute stand at the end of the first half inspired Arizona's defense to open the third quarter with two straight stops. First LB White intercepted Germaine then DB Craver knocked the ball away from the Utah receiver to force a fourth down, where Utah’s field goal attempt was no good. Add a missed extra point to the final failed field goal and you come up with an AZ win.

San Jose may be the team to beat (this year as well as in the past) but there is still a simple sweetness to beating Utah who had a good crowd on hand if noise is any indicator.

 

[BigShtank]

FINALLY got my season tickets last night. Can't wait till monday.

 

[Angel]

FINALLY got my season tickets last night. Can't wait till monday.

That was sure cutting it close. Did you notice the free comp ticket voucher; tell everyone...we want the Pit rocking again.

On the side…..did we see that Mr. Bonner is still our there helping us? I'm sure it was not his main goal taking the field but his Rush beat those pesky Sabrecats, who may still hand us our cookies, but at this moment in time...who is 1-0 and who is 0-1? Sweet

 

[BigShtank]

That was sure cutting it close. Did you notice the free comp ticket voucher; tell everyone...we want the Pit rocking again.

On the side…..did we see that Mr. Bonner is still our there helping us? I'm sure it was not his main goal taking the field but his Rush beat those pesky Sabrecats, who may still hand us our cookies, but at this moment in time...who is 1-0 and who is 0-1? Sweet

It was close, I had to ask them last week when we were getting them. Thank god DHL didn't toss em over my fence where my dogs were sure to chew them up.

San Jose is a good team and good for Bonner finding a home somewhere else. He'll give Chicago some veteran leadership.

Hopefully they'll start airing some road games so we can watch em. It stunk that I couldn't watch em Saturday. Oh well, maybe ch 45 for fox sports will step up.

 

[mjb21aztd]

Lets go Rattlers have a good season always fun to watch them

 

[Nasser22]

Gosh, I despise them damn Sabercats! Hopefully this overhaul of the roster will put us back ahead of them soon. I only hate the Lakers and Spurs more than them....no other team in any other league pisses me off more.

 

[BigShtank]

I hate every freaking team from California. Their fans are the most obnoxious. I am from there and the only team I liked were the Raiders, but now I can't like them. I'm not ghetto enough to be a Raiders fan nor do I want to be associated with them.

 

[Nasser22]

Good to see that there are now at least a handful of Rattlers' fans here. That's the only thing we're really lacking here.

Don't forget guys, this weekend's game is on ESPN2!

 

[azsouthendzone]

Well, judging by the crowd it looks like they won't be giving many refunds if the team misses the playoffs. Why the AFL doesn't give the defense a chance is puzzling. I find it rather strange to see both teams score on virtually every posession. It reminds me of when we used to play in the street growing up and you always scored. Football is as much about big hits and great defense as offense. I want to like it, but the first posession by LA is a perfect example of why I can't fully get on board. It will be interesting to see if the AFL adopts the single ownership structure that they are talking about.

http://austin.bizjournals.com/austi...s/2008/03/10/story5.html?b=1205121600^1601750

 

[azsouthendzone]

LA just made a stop. Their chances of winning just increased 1 billion percent.

 

[Nasser22]

Well you got your defense.

 

[Angel]

3/10/08 - vs LA

U-G-L-Y

Spectacular way to promote the team and the sport, good thing that was nationally televised. The best way to end a Monday is with a late night meltdown.

Come on boys we need to get it together.

I'd list some highlights but there were none, we had a Sidewinder in our section for the entire third quarter waiting to give away a touchdown ball, all that was missing was the touchdown, and it is hard to believe that there were 11,000 people there as announced, the pit was rather empty. I wonder how many folks took advantage of the freebie?

I hope that Mr. Campbell's ankle unsprains quickly but if not, Mr. Smoker, you had to know you would eventully have to play could you please practice keeping your throw in the field of play? The people in the first three rows are not eligible and could someone for heaven's sake block?

 

[Nasser22]

Smoker sucks! Just this one injury (to Campbell) could get us out of playoff contention if he keeps playing like this.

 

[BigShtank]

Smoker will cost the team lots of money in refunds if he continues to play. Man, the team looks terrible. Can't stop anyone.

 

[Angel]

Laying the entire fault at Smoker's feet is not really fair. 99% of the first million interceptions were tipped, by Rattlers. Smoker did better this week, keeping the ball on the field and in the fourth he had to have had over 300 passing yards.

Coach is right they could have easily folded at the half but the entire team rallied for an attempted comeback, in the AFL it was truly a spectacular defensive effort---Congrats Mr. Carver---there just wasn't enough time to get out of the serious hole they had dug for themselves.

Am I disappointed in the loss, heck yeah—I hate losing and despise when it is to San Jose Personally, as a season ticket holder, I wish the team had never made the "guarantee", it was added pressure that my untried team didn't need. I would rather the team jell before tying a 2.2 million dollar boulder around its neck, but I don’t own it. I know they did it to get butts in the seats but that wasn’t going to work---the only thing that helps AZ’s attendance is moving the season back to the summer where it belongs.

 

[azsouthendzone]

Well Angel, all I can say is that desperate times call for desperate measures. The crowds have shrunk, the team is bad, any ties to the glory days are gone...When the team first played in the summer they had no competition. Now they go against the D-backs. This is a tough, tough, market for fringe sports. When the Rattlers were introduced, the Suns sold out every game and for a lot of people going to a Rattlers game was your only chance to go to America West Arena. The Suns owned and promoted the Rattlers heavily and Suns fans kind of adopted the Rattlers, Suns players made appearances at games. It was the cool thing to do. But times have dramatically changed. I have no problem with the guarantee, but at this point they probably had no choice. I don't really know what or if there is a solution at this point.

 

[mjb21aztd]

Not a great start to the season but we still have time to turn it around and make the playoffs but we defintally need to fix our turnover problem. GO RATTLERS

 

[Angel]

Well that was a pleasant surprise.

22-of-31 passes for 240 yards and five touchdowns, not bad Mr. Smoker--and with only one INT, OL way to provide some coverage. Defense, I choose to address you as a group , your play was nothing short of amazing. I have been attending Rattlers games since day one and have rarely seen a better effort---either from us or against us. Five stops, in a row, and that was just the beginning, dang. Wink; out to you Wendall, we love it when the big guy scores.

Friday we are in Chicago to take on our old friend Sed, brand new all time touchdown leader Harrell and their red hot Rush. Keep up the good work.