With the Arizona Rattlers officially halfway through their season, head coach Kevin Guy has not been impressed with the performance of his team.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!“Midseason, I’d give us probably an overall grade right now; probably more like a C- for us,” Guy said. “And the only reason it’s that high is because I thought we had some guys step up when we had guys out and figured out how to win games. It could have been a lot worse than what it was…But we’re not playing good defense against better teams.”
Arizona sits at 4-4 halfway through the season, and its three-game winning streak was snapped on Saturday losing to the Bay Area Panthers at home. However, all three wins during that streak came against Iowa (2-6), Jacksonville (1-7) and Tucson (2-5) – three below .500 groups.
Sitting right outside of the playoff picture, the Rattlers need to rack up more convincing wins against top-notch opponents to impress the man with the clipboard.
Final. pic.twitter.com/FaKIS8xSWu
— Arizona Rattlers (@ArizonaRattlers) May 19, 2024
“We are eight games into the season, sitting at 4-4, and we haven’t beaten anyone good,” Guy said. “They were more physical tonight, pure and simple — they ran the football right down our throat and we just aren’t playing good defense against the better teams.”
The Rattlers are 1-3 against above .500 teams, and have yet to prove themselves this season. This can be chalked up to numerous different factors – injuries and a lack of execution being two of the main talking points from Guy himself. However, the biggest flaw for this group has been a lack of discipline and physicality.
Guy has realized that those two things are issues, and has claimed to have “meeting after meeting after meeting” to resolve it. However, as the issue fails to resolve itself, Guy now looks to hold his personnel accountable.
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“We’re not getting in our gaps,” said head coach Kevin Guy. “We’re very undisciplined, and I don’t think we’re very physical. When you’re not physical and you’re undisciplined, you’re going to look bad…We have had meeting after meeting after meeting to try and get it fixed, and at some point, you got to start taking some ownership in your play. At the end of the day, everything starts and stops at my desk [and] I got to address it. If we have to address personnel, that’s what we’re going to do. I’m married to production – I’m not married to anyone, I’m married to production. So we certainly got to play better and right now, our defense is the issue.”
Based off the Rattlers’ season and Guy’s comments, it seems as if that marriage isn’t going as soundly as it did in years past. However, defensive back Dillion Winfrey mentioned that it’s a game-by-game approach for this group, and they have their sights set on the Duke City Gladiators on Saturday.
“There’s been plenty of times where we’ve been a number-one seed, number-two seed and we lose in the playoffs,” said Winfrey. “Right now, we just got to worry about our next game. Build this, take it personal, then get back to work tomorrow.”
In what has seemingly been Arizona’s most underwhelming season in recent memory, there’s still time to get back on track and make a push for the playoffs. The Rattlers will host the Gladiators on Saturday, May 25 at Desert Diamond Arena.
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Justin LaCertosa covers Phoenix Sports News for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on his X account, @LaCertosaSports
