Following a rough loss to Bay Area a week ago, the Arizona Rattlers got back to their winning ways a week later, hosting the winless Duke City and coming out victorious. In a game that was decided by less than a score (55-53), head coach Kevin Guy was no where near thrilled by his group’s performance.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!“Should’ve won by three or four touchdowns,” said Guy following the game. “Our football IQ is not where it needs to be. We blew a coverage at the end of the game…We just made some bad decisions down the stretch. Tomorrow morning, I promise you there’s going to be things to get fixed, or I’m going to run some people out of here. I’m just tired of dealing with the same stuff every week.”
Too close for comfort???? pic.twitter.com/LBMFiUul1i
— Arizona Rattlers (@ArizonaRattlers) May 26, 2024
Bad decisions in crucial moments along with a lack of discipline has been a key theme for this Rattlers team throughout the season. They’ve struggled against good teams, and are now just scraping by against teams that they should handle easily.
This Rattlers team has a mix of returning players, along with newcomers. Guy hasn’t seen discipline from his group as a whole, but sees the fire coming from some of those newcomers, and is working to address the leadership and mental toughness of his team.
“We’ve got good players…I don’t know if it’s a lack of leadership, we certainly addressed it. We tried to be positive all week, we tried to address some things. And right now, just mental toughness. I got to start looking at the guys that have been with us for the last three, four, five years. Because it’s obviously coming from these guys. I saw new guys stepping up and making plays, and the guys that have been here are the ones that are making some of these mental mistakes. That’s going to be addressed in the morning.”
Discipline and mental toughness are just two of the many problems that Arizona has faced this season, and these two things cause for a lack of execution on both sides of the field. The Rattlers had multiple opportunities to take care of the Gladiators, but mental lapses and inconsistency gave Duke City enough breathing room to stay in it.
“We just need to finish on offense. That’s just unacceptable,” said quarterback Dalton Sneed. “A win’s a win, so I never want to undermine that. But at the end of the day, that just can’t happen on offense. When there’s an opportunity to close the game multiple times, we need to do that. And giving them a chance to continue to fight and giving them that hope, teams run with that and they kind of did.”
The Rattlers are still 5-4, and have ample time to turn things around and make a postseason run. But past the halfway mark of the season, there are clear things that need to be addressed before Guy and his squad even think about the playoffs.
Kevin Guy not pleased with Arizona Rattlers’ performance halfway through the season
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Justin LaCertosa covers Phoenix Sports News for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on his X account, @LaCertosaSports
