'We crack and melt': Rattlers lose first home regular season game since 2018 in late meltdown to Frisco Fighters

A former Rattlers backup quarterback returned to Footprint Center to give the Rattlers their first home regular-season loss since May 20, 2018.

T.J. Edwards ran for a 1-yard score with four seconds left, then hit Phillip Barnett for the two-point play to give the Frisco Fighters a 48-45 victory before 8,982 fans Saturday night.

Frisco (7-2) ties the Rattlers (7-2) for the best record in the Indoor Football League. It was the Rattlers' second loss in three weeks.

The Rattlers' defense had a chance to seal the win, but, on a third-down play, the Rattlers corralled Edwards along the boards on a seven-yard run play that would have been short of the first down. But an extra shove sent Edwards over the sideline boards with 35 seconds left.

The Rattlers, leading 45-40, were assessed a penalty for that, giving the Fighters a first down at the 3. Out of time outs, the Rattlers watched Edwards run a play and fall down a yard short of the end zone to eat up clock.

"We get them to a fourth down at the end of the game and give them a stupid penalty," coach Kevin Guy said. "That gave them a first down to run all the time off the clock. If they would have scored right there, we would have had time to come back and score.

"But that time out we had to use earlier in the quarter on offense cost us. Just the stupid penalty at the end of the game, when we just had a huddle and said, 'Do not commit a penalty.' They score, they score, but do not commit a penalty."

The Rattlers (7-2) not only were letting the play clock run down that forced a time out, but they were missing tackles on defense that led to big plays by Edwards and tailback Justin Rankin.

They were outscored 21-7 in the final quarter, after taking a 38-27 lead.

Asked what he was most displeased about — the poor tackling or the lack of poise — Guy said, "All of the above."

The Rattlers gave up 142 rushing yards. A couple of times, they had Rankin apparently stopped behind the line of scrimmage, before he shed tackles and ran for big gains, one of which was a 39-yard touchdown in the third quarter that cut Arizona's lead to 31-27. He had 62 yards on eight carries.

"There was certainly nothing to be happy about," Guy said. "In the first half, every time I looked up, we had somebody laying on the ground. We talk about this all the time, we don't lay on the ground.

"When you're on the ground, that says you can be knocked down. That's not who we are. We are a dominant football team. We will be a dominant football team. I will make every change I need to make to make sure we are a dominant football team."

The Fighters (7-2) avenged a 49-35 loss to the Rattlers at home on April 30.

This time, they had Edwards at quarterback, inserting him in the second quarter after the Rattlers scored three consecutive touchdowns and took a 21-7 lead.

Edwards completely changed the game. He ran for 56 yards and three touchdowns and passed for 127 and two TDs, completing just six of nine.

Edwards was Drew Powell's backup last season with the Rattlers.

At one point, after hitting Jerminic Smith for a 41-yard touchdown with 5:51 to play to give the Fighters a 40-38 lead — their first lead since the opening minutes — Edwards yelled something at Guy that prompted a yellow flag to be thrown.

The unsportsmanlike conduct penalty pushed the extra point way back, but Bryce Crawford, who missed a field-goal try at the end of the first half, nailed the kick to make it a two-point game.

"Mentally weak," safety Dillion Winfrey said of the Rattlers' play a week after avenging the United Bowl loss to the Massachusetts Pirates at home. "Can't handle the pressure.

"We didn't do anything on defense. And the interception (I had) was lucky. They underthrew the guy. If they had led him, it was a touchdown. They were whooping our butt already. They got stops on defense and ran it down our throats on offense.

"It starts with me. I got ran over, giving up touchdowns. I mean, shoot, you all seen it, embarrassing."

Guy was asked about poise. It was the second time in two weeks the Rattlers blamed themselves for losing.

They lost in Tucson for the first time two week ago when they gave up more than 70 points.

"We don't have much poise," Guy said. "Every time the game gets tough, we crack and melt.

"We are not mentally tough at all. We got emotional guys who can't control their emotions when the game gets tight."

Powell, who was 17 of 30 for 195 yards and one TD and ran for 40 yards and three TDs on nine carries, had no time to do anything with the ball after he was given the ball at his 5 with four seconds to play.

Frisco had his receiver covered and Powell could merely get rid of the ball feebly for an incompletion.

Afterwards, Powell took offense to some of the Fighters celebrating on the Rattlers logo.

Powell had words with their players.

"We have to be a little more poised on our end, but they were trying to break it down on our logo," Powell said. "And that's not happening. Guys were jawing back and forth. We just have to be a little bit more composed on our end."

Beating the Rattlers at home has been almost undoable for teams since 2018. Powell was the quarterback for Iowa the last the the Rattlers lost at home in a regular-season game in 2018.

"When they beat us, it's like winning the Super Bowl," Powell said. "We need to worry about us, how are we going to raise our standards.

"When they play us, they're going to play their best game. If we don't play our best, we're going to be in a battle and lose."

To suggest human-interest story ideas and other news, reach Obert at richard.obert@arizonarepublic.com or 602-316-8827. Follow him on Twitter @azc_obert.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Rattlers lose first home regular season game since 2018 in meltdown