Monday, April 5, 2004 | 9:40 a.m.
"Armed and Dangerous" is the Las Vegas Gladiators' slogan. Apparently that's only when the gun is pointed at their own feet.
The Gladiators are freefalling out of playoff contention, having degenerated from pointing to a revamped roster and ArenaBowl dreams to pointing a hopeless finger at the game clock operator in Sunday's last-second loss to Chicago at the Thomas & Mack Center.
A sure victory and a return to the playoff race vanished into the hands of Chicago's Etu Molden, who hauled in a desperation pass off the net on the game's final play to send the Gladiators to a crushing 57-55 defeat in front of an announced crowd of 8,217. It was the second time this season that the Gladiators (3-6) gave away a lead in the final 30 seconds and the third time that they squandered a late fourth-quarter edge.
"It starts to get hard," Las Vegas quarterback Clint Dolezel said. "Those punches start getting harder and harder, especially this late in the season."
The slightest of jabs will pretty much end the Gladiators' season now. Stuck at 3-6 and far out of the eighth and final playoff spot, Las Vegas travels to Arizona this weekend to try to salvage some respect and a thread of postseason hope. Of course, nothing is ever easy for this team -- the Gladiators will be without head coach Frank Haege, who will serve his one-game league suspension for a post-ejection tirade during Las Vegas' last game against Arizona.
"Just snakebit," Haege said of his team's fortunes.
Sunday's last play perfectly captured that feeling. Rush quarterback Raymond Philyaw took the last snap with one second on the clock, firing a pass high off the net to create a jump ball -- a common final-play strategy in the Arena Football League. The 24-yard scoring pass occurred in a final second that most Las Vegas players thought -- or more aptly, wished -- had run off on Chicago's previous incomplete heave to the end zone.
The frustration of a fourth loss in five games and a promising season rapidly slipping away led to pleas for some home cooking.
"I was kind of shocked to see the one second on there, especially being at home," Gladiators defensive back Cornelius Bonner said. "You know, if anything, make the ref force you to put that second back on. Run the clock out."
Said Dolezel: "(The clock operator) needs to run that off and make them put it back on. Obviously, I'm not smiling about it. That's the way it should be done -- home-field advantage."
Bonner also admitted that the Gladiators did not defend the final play the way they practiced it.
"We've been going over it all year in practice, that if we came down to a situation like that and they threw the ball up, tackle the man that's in front of you," Bonner said.
How it came down to one play is as troubling as anything else. The Gladiators squandered a 14-point first-half lead and then blew a chance to go up by a touchdown with a minute to play when Ian Howfield's extra-point try was blocked by Chicago's John Moyer and returned for a two-point conversion by Jamie McGourty. What should have been a seven-point lead became just a 48-44 margin.
Still, after trading touchdowns with Chicago (6-2) in the final minute, the Gladiators liked their chances with a four-point lead and 21 seconds on the clock.
"We felt pretty good about it," Dolezel said. "Our defense had been making them work the whole game, they had no timeouts left, they had to drive 40 yards ... we were in a pretty good situation. Nine out of 10 times, we're going to win that game. Right now, the breaks are not going our way, obviously."
Philyaw completed an 11-yard pass to Lindsay Fleshman, who got out of bounds with 11 seconds left. Philyaw then threw incomplete to Jeremy McDaniel before barely missing Fleshman in the end zone on the controversial second-to-last play.
"I was hoping that they'd let the clock run out, but they didn't," Haege said.
One second remained and that is plenty of time for trouble to find the Gladiators this year.
"We've just got to make the play at the end," Haege said. "These games are going to come down to the end and we haven't been the team making the play. Colorado made the play, L.A. made a play and now Chicago made a play."
For the first 59 minutes, Las Vegas made plenty of plays. The Gladiators did not commit a turnover after coming into the game with a league-high 18 giveaways. Dennison Robinson even induced Philyaw's first interception of the season.
Las Vegas exploited Chicago's terrible run defense as fullback Frank Carter rushed for 49 yards and two touchdowns. Dolezel was efficient as usual, throwing for 285 yards and five touchdowns and running for another score.
Yet even with all of those good points, the games are quickly becoming more meaningless at a time of year when they should mean everything, and that is taking a toll on the Gladiators.
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