Monday, March 28, 2005 | 9:55 a.m.
Enough battling for burgers. Reach up for the steak already.
With the filet mignon of a division lead and playoff security dangling in front of them, the Gladiators shift from their longtime mindset of battling to remain average to trying to build on prosperity tonight against surging San Jose at the Thomas & Mack Center.
A win would extend the Gladiators' winning streak to three games and also push the team three games over .500 for the first time since its arrival in Las Vegas in 2003. San Jose comes in equally hot, having won three consecutive games after a slow start.
Locked in a five-team race for four playoff spots in the diluted American Conference, Las Vegas (5-3) needs a victory to gain a season split with the defending champion SaberCats (4-3), who ripped Las Vegas, 66-31, in San Jose. A Gladiators loss puts the SaberCats a game ahead in the loss column, which essentially becomes two games if San Jose owns a tie-breaking season sweep.
The SaberCats took advantage of a battered Las Vegas squad in the first matchup, as quarterback Clint Dolezel (finger), receiver Marcus Nash (knee), cornerback Marvin Taylor (ejection) and lineman Steve Konopka (groin) all did not finish the game. Las Vegas did not score in the second half after trailing by just nine points at halftime.
Dolezel, who has thrown 14 touchdown passes in two games since returning from the broken finger that cost him five weeks, looks forward to leading a healthier team into a more even fight.
"Hopefully, we owe them a little bit," Dolezel said. "We're hoping they're living in that last game because it won't be that way."
The SaberCats bring the league's top-rated scoring offense (58.6 ppg) to face the Gladiators' top-rated scoring defense (42.3 ppg). Gladiators linebacker Frank Carter feels his unit gets an extra boost from Dolezel's return - the ability to not need to be perfect.
"With that guy 13 (Dolezel) back there, we just have so much confidence in him out there in the huddle," Carter said. "We know in the huddle if something does happen on defense, we still can score out there on offense."
After facing San Jose, Las Vegas visits Colorado on Sunday before returning home to face lowly Grand Rapids next Friday, ending a stretch of three games in 12 days and then heading into a bye week. With a win likely against the Rampage, the next two weeks against San Jose and Colorado go a long way toward determining whether the Gladiators must fight for table scraps or feast on room service.
"This is, I think, our biggest game so far this year," Dolezel said.
Las Vegas coach Ron James said that while his team's immediate concern is San Jose, the Gladiators read the standings and project forward like everyone else.
"You're keeping an eye on your surroundings, but your focus is on what's directly in front of you," James said.
In the Arena Football League's current playoff format - the third different format the league has used in three years - all four division winners earn at least a first-round playoff home game, while the two wild card teams in both conferences take to the road.
Winning the division could potentially allow the Gladiators to play the entire postseason at the Thomas & Mack, including ArenaBowl XIX. If Las Vegas gets a wild card berth, the situation changes: It has never won a road game against San Jose, Los Angeles (5-3), Colorado (6-2) or Chicago (4-4) - the four potential foes in the American Conference playoffs.
The Gladiators produced 8-8 records in the past two seasons, the first of which earned a playoff berth. Last season, Las Vegas came back from a 21-point deficit to defeat San Jose, 44-35, at the Thomas & Mack, the high point of a four-game winning streak that partially salvaged an awful first half of the season.
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