Thursday, May 5, 2005 | 9:28 a.m.
The possible playoff scenarios for a 17-team league in which no team has clinched a playoff berth with three weeks left in the regular season are mind-numbingly complex.
Yet for the Gladiators, the setup could not be simpler: Three wins and they're in. There are some back-door options in which Las Vegas would only need two wins, but those require help from other teams.
In an inconsistent and mediocre season, that the Gladiators still control their playoff fate is remarkable.
"What's done is done," Gladiators quarterback Clint Dolezel said. "Thirteen games, whether you won them or lost them, if you still have a chance to have the playoffs in your own hands, you've got to like that."
At 7-6, Las Vegas is chasing one of four playoff spots in the American Conference, all of which are currently owned by teams with records of 8-5. Three of those teams - San Jose, Colorado and Chicago - own tiebreakers against the Gladiators by way of head-to-head wins this year, so passing them is unlikely.
The schedule stills sets up perfectly for the Gladiators to make their own way into the postseason. The easiest way is to win Saturday against Dallas (7-5-1) at the Thomas & Mack Center, next week at Los Angeles (8-5) and in the final week at home against Arizona (4-9). If Las Vegas does that, its 10-6 mark would guarantee a wild-card berth.
That is because the Gladiators would own the tiebreaker against Los Angeles because of a season sweep and the Avengers could not finish higher than Las Vegas.
There are a couple of other ways for the Gladiators to get in, most notably if they win this week and next week while having San Jose defeat Los Angeles this week. Las Vegas could even lose to Los Angeles by eight points or less and still win a head-to-head tiebreaker on point differential if the teams finished level.
Coach Ron James and his players, however, are not interested in the helper scenarios. Parity throughout the league has produced some strange results this season and they have no desire to place their hopes with other teams.
"The confluence of all those events has just kept us in it," James said. "If we're in the other conference, we're on the outside looking in right now. Now, we're in the thick of it. We're one game off from having the best record in the whole conference. It's weird."
Offensive specialist Marcus Nash appeared to be hit from behind significantly early on a pass from Dolezel that would have given Las Vegas a 64-63 lead. That was not called, nor was a potential penalty for a Chicago linebacker playing out of the linebacker box to cover receiver Joe Douglass in the end zone.
"Anybody who says there's not still some bitterness is fooling themselves and trying to fool everybody else," Dolezel said. "It is what it is. You've got to put the water under the bridge."
The sequence, combined with a seemingly phantom offside call that negated an earlier onside kick recovery, prompted the Gladiators to file a formal complaint with the league office.
"It's disheartening when you play hard and there are other factors that take the game out of your hands, so to speak," James said.
James, criticized earlier in the season for his handling of conversion attempts in a 42-41 loss to Austin, said he never wavered on choosing to go for two and the win. Considering the season-long extra-point struggles of kicker Mark Lewis and the defense's inability to stop the Rush offense even once, James seemed to have reason to pass on the tying kick try.
The crew opined that Chicago appeared to be the more experienced and poised team in the game, in large part because Trautwig and Parker saw what they perceived to be discord among the Gladiators. Cameras and microphones captured an exchange between Dolezel and Nash after a botched fourth-down pass, as well as some arguments among the defensive backs on coverage mishaps.
James fired back Wednesday, saying the NBC team is off base.
"They don't understand the team dynamic," James said. "The guys in the studio aren't around this team all the time. Yeah, Nash and Dolezel were talking with each other about the play and from an outside perspective, it sounds like they're bickering.
"But did you ever listen to your mom and dad argue over something? At the end of the thing, they love each other, but they're going to complain back and forth. That's the relationship those guys have with each other. We're an emotional team and we're going to be after each other to get the best out of each other."
James said he doesn't often watch the NBC or Fox Sports telecast, instead choosing game films, where he can form his own judgments.
"If I want to listen to other peoples' opinions about it, I'm married," James said. "I'll ask my wife."
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