Friday, May 13, 2005 | 9:41 a.m.
7:30 p.m., Staples Center TV: FSN; Radio: ESPN 920-AM
Hide the horseshoes and hand grenades.
Three years into their Las Vegas life, close will not cut it anymore for the Gladiators. They have teased with potential, mixing in a stunning win or two to show just how good they can be. They have risen from ashes and threatened to take off.
In the games that matter most, the ones where they could leap from good to great, from scraping by hand-to-mouth to rolling in prosperity, the Gladiators have come up short time and again. It most notably happened last year at Los Angeles, when Las Vegas lost the late-season game it had to have to make the playoffs after recovering from a 3-7 hole.
It would take just one broad stroke Saturday night at Staples Center to wipe out that near-miss reputation. The Gladiators face Los Angeles knowing that a win affords them control of their playoff fate, maybe even a shot at winning the Western Division. They also know that a loss could knock them from playoff contention by the time they eat dinner Sunday.
The Gladiators backed into the playoffs at 8-8 in 2003 before suffering a humiliating 43-point loss at Arizona in the opening round. They dug a spectacular hole last season that could not be escaped, again posting an 8-8 mark. And they have stood at the threshold of success for more than four months this year, each time stubbornly stubbing their toe and staying put.
Winning Saturday's game, unquestionably the most important in their Las Vegas tenure, would allow the Gladiators to move past almost all of it. They get it.
"We're treating it like last year," Gladiators quarterback Clint Dolezel said. "It's do or die. We don't want to depend on anybody else."
A win at Los Angeles and a win next week against Arizona at the Thomas & Mack Center guarantee a playoff spot for the Gladiators. Two wins and a San Jose loss give Las Vegas the division crown.
Most players will say they don't look at the scenarios, but Dolezel said it is nearly impossible not to given the magnitude of these final two weeks in which the future of the franchise will be determined.
"I do, no doubt," Dolezel said. "I'm sure you're probably not supposed to, but if you love the game, it's hard not to. I know the scenarios pretty well, but all those scenarios can be out the door if we don't get our business handled on our side of the ball."
The past two games suggest Las Vegas (8-6) is ready for the challenge of a scrappy Los Angeles team that has won three consecutive games and is fueling off the tragic death of lineman Al Lucas earlier in the year. The Avengers (9-5) looked disheveled in losing to the Gladiators, 46-37, in the first week of the season in Las Vegas, but that is no longer the case.
"L.A.'s gotten better as the year's gone on," Gladiators coach Ron James said. "They have gotten used to their system and the players that they've plugged in have been quite productive."
The Gladiators are improving as well. Last week's 58-38 whitewash of Dallas was their most complete game of the season. The previous week, Las Vegas fell 63-62 at Chicago on a missed pass interference call in the end zone on a two-point try that would have put the Gladiators ahead with 17 seconds left. Still, the offense played extremely well in both games and the defense came alive with five takeaways last week.
"We're really close to where we were last year when we made the run with the five of six games that we won," Dolezel said. "The defense is dominating like they were and the offense is clicking pretty good, tough to stop.
"We'll be scary to play, I'll promise you that. I wouldn't want to play us."
Nor does anyone want to play the Avengers, who posted an impressive 54-42 win at San Jose last week to gain control of the division. Los Angeles is featuring a top-flight pass rush, led by league sack leader Silas Demary (11.5 sacks). The Avengers have recorded 21 sacks to rank second in the league, although Las Vegas is tied for the league lead with just four sacks allowed.
"They're more aggressive than they were in the beginning of the year," Gladiators lineman Steve Konopka said.
For those who believe in twisted fate, the Los Angeles defense is led by Mike Wilpolt, the former Indiana coach who was a finalist for the Las Vegas head coaching spot last offseason before James was promoted. The Avengers lead the league in turnover margin at plus-19, while the Gladiators rank 14th at minus-7.
The Gladiators' opening-week win was their first in four tries against the Avengers since moving to Las Vegas. Los Angeles traditionally poses problems for the Gladiators because it is a fundamentally sound bunch that waits for opponents to screw up - something Las Vegas has been prone to do in past years.
"We've always been the team against them that has made the critical errors," James said. "Overcoming that like we did the first game of the year I thought was vital for our season's hopes."
To do that again means the Las Vegas pass rush must emulate that of the Avengers. While the Gladiators have posted 16 sacks, most of those came early in the season and leading pass rusher Frank Carter is sidelined with a broken thumb.
The opportunity is there: Los Angeles ranks near the bottom of the league with 22 sacks allowed. Considering how Las Vegas used its rush to fluster Dallas quarterback Clint Stoerner last week, a similar pressure of Los Angeles quarterback John Kaleo appears necessary for another strong defensive showing.
In turn, a solid defensive outing is needed for a win against a Los Angeles offense clicking at 52.4 points per game. A solid performance overall would do more than give Las Vegas the tiebreaker against Los Angeles; it could finally give their fans a reason to believe that success is here now instead of in some far-off promise.
"The tough thing is, if we get a couple of bounces - Chicago, that last play against Austin - that went in other directions, we'd be division winners and automatically in already," Konopka said. "We don't want to let those mistakes take the season away from us."
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