After a heartbreaking 55-50 loss to the Vegas Knight Hawks, the 8-5 Rattlers are currently sitting in 5th place in the west, just outside of a playoff spot.

They will look for a huge win in week 16, against the 4-8 Iowa Barnstormers.

Iowa got off to hot start when quarterback Brandon Alt found wide receiver Quian Williams in the endzone for a 22-yard touchdown on the opening drive.

The Rattlers would respond, but a field goal and a rouge from Barnstormers kicker Gabriel Rui would put Iowa up 11-7 at the end of the first quarter. 

From there it would be all Rattlers, as they would put up 20 unanswered points

This would be in huge part to the defense as Alt would get picked off by Rattlers corner Jarmaine Doubs, which would lead to a Shannon Brooks 2-yard rushing touchdown to put the Rattlers up 27-11.

The Barnstormers would eventually answer back, but they left too much time on the clock as the Rattlers executed a perfect 1-minute drill that ended with Brooks 3rd rushing touchdown of the day to put the Rattlers up 34-18 heading into half.

The second half was more of the same domination, as Brandon Alt would be picked off by Rattlers corner Dillon Winfrey, for Alt’s.

The rattlers would score off the turnover on a Dalton Sneed 5-yard rushing touchdown which would put the rattlers up 41-18.

After another stop by the rattler defense, they would blow the game wide open with yet another Dalton Sneed rushing touchdown, which was his 3rd of the game to make it 48-18 Rattlers.

The Barnstormers would start to make a comeback when Brandon Alt connected with Quian Williams on a 37-yard touchdown bomb, with the added two-point conversion they would cut the lead to 22.

They even recovered the onside kick, to get the ball back, however Alt would get picked off by Rattlers corner Davontae Merriweather, which lead to Shannon Brooks 4th touchdown of the day and that pretty much sealed the deal.

The Rattlers ended up winning 55-26

The defense was a huge factor for the rattlers tonight as they forced 3 turnovers and held the Barnstormers to under 30 points.

Rattlers corner Dillon Winfrey told Northeast Valley News, “We got hit in the mouth last week and we took it personally,” Winfrey said.

On the offensive side of the ball the key factor was the ground game as the Rattlers had 7 rushing touchdowns in the win.

“All the credit goes to the o-line, they are moving them boys upfront, they played great, anytime they are getting push on the front line we always going to be successful,” Brooks said.

With the Rattlers win and the Wranglers losing to San Diego, The Arizona Rattlers find themselves in 4th place and just a half game back of Vegas for the 2 seed.

With three weeks left in the season, this is the time when teams in the playoff race start to scoreboard watch for playoff seeding. 

Coach Kevin Guy and the Rattlers would not be one of those teams.

“We are watching our scoreboard, we are worried about us,” Guy said.

Next week the Rattlers will host the 2-11 Sugar Skulls for their last home game of the year.