Talons Face Tough Road Test at Arizona

Originally Published: Apr 21, 2010 9:24 PM CDT

Curt Hill
Oklahoma Sports Staff Writer

TULSA, Oklahoma – After a week of rest, the Tulsa Talons (2-0) return to action this week when they travel to Arizona. Although it was an early bye week, the players enjoyed the rest before their first road game of the season.

“It helps a lot,” defensive back Andre Burns said. “We had some extra film session time to get prepared to play in a different element after playing two games at home.”

“To get on a plane when you’re hurt is not a very easy thing to do,” quarterback Justin Allgood said. “Any bumps and bruises on a plane are going to be three times as worse. So at least we're going to be a little more healthy to be on it.”

The Talons, who used home field advantage to pick up wins over Tampa Bay and Dallas, will be facing one of the toughest crowds in the AFL when they take the field on Friday night. Talons head coach Mitch Allner was one of the 14,494 people who watched the Rattlers host Chicago last week and knows the atmosphere at the U.S. Airways Center will be a challenge.

“It was crazy. They had 14,000 people in the arena, and it was loud,” Allner said. “It’s going to be a tough environment to play in, but I’m looking forward to it. We've got a lot of veteran guys that have played in these types of environments before.”

The Rattlers (1-1) fell to the Rush 70-56, but gave the top team in the AFL Coaches Poll a tough test. Nick Davila led the charge by completing 34 of his 54 passes for 346 yards and eight touchdowns. Talons fans may remember Davila, who led Spokane past Tulsa in the conference championship game last season.

“He's gotten better, and he's got better athletes around him,” Allner said. “Nick is a quarterback that gave us a lot of troubles when we went out to Spokane, and we're going to have put pressure on him.”

If the pass rush is unable to pressure Davila, the defensive backs will be busy all night. Three Rattler wide receivers had at least 10 catches, 100 yards receiving, and one score in the loss to Chicago. One of those players is Trandon Harvey, who is a threat on offense and special teams.

“Harvey is a very wise AFL veteran and he is respected by us,” Burns said. “But we're fortunate to have very good wide receivers. (Jeff) Hughley is a little jitterbug himself, and he's helping us out with his football skills.”

Despite the fact that Hughley is leading the team in all-purpose yards, Allner is looking for more from him on Friday night.

“Donovan (Morgan) has had some pretty good games,” Allner said. “But we really need to get Jeff (Hughley) on track and get him going a little bit more. He's already put up some great numbers, but I don't think he's touched what he can do.”

Hughley and the Talons’ receivers will receive a stiff test from the Rattler defensive backs. Arizona has forced six interceptions this season and is holding teams to 251 yards passing.

“Looking at them on film, they're good,” Allgood said. “They make some mistakes, but they do a lot of good things. Hopefully, we don't mistakes and give them some more turnovers.”

While Allner was impressed with the Rattler defensive backs, he knows the key to protecting the ball is getting protection up front.

“They've got four guys that can really rush, so we're really going to have to protect Justin and be smart with the football,” Allner said.

The Talons and Rattlers are set to kick off at 9:35 p.m. on Friday.