Steve Videtich, the man tied for the all-time Arena Football League lead in field goals, felt good about his kick with eight seconds remaining on Saturday night at EnergySolutions Arena. A true kick would have given his Utah Blaze a season-opening victory.
But the 36-yard attempt clanked off the right upright.
Final score: Arizona Rattlers 63, Utah Blaze 62.
"I looked up and it was going right down the middle," said Videtich about his potential game-winner. "Then at the last second it just sliced out to the right. The wind took it I guess."
He was kidding about the wind part, but he, his teammates and coaches were hardly in a joking mood after losing to the rival Rattlers for the fifth time in six tries since entering the league in 2006.
It didn't look like a last-second field goal would be necessary a few seconds earlier. Blaze quarterback Joe Germaine hit J'Sharlon Jones on what would have been the go-ahead 25-yard touchdown pass with 20 seconds left. But a penalty on the Blaze nullified the score.
"Our veteran offensive lineman who has been in this league forever, Devin Wyman, doesn't declare as a tight end," said Blaze coach Danny White of the penalty. "How do you explain that? We get a touchdown, but they bring it back on that."
The late penalty wasn't Utah's only big second-half mistake. Videtich, after being true on each of his first eight extra points, missed on his ninth with 5:45 to play in the game, leaving the Blaze up just six points instead of seven.
"We can't miss extra points and we can't miss field goals," lamented White.
Utah got off to an outstanding start, scoring each time it had the ball and even twice on defense — once on a Vaka Manupuna fumble recovery and once on an interception return — to take a 42-28 lead with two minutes to play in the first half.
If the Blaze could have taken that two-score lead into the intermission, they would have had the opportunity to go up by three scores early in the third because they were getting the opening kickoff to start the second half.
But after Arizona scored to cut the gap to 42-35 late in the second quarter, Utah's drive stalled on the 3-yard line with seconds to play. Videtich lined up for a chip-shot field goal, on the last play of the half, but the snap was high and holder Jason Gesser was forced to throw a desperation pass that was intercepted in the end zone.
Utah then failed to score on their first two possessions of the third quarter, as Germaine threw an interception and the Rattlers defense held on downs. When the dust had settled, the Rattlers had scored 21 straight points to take a 49-42 lead.
"We had horrible execution at the end of the first half and at the start of the third quarter," said White. "It was pretty remarkable that it ended up as close as it was."
It was a back-and-forth game from there.
Germaine was 19-of-31 passing for 236 yards and five touchdowns. Huey Whittaker caught two of those TD passes and rushed for two additional scores, but it wasn't enough.
New Rattlers quarterback Lang Campbell had eight TD passes, including three to Kevin Knickerson.
The good news for the Blaze is that their defense made several stops, enough to win on many nights in the high-scoring AFL.
"Our defense kept us in it with the turnovers and pass rush was what we hoped it would be," said White.
Meanwhile, the party celebrating Siaha Burley's return to Utah turned out to be a bust. The advance stories about the former Blaze-star-turned-Rattler had been written. Television graphics and pre-game features had been produced.
But then the guest of honor failed to show up.
Burley, the AFL's offensive player of the year with the Blaze last season, signed as a free agent with his hometown Rattlers this offseason. But Burley, even though his name didn't show up on any injured lists this week, didn't make the trip. The Rattlers' public relations department wasn't talking, except to say that he was one of the team's four scratches. Rumor has it, however, that he was back in Phoenix nursing a pulled hamstring.
Utah will go for its first win of the season on the road against the Cleveland Gladiators next Sunday. Cleveland is the relocated franchise that was in Las Vegas last season.
E-mail: lojo@desnews.com