Knight Hawks begin quest for Indoor Football League title

Wednesday wasn’t the cleanest practice day for the Knight Hawks.

It neared 100 degrees at 8:30 a.m. at Heritage Park in Henderson. The heat was unbearable to the point that players drowned their bucket hats in ice water to cool their heads.

“Battle of attrition,” coach Mike Davis said with a smile. “It’s good to be able to see who’s mentally tough.”

The players returned to Lee’s Family Forum about 10 a.m. excited to continue the week’s preparation for a couple of reasons. First of all, they were practicing in the air-conditioned facility, and they were doing so for a playoff game.

The Knight Hawks, in their third year in the Indoor Football League, will play their first playoff game at 7 p.m. Saturday against the Arizona Rattlers at Lee’s Family Forum.

An 11-5 record locked up the No. 2 seed and home-field advantage for the first round for the Knight Hawks. The winner faces the winner of Sunday’s game between the top-seeded Bay Area Panthers — the defending IFL champions — and the No. 4 seed San Diego Strike Force.

Nerves are common with playoff football. But the Knight Hawks approached this week the same way they did during the 19-week regular season.

“We try to take every game the same,” quarterback Ja’Rome Johnson said. “Treat every game like a playoff game, because you never know if it’ll be your last game.”

Johnson will shoulder the most responsibility in this environment.

He enters the postseason after earning his fourth IFL Offensive Player of the Week award of the season. Johnson was responsible for all seven touchdowns — five passing, two rushing — in a 49-25 win over the Tucson Sugar Skulls on Saturday.

Johnson capped an MVP-type season with 80 total touchdowns, including a league-high 37 rushing. He will lead a team that finished second in the league at 51.9 points per game.

“When we’re on our game, there’s nobody that can stop us from doing anything but us,” Johnson said.

Defense shows improvement

The Knight Hawks’ defense has also turned a corner.

It had the sixth-best scoring defense in the league (43.9 ppg) but has had waves of inconsistency, especially during a three-game losing streak after a 7-0 start.

Second-half defense has been the story.

After allowing 26 points in the second half to San Diego on July 6, the Knight Hawks have given up 31 combined second-half points in their past two games, including seven against Tucson.

Defensive back Malik Hausman had a game-high eight tackles and an interception for a defense that held Tucson quarterback Vince Espinoza to 10-of-21 passing for 87 yards.

“I think we’re just playing together as a team,” Hausman said. “Executing the game plan on defense the right way.”

Rattlers have impressive history

The Knight Hawks swept the season series against the Rattlers, winning their opener 45-43 in Phoenix on March 24, then 55-50 at home June 22.

Arizona is one of the most accomplished indoor/arena football teams of all time. The Rattlers won five ArenaBowl championships from 1994 to 2014 in the Arena Football League, including a three-peat from 2012 to 2014.

They won the IFL Championship — then known as the United Bowl — in their first year in the league in 2017 and have made the playoffs every year since.

Kevin Guy, Arizona’s coach since 2008, tied the sport’s all-time wins record with his 251st Saturday — the Rattlers’ 10th victory in their past 12 games.

The Rattlers have a dual-threat quarterback of their own, a familiar one to Las Vegas fans. Former UNLV quarterback Dalton Sneed was fifth in the IFL with 40 touchdown passes and added 10 rushing scores.

“They’re playing at a high level right now,” Davis said.

Contact Danny Webster at dwebster@reviewjournal.com. Follow @DannyWebster21 on X.