VEGAS SET TO TAKE ON TUCSON IN A POTENTIAL PLAYOFF PREVIEW

After the Vegas Knight Hawks handled the Tucson Sugar Skulls 64-43 back on March 29th at Tucson Arena, the last thing that anyone around the Indoor Football League world thought was that this Saturday's rematch in Henderson would be so intriguing and that these two teams could potentially meet in the first round of the playoffs. But that's where we are as the defending IFL champion Knight Hawks (9-1) bring a nine-game winning streak into Saturday night's contest against the new-look Sugar Skulls (4-6) at Lee's Family Forum (10pm ET Overnght). They 

During their bye week three weeks ago, the Sugar Skulls hit control-alt-delete on their season changing about a third of their roster and it's paid off with two straight wins that has moved them past San Antonio and into the fourth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference.

"I'm extremely happy," said Sugar Skulls Head Coach Rayshaun Kizer. "After the bye week, we revamped our roster so I'm happy that the pieces are falling into place."

One of those pieces is quarterback Ja'Rome Johnson who was part of those bye week changes when the Sugar Skulls acquired him in a trade with New Mexico and he has ignited their offense.

"I'm just happy that we have somebody as experienced as Ja'Rome to help lead the way on the offensive side giving us the spark that we needed," said Kizer. 

With Johnson, now with Tucson, comes another juicy storyline that has been added to this week's game. Johnson was the 2024 IFL Most Valuable Player when he was a member of the Knight Hawks. This Saturday, he'll be back in town with his new team.

"With the addition of Ja'Rome, it's given their defense a little more confidence because their offense is scoring points," said Knight Hawks Head Coach Mike Davis. "I like to think we have a couple of tendencies on him. At the end of the day, you have to contain Ja'Rome. I don't think they want to get in a track meet with us. We're going to try and make them one-dimensional." 

When Johnson was in Vegas, he was slinging passes to wide receiver Quentin Randolph who remains a big part of the Knight Hawks offense today.

For Randolph, who saw some action as a defensive back this past week in the win over Northern Arizona, it will be nice to see his former teammate, but knows Johnson will be a pain in the neck to deal with. 

"That's my guy," said Randolph. "Just him touching the ball at the beginning of every play, you don't know what to expect. He's an elite athlete and a former MVP."

Randolph made the game-saving play in overtime this past Sunday as Vegas survived a scare from Northern Arizona winning 71-70. And now this week, they have another challenge in the upstart Sugar Skulls who will be looking to show the IFL world that they are for real after their roster shakeup.

Vegas is certainly paying attention.

"It's not the same Tucson team," said Randolph. "These guys are hungry. They're fighting for playoff contention trying to stay in that fourth seed. We're expecting a battle…another dog fight. We're going in with the same gameplan and the same mentality that everybody is going to give us their best shot. We need to prepare for that mentally and physically and it should be a good game this weekend." 

The Sugar Skulls come into this game off of a 48-22 win over New Mexico this past Sunday. Ja'Rome Johnson led the way with three touchdown passes and a touchdown run, but the defense also stepped up holding the Chupacabras to 151 yards of total offense. Most of the bye week changes came on the offensive side of the ball as the defense has been, for the most part, solid all season.

Except for two games.

"We played (Vegas) in the first game of the season and I felt like that game and the Rattlers game were the only two games that the defense didn't really show our identity as a defense this year," said Sugar Skulls defensive back, kick returner and long snapper Aaron Jackson, who returned the opening kickoff against New Mexico for a touchdown. 

"But for every other game, we've imposed our will on every offense. We're definitely looking to get back against Vegas. Just looking forward to the competition and seeing what they've improved on what they lack in at this point of the season."

It's hard to find any faults in the Knight Hawks who followed up last year's National Championship by capturing the inaugural IFL Cup in-season tournament in New Jersey a few weeks ago. They now have their sights set on a second straight National Championship, but they head back to work with a bad taste in their mouths when it comes to what happened this past Sunday against Northern Arizona.

That was not a performance symbolic of a championship level team.

"We had a (bad) week of practice," said Davis. "We thought we were going to take them for granted. We showed up and went through the motions. That's what happens. We were fortunate enough to come out with a win. It shows the resiliency of the team but we can't let that happen." 

Tucson will certainly take a long look at what New Mexico did that gave Vegas so much trouble this past week but, at the end of the day, the Sugar Skulls will just look to keep things rolling against an outstanding Knight Hawks team that has moved past Green Bay and into the top spot in the last IFL Coaches Poll.

"We're looking forward to the challenge," said Kizer. "It's going to let me know exactly where we are as a team and if we have the right guys in the locker room to compete and be on the same field as Vegas. When you look at Vegas, they're just a well-oiled machine. We just have to play a perfect game this week in order to beat Vegas and we have to make sure we score on every possession." 

Defensively, the Sugar Skulls will have their hands full with the high-octane Knight Hawks offense led by quarterback Jayden DeLaura who has a bevy of choices to get the ball to including Randolph, Deshon Stoudemire, Josh Tomas, and Senika McKie.

So, how can Tucson slow Vegas down?

"I would say just being gap-sound," said Jackson. "(DeLaura) is a pretty good quarterback. He doesn't really make too many mistakes. They have a plethora of talent and greatly coached. This game is going to be a close one and is going to come down to which team gets that one key stop or that one key score. It's a big game." 

When Vegas looks across the field at Tucson, they will obviously see a different team than what they saw earlier in the season, especially on the offensive side of the ball. When the Knight Hawks are on offensive, they will be facing a really good Sugar Skulls defense led by Jackson.

Vegas will try to do what they can to limit what Jackson can do.  

"Aaron is a great player," said Davis. "He's dynamic. When he's able to play on the roof and runs sideline to sideline, he goes and gets the football. We had pretty good success the first game in Tucson. Their defense is solid. They've gotten a lot better." 

While the Knight Hawks are no strangers to playing in marquee matchups over the last couple of years, a spotlight game like this Saturday night is newfound territory for the Sugar Skulls who will have a lot of eyeballs fixated on this game. It's an opportunity for them to show everyone around the league that they should be taken seriously and what better way to do that than to put on a show on the home field of the champs.

"I feel like the guys have been working hard all season, for the most part," said Kizer. "After the bye week, the guys came back focused and re-energized so it's good to see those guys get the recognition that they need on the field. Just hoping for a good game. I'm excited for this weekend. The players are looking forward to it."

That would be an understatement, especially for the Sugar Skulls who have been around since day one in March.

"It's very big for the guys who are still here from training camp," said Jackson. "We've seen the change and we've seen the turnover. We always felt like we had a good organization and a good group. We just added some pieces that we needed to pick up on and I feel like we have those pieces. It feels amazing just playing out there." 

Vegas and Tucson will be meeting for the second and final time during the regular season. However, if the standings remain the same once the postseason arrives, we could be looking at a potential first-round playoff matchup. For that to happen, the Knight Hawks would have to maintain the number one seed while the Sugar Skulls would have to hold off San Antonio for the fourth seed.

There's still some time before these teams can start thinking about a third meeting this season.

"We need a couple more wins," said Davis. "We know it's going to be them or San Antonio. As long as we keep handling our business, things run through Vegas. If we let something like last weekend happen and don't come out on the positive end, then we're back in a dog fight with San Diego and Arizona and that's not where you want to be." 

And that message from the Head Coach has trickled down to the players. 

"We don't like to look that far ahead," said Randolph. "In order to play these guys as the fourth seed, we would have to be the one seed which means we would have to continue to win out the rest of the season like we want to do."

But for Tucson, this game on Saturday means the world to them. A few weeks ago, playing in a game with this much importance didn't seem possible. But everything changed during the bye week when Head Coach Rayshaun Kizer and Sugar Skulls owner Edmund Marquez decided to do something that generally happens in Vegas…

…they decided to roll the dice and tried to make something of this season.

And the roll of the dice came up a winner as the Sugar Skulls find themselves in the postseason discussion.

"We're on a roll now," said Jackson. "All we have to do is keep believing in ourselves and believing in our organization and believing in each other and we'll be all right." 

All IFL eyes will be locked on Henderson, Nevada Saturday night for one of the most intriguing matchups of the season. You have the defending champion Vegas Knight Hawks, looking for their tenth straight win, and the upstart Tucson Sugar Skulls, looking to shock the indoor football world.

It's Vegas baby! Anything can happen!