By RICHARD OBERT
Inside the AFL

This time, nobody could blame quarterback Sherdrick Bonner for another ArenaBowl failure.

He held up his end Sunday. The defense didn't. And the Rattlers can look back at missed tackles, blown coverages and a lack of heat for a 69-62 loss to the San Jose SaberCats in ArenaBowl XVIII.

A crowd of 17,391 – the largest ever go see a Rattlers game in their 13-year history at America West Arena – couldn't shout "defense" loud enough.

San Jose's James Roe looked like Jim Brown in the final two seconds of the first half, breaking two tackles against a shocked and confused defense for a 38-yard, mind-boggling touchdown that gave the visitors a 35-28 lead and the momentum it would need for a second Arena championship victory in three years over their Western Division rival.

The teams combined for the most points scored in an Arena Football League championship game. San Jose scored the most points in a title game, thanks to Most Valuable Player Mark Grieb's bowl record eight touchdown passes, five to Roe.

The Rattlers lost to San Jose 52-14 and to Tampa Bay 43-29 in the previous two ArenaBowls, in which Bonner combined for three touchdown passes and two interceptions.

Sunday, Bonner passed for 367 yards and seven touchdowns and didn't get picked off. But offense alone couldn't win this one.

"Having a great game means absolutely zero to me," Bonner said. "I don't have a ring. And that's what means a lot to me right now." San Jose (14-5) won its second title in three years. Arizona (13-6) hasn't won a championship since it beat Iowa at home in 1997. This was the Rattlers' third straight ArenaBowl loss, creeping them closer to the Buffalo Bills' legacy (four straight Super Bowl losses).

"In a championship game, you lose by one point or 50 points, it doesn't matter," said Rattlers coach Danny White, who may have coached his last game in Arizona.

The Rattlers, tired of tying San Jose by constantly trading touchdowns, tried to shift momentum by going for two with 31 seconds left, after Bonner threw his seventh TD pass.

But Bonner's pass to Hunkie Cooper on a quick slant in the end zone was too low and the Rattlers trailed 63-62.

Chuck Reed took the on-side kick and ran it in from 7 yards out for a San Jose score. Dan Frantz missed the point-after try and the Rattlers had 30 seconds to tie or win.

Bonner, starting at his 19, worked the ball with four straight completions to the san Jose 4. Two seconds remained. Everybody stood.

Again, Bonner went to the man he often went to in the crunch in their 12-year careers. This time, Cooper said he felt contact with Rashied Davis before the ball got there. Incomplete. Game over.

"I never touched it," Cooper said. "He came across my back. "It's a play we've been running the last 12 years. Every time in the red zone, they had contact on me. But still it's a play you've got to make." Bonner said, "Hunkie made the read and got tripped up by the guy when I was throwing the ball. It just didn't go our way."

That didn't decide the game.

A pass rush that keyed a 10-game winning streak after a 3-5 start was non-existent. And there were way too many breakdowns in the secondary. After Grieb was stopped on the game's fist series, the Rattlers became generous.

With two seconds left and the score tied at 28, the Rattlers dropped into a soft cover-three zone. Starting at his 12, Roe took a pass from Grieb, faked out Kelvin Hunter, flattened Randy Gatewood and bounced off Cooper on his way to the end zone.

It put the pressure on the Rattlers' offense, who had possession to start the second half.

"We couldn't get any pressure on defense and they were very lenient with the holding," White said. "They didn't call any holding penalties all night and that hurt us. If you give (Grieb), with those receivers he has, time to step back and read the defense, you are in for a long night." In the Rattlers' two victories over the SaberCats late in the regular season, Roe was out with injuries. Sunday, he made his acquaintance known with eight catches for 119 yards and five touchdowns.

Offensive specialist James Hundon added seven catches for 107 yards. After having a broken nose re-set in the final quarter, Hundon gave San Jose a 56-49 lead with 8:36 left on a 33-yard pass play.