When asked about the play of the summer — Josh Byrne’s one-handed, between-the-legs goal against Archers that earned the No. 1 spot on ESPN’s “SportsCenter” Top 10 — Chaos coach Andy Towers described it like something out of a video game. 

“I think that was actually a four-button combo of right trigger, d-pad up, green, yellow,” Towers said in an on-field interview at halftime. “We haven’t seen that before. We’ve seen three-button combos. We’ve never seen a four-button combo.”

Towers and assistant coaches Ryan Curtis and Matt Pannetta have pressed all the right buttons at the right time in the PLL Championship Series. After the Chaos went 0-4 in group play, they got payback with a 19-14 win over Chrome in the elimination round. They backed it up with a 13-9 victory against the Archers to secure a spot in the championship game against the Whipsnakes, setting the stage for a No. 7 vs. No. 1 matchup. 

PLL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

Where: Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman, Utah
When: Sunday, 12:30 p.m. EDT
Watch: NBC
Whipsnakes Team Preview

Although Towers delivered a trademark impassioned speech to his team in training camp that everyone was “sleeping” on them, the Chaos are a seven seed in name only. Last year they secured the No. 1 playoff spot before losing their last three games. They’ve reversed that trend in the Championship Series.

In Utah, Towers emphasized that the Chaos wanted to win all their group play games, but were fully aware that every team made the elimination tournament and that was the only thing that mattered. They also kept their offensive looks “generic” while they tried to figure out the right combinations of personnel. 

“We definitely saved some stuff, so that we would be a different-looking team than our opponents in the playoffs would have seen on film,” Towers said. “That was certainly a conscious decision to peak at playoff time.”

Consistent through both playoff wins was an offense that featured better ball movement and the glaring absence of 2019 PLL MVP finalist Connor Fields. Despite two of their losses coming in overtime, the Chaos coaching staff knew a switch needed to be made. With Byrne, Curtis Dickson and Fields in the lineup, they lacked an interior scoring threat. Miles Thompson, who won the Tewaaraton Award with his brother, Lyle, in 2014 and finished his UAlbany career as the program’s all-time goals leader, was on the sideline. Something had to give. 

“Connor Fields is one of the best players on the planet, but we felt that with three perimeter-style attackmen, we didn't have an inside presence to put some pressure on the defenses we were seeing,” Towers said. “Seeing that we have one of arguably the best inside players in the history of the sport in Miles Thompson, we decided to make a change.

"It has nothing to do with Connor Fields and everything with us to do with us as coaches trying to prioritize winning. We weren't successful in round-robin play. We needed to try some other things, and we're just trying to put the winning combination on the field. To Connor Fields' credit, he was supportive of his team in a first-class way the last game. All he wants to do is win."

Towers and his staff told the team before the Championship Series started that their success would be based on how they were playing, not who they were playing. He explained that everyone was going to have a role in winning, but those roles can evolve over the course of the series. He said that’s been the case for everyone on the team. Their first and second midfield lines are more like 1A and 1B. Nine players tallied a point in their elimination game against Chrome. In the semifinals, 10 players made the score sheet, led by Byrne’s five-point outing. 

Lost to some degree amid the recent offensive barrage was the turnaround in by the defense. At the center is reigning PLL Goalie of the Year Blaze Riorden. Over the past two weeks, he’s put the chirps from Chrome attackman Matt Gaudet to rest.

“Blessed with an opportunity to play the game I love and a great learning experience,” Riorden captioned the clip of Gaudet telling the NBC Sports Broadcast Crew that he “sucks.”

“As my pops would say,” Riorden added on his Instagram story. “Sometimes chickens and sometimes feathers.” 

The farming reference about trying to catch a chicken reminds Riorden that bad days are an inevitable part of the process. “One day doesn’t define you, one moment doesn’t define you and one play doesn’t define you,” he said. 

Riorden has proven that thus far. Despite the subpar start, he leads the league in saves (105) and save percentage (63%). He also saved the team’s morale after their fourth consecutive loss in group play. As a captain, he wasn’t going to put up with poor body language or guys feeling sorry for themselves. In the locker room after the Waterdogs defeat, he challenged the Chaos and broke down what was left in front of them. They could either get a day’s rest, play a game and then go home, or they could spend the rest of the week together, take care of business and not roll over. 

Riorden’s teammates heeded the message and have been rolling ever since. 

Tommy Kelly rebounded from his struggles at the faceoff stripe to win 52 percent of his draws against the Archers. After passing the brain health protocol and getting cleared to play, defenseman Jack Rowlett held rookie sensation Grant Ament to two assists and zero goals. At times against the Archers, the Chaos even adopted a zone defense, a rarity in the pro game — which they did not use during group play. Curtis Dickson looks like Superman. On the defensive side, they’ve received vital contributions from captain Mark Glicini, Patrick Resch, Dan Coates and Jarrod Neumann, who relinquished his spot on the No. 1 assignment to help the flow of the unit. 

The defending PLL champion Whipsnakes will be the Chaos’ toughest test yet, but things are different than when the Whips rolled to a 12-7 win in group play. 

“We definitely need our best game to beat them,” Towers said. “It's only fitting that if we want to win this, we have to go through the best, and they have proven they're the best up to this point.”