GLENDALE, Ariz. — For the first 12 games of the season, the Arizona Ridge Riders looked capable of going anywhere they wanted.

The next 14 sent them searching for the team they used to be.

Now the search comes home.

Ridge Rider Days presented by Energy Transfer arrives at Desert Diamond Arena Oct. 8-10 with Arizona sitting No. 6 at 11-15 and the regular season down to its final nine games. What happens in Glendale will not decide everything, but at this stage of the season, three nights can change an awful lot.

Arizona opened the year 8-4, leading PBR Teams with 30 qualified rides and 2,634.65 aggregate points through its first 12 games.

Since then, the Ridge Riders are 3-11.

They have produced only 17 qualified rides during that stretch, with just one ride in 11 of those 14 games. A team that once set the pace has spent more than half the season trying to rediscover it.

Glendale offers the right place to start.

Arizona is 7-5 all-time at Ridge Rider Days and swept its home event 3-0 in 2024. Only the Texas Rattlers, at 8-3, have won more games in Glendale.

There is history here. There is comfort here.

More importantly, there is opportunity.

Everton Natan da Silva has done more than anyone to keep Arizona within striking distance. He has accounted for 10 of the Ridge Riders’ 17 qualified rides during their last 14 games and climbed from No. 22 in the MVP standings when the slide began to No. 4 entering Glendale.

If Arizona is going to change the direction of its season, da Silva has already shown what the rest of the roster must begin matching.

And the schedule will not allow the Ridge Riders to ease into anything.

Three nights that could reshape Arizona’s season

Thursday, Oct. 8 — No. 6 Arizona vs. No. 2 Austin

Arizona opens its homestand against perhaps the hottest team in PBR Teams.

The No. 2 Austin Gamblers enter Glendale 16-10 after winning eight of their last nine games, including a 3-0 sweep at Rattler Days in Fort Worth. Austin went 8-1 during the third quarter of the season, matching its entire win total from the first two quarters combined.

That surge has pushed the Gamblers to within two games of No. 1 Missouri.

For Arizona, Thursday is an immediate measuring stick.

A win would not simply protect the Ridge Riders from the teams pressing from behind. It would come against a legitimate regular-season championship contender and provide the kind of jolt Arizona has been searching for since its early-season run ended.

Austin arrives trying to take another step toward first.

Arizona arrives needing to prove it can still stop somebody headed there.

Friday, Oct. 9 — No. 6 Arizona vs. No. 10 Oklahoma

If Thursday is about looking up, Friday is about refusing to be dragged down.

The No. 10 Oklahoma Wildcatters enter Glendale 9-17, only two games behind Arizona.

That makes the matchup far more dangerous than the rankings might suggest.

Arizona sits at 11-15. Kansas City, New York and Florida are all 10-16. Oklahoma is 9-17.

Five teams. Two games of separation.

A victory would give Arizona valuable room in a congested lower half of the standings. A loss would pull Oklahoma directly into the Ridge Riders’ rearview mirror and make the final stretch considerably more uncomfortable.

There are games a team wants to win.

Then there are games it cannot afford to give away.

Friday feels much closer to the second kind.

Saturday, Oct. 10 — No. 6 Arizona vs. No. 3 Nashville

The home finale brings another championship contender — and one arriving with problems of its own.

The No. 3 Nashville Stampede are 16-10, tied by record with Austin and Carolina but positioned third on the tiebreaker. Nashville began the season 10-2 and spent much of the year near the top of the standings.

Now the Stampede arrive in Glendale having lost four straight.

That creates urgency on both sides.

Nashville needs to stop a skid before Missouri creates more separation. Arizona needs victories before the teams immediately behind it erase what little breathing room remains.

By Saturday, the standings may already look different than they did when the weekend began.

The final game on Arizona’s home dirt could determine whether the Ridge Riders leave Glendale with momentum, regret or something somewhere in between.

The standings have stopped leaving room for mistakes

Missouri enters the weekend No. 1 at 18-8.

Austin, Nashville and Carolina are all 16-10. Texas sits No. 5 at 14-12.

Then comes Arizona.

That gap matters, but so does the traffic behind the Ridge Riders.

Kansas City, New York and Florida are all one game back. Oklahoma is only two behind.

At this point, Arizona cannot afford to spend all of its time looking toward the top of the standings. The Ridge Riders have teams coming from both directions.

Click HERE to check the current PBR Teams standings.

The contrast with a year ago makes the moment even sharper.

Through 26 games last season, Arizona was 17-9 and ranked No. 3. Through the same number this season, the Ridge Riders are 11-15 and No. 6, with 12 fewer qualified rides and 883.35 fewer aggregate points.

Those numbers explain how Arizona arrived here.

They do not determine where it goes from here.

Yesterday’s numbers cannot ride this weekend’s bulls.

That part still belongs to the men climbing over the chutes.

Get your tickets — this one matters

A standings race this tight changes the atmosphere inside an arena.

Every chute gate carries a little more weight. Every buckoff opens a door for somebody else. Every qualified ride has the potential to move more than a scoreboard.

Thursday brings No. 2 Austin, one of the hottest teams in the league.

Friday brings No. 10 Oklahoma, trying to climb directly into Arizona’s neighborhood.

Saturday brings No. 3 Nashville, fighting to stop a four-game skid and stay in the regular-season championship race.

And standing in the middle of all of it is the home team, looking for the weekend that changes its direction.

You can watch bull riding on a screen.

What you cannot duplicate is the moment inside Desert Diamond Arena when the music drops, the gate opens and everybody in the building understands that the next eight seconds might change a season.

If you can get to Glendale, get there.

Click HERE to get Ridge Rider Days tickets and complete event information.

Can’t make it to Glendale? Don’t miss it

For those who cannot be inside Desert Diamond Arena, the race is too close to ignore from home.

Missouri is defending first. Austin, Nashville and Carolina are chasing it. Arizona is trying to move forward without surrendering ground to four teams beneath it.

There is very little separating opportunity from trouble now.

Find the broadcast schedule for your local time zone and follow Ridge Rider Days from the opening matchup through Saturday night’s final out.

Click HERE to find the PBR broadcast schedule in your local time zone.

Arizona spent the beginning of the season showing everyone what it could be.

The months since have shown how difficult it can be to hold onto it.

Now the Ridge Riders are back on their dirt, in front of their crowd, with three games that can change the complexion of everything still ahead.

The desert doesn’t care what Arizona did yesterday.

It only cares what the Ridge Riders do next.

Photo courtesy of Bull Stock Media