UNIONDALE, NY — Five days after parlaying a dramatic goal line stand into a dramatic victory in a nationally televised game against New Orleans, the Dragons re-entered the playoff picture despite starting the season 1-6. Everything was in place for the Dragons to extend their winning streak to four games last night, including a date with the last-place Austin Wranglers at home.

While they returned to Long Island full of confidence, coach Weylan Harding said his team might have left their emotion and passion in the Big Easy as the Wranglers scored on all but one of their offensive possessions in a 82-54 drubbing over the Dragons at Nassau Coliseum.

Austin entered with the National Conference’s worst record at 3-6, but showed a competitive fire early after Joseph Oniwor jarred the ball loose from return man DaShane Dennis just 15 seconds into the game. Otis Amey came down the sideline on the opening kickoff, recovered the ball and ran it in for a touchdown, foreshadowing an arduous evening for the special teams unit.

“A team that comes out with no emotion and no sense of urgency, those are the types of things that happen to you,” Harding said. “At the very least, the expectation for this team is that when we put a team out there… there has to be emotion. That’s what we’re known for. I was really ashamed.

The Dragons defense could only muster one defensive stop, which came in the first quarter. In giving up a season-high 82 points, Austin quarterback Lang Campbell threw for eight touchdowns against no interceptions, torching the Dragons secondary for 251 yards.

Billy Parker, Dennis and Will Holder could struggled to contain receiver Derrick Lewis, who caught three of his five touchdown passes in the first half to help the Wranglers build a 47-33 lead.

“When they were coming out of the huddle, they weren’t lining up so that we could get set. At the last minute, they would run the play. It really caught us off guard,” said Parker, who only was credited with one assistant tackle. “We never got into a rhythm. Finally in the second half, we figured out, ‘this is what they’re doing.’ [But] they were up by 20.”

Aaron Garcia threw for eight touchdowns and 305 yards, becoming just the fourth player in Arena Football League history to reach 800 career passing touchdowns in the third quarter. He still couldn’t erase a deficit caused in part by three first-half turnovers. With three regular season games remaining, the Dragons (5-8) dropped one game behind Tampa Bay for the sixth and final playoff spot.

“You would think the way we came out, we were 13-1,” Harding said. “We are an effort team. We are not an overly talented team where we can just go out there and turn it and turn it off. If we don’t play with emotion, that’s what happens.”

Thanks to the generous AFL postseason qualification system, only three of the nine teams in the National Conference do not qualify for the postseason, meaning the Dragons can still get it even though they assured themselves of their first non-winning season since 2003.

“It’s all frustrating. When you play a team like that, you know they have nothing to lose,” Garcia said. “Sometime those are the toughest teams to play. We had a short week. We had one day of practice. Those aren’t excuses, but that’s part of this game.”

Harding said the team was only able to practice once this week, a byproduct of the meager five-day break between two games. Austin provided no sympathy. They relished the spoiler role, forcing a Garcia in the second quarter that Ramon Richardson recovered.

“That’s not an excuse,” Parker said about the lack of practice time. “We’re supposed to be professional and be ready and put in the extra time. I don’t think it was a preparation thing. I think they had a good plan and when things started to go in the wrong direction, we just didn’t have that one play to kind of get us going back.”

Lewis capitalized on the miscue, exploiting the secondary for his third touchdown of the half. Sedrick Robinson added a 7-yard touchdown run after Garcia turned the ball over on downs, allowing the Wranglers to pull away.

“You’re talking about kickoff returns for touchdowns, you’re talking about a fumble return for a touchdown….wow,” Harding said.

Mike Horacek, the Dragons leading receiver, missed his second straight game with an injury. Even the veteran wide out couldn’t have prevented the second special teams miscue, as Mark Lewis’ kick caromed off the goal post and bounced downfield away from Dennis. Lewis recovered his own kick near the sideboards to allow his Wranglers to retain possession. Robinson made it a banner day for the Austin special teams, returning the second half’s opening kickoff 58 yards for a touchdown and a 54-33 advantage.

“You can’t wait for the next man to make the play,” Harding said. “It seems like we were waiting for somebody to get it started. That can’t happen.” Kevin Swayne did his best to give his quarterback a go-to guy with Horacek out of the lineup, making five touchdown catches along with a game-high nine receptions.

Garcia threw eight touchdown passes before Damon Mason intercepted his desperation pass with the Dragons trailing 75-54 with 8:29 remaining in the fourth quarter. Up to that point, Garcia had thrown 33 touchdowns against zero interceptions in his last four games, though the Dragons will now have to regroup in time for next Saturday when they host 7-6 Orlando.

“There were always chances throughout the game” said Garcia, who helped the Dragons take a brief 20-13 lead late in the first quarter before Austin’s 62-34 run in the final 45 minutes. “We were scoring on offense. A play here and play there and we would have been right back in it. It just didn’t happen for us today.”

Notes: Garcia hurt his foot near the end of the game, prompting Harding to put in backup Rohan Davey. Garcia said he will be fine to play against the Predators next week…Rookie Jason Willis added eight catches for 102 yards and a touchdown…Garcia completed at least one touchdown pass to four different receivers…The announced attendance was 8,391, though the actual crowd numbered far less.