L.A.Drops Out of Top Four With Loss to Arizona
Steven Herbert
Sunday July 7, 2002
The Avengers were third in the seedings entering Saturday’s play and would have moved into second with a victory of five points or more. (Arizona won the first meeting between the teams, 63-59, April 27 in Phoenix.)
Instead, Los Angeles (7-5) fell to sixth, behind Dallas, also 7-5 but holder of the tiebreaker edge because of better point differential in games between the two teams.
The top four teams in the final seedings all receive first-round byes and home quarterfinal games.
“The offense didn’t get the job done tonight,” Los Angeles coach Ed Hodgkiss said. “You have to give some credit to Arizona. They’re a great defense. They cranked it up on us. We dropped some balls we usually don’t drop. That won’t happen a ton. It’s one of those nights it all happened on the same night.”
The offense got off to a poor start, failing to score on both of their first two possessions. The Avengers then scored touchdowns the next two times they had the ball, followed by Remy Hamilton’s team-record 52-yard field goal 44 seconds before halftime for a 17-16 lead.
Los Angeles was forced into a field goal try on its first second-half possession. Instead, Hodgkiss elected to try a fake, and holder J.J. Washington was stopped two yards short of a first down.
The Avengers scored touchdowns on four of their next five possessions, including Tony Graziani’s three-yard touchdown pass to Greg Hopkins as time expired in regulation, followed by Graziani’s tying two-point conversion pass to Russell Shaw.
Los Angeles picked up two first downs on the opening possession of overtime. Graziani (19 for 42 for 209 yards and five touchdowns with one interception) then threw three consecutive incomplete passes, forcing Hamilton in to try a 31-yard field goal. Hamilton’s kick went wide right and the Rattlers then drove 46 yards on five plays for the winning score, quarterback Shedrick Bonner’s five-yard run.
The Avengers played without offensive specialist Chris Jackson, who entered play this week second in the league in touchdowns with 27, and has been especially successful against Arizona, catching 42 passes for 625 yards and 16 touchdowns in four games against the Rattlers. Jackson did not dress because of a pulled right hamstring.
“He’s arguably the MVP of the league, so any time you lose a guy like that, it’s going to hurt you,” Hodgkiss said.
With Jackson gone, Hopkins became Graziani’s primary target. Hopkins caught eight passes for 120 yards and four touchdowns, “but he dropped a couple he usually doesn’t drop,” Hodgkiss said.
“He didn’t get open a couple times where he usually does,” Hodgkiss said.
While the offense disappointed Hodgkiss, he expressed satisfaction over his team’s defense.
“The defense played great for a team playing Arizona, a high-powered team,” Hodgkiss said.
Hodgkiss was also satisfied by Los Angeles’ line play.
“The protection was good enough for us to succeed,” Hodgkiss said. “At times it broke down and Tony took some hits, but he’s a tough guy and that’s the nature of Arena Football. The guys up front I thought really did a good job, especially defense, pressuring Bonner. That’s why we were able to slow them down a little bit tonight.”
Rattlers coach Danny White said his team “lacked energy in the first half.”
“We came out well, then we kind of let up,” White said after Arizona improved to 9-3, solidifying its hold on second place in the playoff seedings, one game ahead of Chicago and New Jersey.
To White, the difference was that the Rattlers “were a bit fresher” than the Avengers in the overtime.
“I got the feeling they were pretty tired, they were pretty beat up, dragging a little bit,” White said. “I felt our guys were playing pretty hard in the fourth quarter and overtime.”
Steven Herbert began covering Arena Football in 1988, the league’s second season. He has covered the sport for The Associated Press, Arizona Republic, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Providence Journal-Bulletin, Palm Beach Post, Daily Oklahoman and other publications. Herbert has also written on college and NFL football for The Washington Post and spent five years as a Los Angeles Times staff writer.
