Avengers Get Ready for Playoff Push
Mike Chanpong
Friday April 23, 2004
That’s all that Los Angeles Avengers head coach Ed Hodgkiss is asking of his team.
Four more wins would give the Avengers 10 wins for the season, and by Hodgkiss’s estimation, enough victories to guarantee a spot in the AFL playoffs.
“We’ve got six more games,” said Hodgkiss after his team ran its record to 6-4 last Friday night by beating the Detroit Fury, 62-55. “Obviously we’d like to win them all but we’ve got to win four of them.”
These next six games are not going to be easy. This week the Avengers face the Chicago Rush in Chicago. Then they come home to the Staples Center to play the Arizona Rattlers, before embarking on a road trip to face the Tampa Bay Storm and the New York Dragons in consecutive weeks. The Avengers finish the regular season with two home games against the Las Vegas Gladiators and the Orlando Predators.
With that schedule, four wins won’t be easy. After surrendering 55 points to Detroit, including allowing Fury kick returner Ron Carpenter to score twice on kickoff returns, Hodgkiss knows that there are still some things his team needs to work on in order to make the playoffs. “Obviously we still have some things to fix – entirely too many penalties, kickoff returns – those are the things that we’re really going to have to focus on.”
One thing is for sure; the offense is his good hands with QB Tony Graziani. Last week, Graziani continued his MVP-type season with a career day against the Fury, finishing 22 of 32 for a career-high 359 yards and eight touchdown passes with no interceptions. He also ran for a touchdown.
Graziani’s 359 yards passing is second only to Todd Marinovich’s 469 yards in Avengers’ history. His eight touchdowns were to five different receivers, a sign that not only everyone on offense is a threat, but also that everyone knows exactly what their quarterback is thinking when he drops back to pass.
“Tony and me, we’re very fluid, we’re definitely on the same page,” said OS Chris Jackson after hauling in 10 receptions for 192 yards and three touchdowns. “With him playing like this we’re in a good situation for the playoffs.”
“They [Detroit] played a lot of man coverage and Tony excels against that,” Hodgkiss said after watching Graziani pick apart the Fury’s man-to-man defense. “I really can’t say enough about him. He played great.”
Even with his offense playing at such a high level, Hodgkiss knows that his team can’t afford to let up in any phase of the game if they’re going to make the playoffs. “In Arena Football, especially this year, there’s a lot of parity. It’s the little things that make the difference.”
That means that Hodgkiss will have his team going into every game with a must-win mentality. “Our backs are against the wall now,” he emphasized. “We’ve got to get 10 wins.”
Mike Chanpong is a freelance writer living in Hollywood, CA. In addition to
sportswriting, he also works in television production. This is his second
year covering the Los Angeles Avengers for ArenaFan.
