Avengers Win Comes at the Right Time
Patrick Daly
Wednesday March 9, 2005
In a game that neither team seemed to control, it was a pair of late defensive stops by the Avengers and the game-winning touchdown toss from Avengers QB John Kaleo to WR/DB Kevin Ingram that eventually made the difference.
"You’ve got to give the defense credit," said Avengers WR/LB Greg Hopkins. "To hold these guys to 29 points is an accomplishment. We were a little sloppy on defense, but we came up with a big play when we needed it."
The win kept the Avengers from falling back to .500, which would have left them tied for first place in the division with the Las Vegas Gladiators, a team that beat Los Angeles in the opener. The lack of offensive production, particularly in the red zone, is something that will haunt the Avengers down the road if they can’t improve it, but the important outcome of this game was that they avoided a loss that would have made maintaining their pace in the playoff race more difficult.
"I don’t know how big a win it is, but it would have been a devastating loss," said Hopkins. "We just didn’t play well. To come out here and get down in the red zone probably six different times and not get in, that’s embarrassing. We’ve got to get better inside the ten-yard line."
Avengers head coach Ed Hodgkiss echoed that sentiment, knowing especially well how the changes in the playoff seeding this year make winning within the division and conference more important than last season, when a division title meant nothing in terms of making the playoffs.
"It’s obviously a big win," said Hodgkiss. "It keeps us atop the Western Division. This was a divisional game, which is really important this year with the playoff system. We didn’t play very well on offense at all, but we were able to pull out the win."
Sometimes that’s what it takes. When an aspect of the team is down, the other parts of the game need to make up for it. If the defense is giving up too many points, that puts the pressure on the offense to outscore the opponent. In this case, it worked the opposite direction, where the defense needed to come up with a critical stop to give the offense a chance to win the game.
"I’m proud of the defense," said Hodgkiss. "The defense played great and they won the game for us. They did a great job all night long."
A loss on Sunday would have left the Avengers at 3-3, and with the San Jose SaberCats looking a little more like the defending ArenaBowl champions, the Western Division race will get a bit more interesting. With the win and a bye week to rest players who have started to accumulate the dings that add up throughout the season, the Avengers now get a chance to prepare for two home games against tough opponents in the Dallas Desperados and Tampa Bay Storm with a much better outlook on the playoff picture.
Patrick Daly has been an Arena Football League enthusiast since he first stumbled across the late-night ESPN broadcasts and has followed the Arizona Rattlers since their inaugural season in 1992. He graduated from Arizona State University with an engineering degree and is currently a member of a web development team for Direct Alliance in Tempe. Patrick currently resides in the Phoenix suburb of Chandler, Arizona with his beautiful wife, son and a very large football helmet collection.
