It’s a Lost Cause for Avengers

Todd Marinovich stepped into the Avengers’ inaugural Arena Football League season for the first time as the starting quarterback and had more pluses than minuses.

But the Arizona Rattlers held Los Angeles to its lowest point total and beat the winless Avengers, 55-28, before 13,103 at America West Arena.

Arizona (4-1) remained half a game behind front-running Oklahoma in the Western Division. Los Angeles fell to 0-5.

Marinovich, who is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday on suspicion of sexual assault, completed 20 of 43 attempts for 253 yards and four touchdowns. Chris Jackson did the bulk of the receiving, catching 10 passes for 126 yards and three touchdowns.

But Marinovich threw three interceptions, and all three ended drives within three yards of the Rattler end zone.

“Put this [loss] on me.” said Marinovich, who was also sacked twice. “I didn’t play good enough to win. But if it can propel us to start a winning streak that’s fine with me too. I think we were good enough to play with them tonight, and if I make some throws I don’t usually miss, we’re right there with one of the best teams in the league.”

Maybe the worst is over for Los Angeles, having played five games against four teams (Oklahoma twice) with a combined record of 8-4. Carolina, the league’s other expansion team, has three of those defeats.

But Coach Stan Brock said it won’t get better until “the players decide to stop making the same mistakes we talk about every week in practice. Until then we’ll continue to look good times, and look bad at times. We’ve identified the problems. It’s up to us to solve them.”

Marinovich took the Avengers 45 yards in seven plays on the opening drive, completing a six-yard scoring pass to Jackson.

But Arizona scored 21 consecutive points and was never threatened. Quarterback Sherdrick Bonner (16 of 28), who passed for 259 yards and five touchdowns, got the Rattlers even on a 16-yard touchdown pass to Randy Gatewood.