Rush Outmanned, Outcoached, Outhustled
Kevin Sheller
Tuesday February 4, 2003
While this loss will eventually be as insignificant as the day was significant, for the Rush, the result was a bit alarming. Not just because the home team lost, but because they were soundly defeated at every phase of the game in front of the first sellout crowd in Chicago Rush history.
“You could tell it was our first game,” said Rush DS Cedric Walker. “We had guys who were nervous. Everybody was talking about getting ready to play, getting ready to play. But it’s different when you are practicing, then you see 16,000 and you are running down, covering kicks and everything.”
The Rush, and every other team in the AFL, could only practice during training camp. The elimination of the two-game preseason in favor of two more regular season games appeared to hurt Chicago. However, as an excuse for the loss, it falls flat considering the opposing quarterback had only three days of practice with a group of receivers who had never caught a Jay Gruden pass.
The truth is, there is no obvious, glaring reason for the loss. The Rush simply played poorly -- often uninspired -- dropping balls, overthrowing open receivers, missing tackles, getting beat deep, getting manhandled on the line, and getting out-coached.
One of those forgettable moments came after a disappointing 3-and-out series immediately following the half. A long field goal try started with a delay-of-game penalty, and ended when the ball lazily bounced off the holder’s body. There was a scramble. The kicker recovered. Turnover on downs. What the heck happened?
“Your guess is as good as mine on that one,” said Walker, the holder. “I’m looking, waiting for the snap. I guess he heard something and snapped it. It hit me in the arm.”
It was this kind of boneheaded comedy that plagued the Rush for 60 minutes. By the end of the game, the Rush players were starting to point fingers at each other. And when the Orlando Predators exited through the tunnel, they reminded all who were within earshot that it doesn’t pay to start fights and waste energy, as they claimed the Chicago Rush players had done before the game had even started.
Orlando also kindly reminded everyone that the Rush defense is still susceptible to the three-step drop by stabbing them with it over and over again -- forcing the defense to come up and make the tackle. Until they invent a scheme to stop it, Chicago is going to keep seeing it, week after week.
Luckily, head coach Mike Hohensee saw at least one positive in a sea of negatives. “I thought Billy Dicken played well. We had people open. We either didn’t get the time, or we just dropped the football. So if they were just shutting us down the whole time and we had protection, I’d be worried. But I’m not worried about that.”
Thankfully, there is plenty of time to turn things around. And surely others felt there was something positive to take away from the game, right Mr. Walker?
Silence.
That hard huh?
“Yeah, it was,” he finally admitted. “We played hard.”
Yes, at times they did. But they certainly did not play Chicago Rush football. So back to the film room. Back to practice. Back to planning. Back to trying to invent a defense to stop the 3-step drop. Back to reminding each other how to play as a team -- A team that can inspire a sellout crowd to return and cheer another day.
Kevin Sheller ia founder of Arenafan Online and was the principal owner until 2004. Kevin graduated from the University of Akron with a degree in technical writing, and has been a member of the Arena Football Internet community since 1993. He has worked as a professional web programmer and is also the executive producer for a computer/video game company. The most recent Xbox title to his credit is called Hunter: The Reckoning.
