What's Wrong with the Rush??
Mary-Ann Williams
Thursday February 20, 2003
“I don’t know.”
I don’t know what’s happened to the championship caliber team from last year. The coaches all showed up. I saw them myself. The players? Yep, most of the same guys from last year. But the team, the solid unit that drove hard toward the finish line before taking a nap in Arizona, hasn’t made it to the field yet.
The fan asked specifically what was going on with the offense. That part was easy to answer. QB Billy Dicken couldn’t hit his receivers in games one and two, so head coach Mike Hohensee inserted backup QB Chad Salisbury. Salisbury couldn’t finish what he started in game three, throwing interceptions instead of touchdowns after obnoxiously long drives. So now the team is 0-3. Who plays this weekend against Los Angeles? As of Thursday, no one knew.
“It’s still up in the air,” said Hohensee. “They all look good. Billy and Chad both looked good in practice this week. So did Brian (Ah Yat). It could be him… it could be any of them.”
In my capacity as unofficial armchair coach, I feel I should give my input. (It’s what I’m here for, isn’t it?) So, I vote for Dicken. Coming out at the end of a short offseason with no preseason games could make even Jay Gruden shaky…except that it didn’t. Hmm…
Regardless, Dicken deserves another chance to redeem himself. I understood yanking him out of the Dallas game. I think even Dicken knew he had no place on the field by the time Salisbury went in. I even understood not starting Dicken in Indiana. He needed to feel the pain of sitting on the sidelines while his team went out without him. But by the time Salisbury made his second big mistake, an interception in the end zone on a bonehead pass into total coverage, Dicken had probably learned whatever lesson Hohensee had in mind for him. Salisbury should have found the warm spot on the bench.
“Billy hadn’t been playing consistently,” said Hohensee. “Chad didn’t play that badly in Indiana, except for the interception in the end zone that probably should have been thrown away. And the other interception that wasn’t the smartest play, but overall he didn’t play that badly.”
Wow. What the heck’s “bad”, then? Even after finishing the game with three interceptions and only four touchdowns, Hohensee maintains that Salisbury played well enough to warrant staying in. How could Dicken play worse than that?!
While we’re talking about the quarterback controversy, what about the Rush secondary? That came up in the e-mail from the fan, too.
After weeks of playing Merry-Go-DS last year, the Rush finally settled on rookie Marvin Taylor. An unseasoned player with a lot to learn, Taylor nonetheless worked well with DS Cedric Walker and WR/DB Dameon Porter. The rookie listened to the veterans around him and shined because of it.
Even so, this season the Rush brought in DS Anthony Derricks, the hottest meat on the free agency market, to give journeyman Taylor more time to mature. After two games of continued miscommunication and confusion in the backfield, Derricks followed Derrick Stingley, Chris Lawson, and Tristan Moss, among others, into the great beyond.
“It’s a trust factor,” said Porter. “We run a very sophisticated defense and we communicate more in the secondary than anybody else. Our defense is about putting the right people in the right place and I trust Marvin to be where he’s supposed to be.”
When Taylor finally made it onto the field in Indiana, the defense turned out its best performance yet, holding the Firebirds to two touchdowns. For the first time all season, the back three looked comfortable… settled. And it showed. Had Salisbury been even a tad bit smarter when he threw the ball, Chicago would have won.
Coach Hohensee, I’m offering my unasked-for advice on this one, too. Leave your backfield alone and concentrate on the part that really needs work. No, Taylor isn’t a veteran, nor is he perfect, but the potential is there for him to complete the strongest secondary in the league.
“I would take Marvin over any of the other guys that we’ve had,” said Porter. “He has more talent than any of them. He still has a lot to learn, but in terms of talent and intelligence, he’s got them all beat.”
I’m with you, Dameon.
Finally, the fan asked if I thought the Rush had time to turn things around and actually be the team everyone thought they would be at the beginning of the season. Silly question. This is the Arena Football League and there are 13 games left. Chicago still has the talent and, therefore, the capacity to go all the way. Sure they can go all the way. The question should be will they?
That’s up to Hohensee. If he has the patience to watch Taylor mature while he plays, Hohensee will have the strongest, most capable backfield in the league. If he can forgive Dicken for screwing up the first two games and let him take another shot at field marshal, Hohensee could see the return of a winning season.
So maybe I do know a little bit about what’s going on. (At least, I like to think I do.)
How ‘bout it, Coach Ho? I say give them another shot. If they screw it up, you can dock my pay and demote me to armchair quarterback. I promise not to complain.
Mary-Ann Williams lives in Chicagoland with her four children, Carter, Jackson, Jeremy, and Riley Jade. As a freelance writer, she`s written articles for the Associated Press, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel and the Daily Herald. She also serves as editor of the AFL-side of Arenafan Online, and covers the Chicago Rush.
