Don`t Count Rush Out Yet
Kevin Sheller
Monday April 28, 2003
To that end, QB Billy Dicken turned in one of his most solid performances by guiding the offense to those eight perfect possessions.
“His head was in the game,” said head coach Mike Hohensee of his quarterback. “He was making suggestions. He usually doesn’t make too many suggestions to me. I don’t know if that’s me, or if he just doesn’t want to do it. But he had some good suggestions today and we used some.”
“Billy [Dicken]’s been playing his butt off these last three weeks,” said DS Cedric Walker.
Had the Rush been playing all season like they have been lately, the team might have been clinching the division crown instead of scraping to earn the last overall seed. But, a rash of injuries is one of many reasons Chicago isn’t the cream of the AFL crop in 2003.
But the season is far from over. At 6-7, the Rush can still earn a winning record with three games remaining. Chicago has won three of the last four games, further proving that they are slowly returning to their 2002 form.
For example, the Rush have just vaulted to the 10th overall playoff seeding after looking up from the 13th spot before last week’s game. It is still mathematically possible for the Rush to earn a seed even higher than 10th, but some pretty good teams need to start losing, and the Rush must keep winning.
“We have to go out there and win every football game we play,” said Hohensee. “Right now, this is our playoffs. And we’re going to be playing playoff caliber teams. We have to go out there, play well, and win. It doesn’t matter what our record is. We have to get in [to the playoffs] first and foremost.”
Luckily for the Rush, the rest of the season starts off a little easier than last week.
“Not to take anything away from Carolina, but they’re 0-13 right now,” said Hohensee. “Hopefully we can go down there and win the game we’re supposed to win.”
Hohensee’s players realize they can’t take the hapless Cobras lightly. Especially because the Rush will immediately return home to play Arizona, last year’s ArenaBowl runner-up.
But the Rush can breathe a sigh of relief. They finally earned their second home victory of the season and first division win against none other than the division leader and proven rival.
“I don’t think they like us, and I know we don’t like them,” said Hohensee about Grand Rapids. “It’s a rivalry that’s just natural by location, I think. And it’s always a good football game.”
One of the few blemishes in an otherwise solid Rush performance was another goal-line fiasco that saw two defensive penalties give the Rampage a fresh set of downs when they were clearly stopped. The same thing happened against Dallas one week earlier. The striped-shirts called offsides penalties in every case. So why are the Rush so notorious for these?
“You know what? I really honestly don’t know because they keep calling the same things,” said Walker. “You have to really watch James Baron because James Baron has a quick first step. Some guys, such as myself... The referees are looking at us differently. They’re not giving us a chance to play ball. You know, sometimes we might be offsides. But I wish the refs would come to us and say, ‘You’re getting close.’ Instead of making that call at a crucial time at a big stop.”
While it is unlikely that the referees will do as Walker requests, the season hasn’t been written off yet. If the Rush can keep playing tough defense, avoid overlooking the easy opponents, keep the offensive machine churning, cut down on the offsides penalties, and stay healthy, then the season can continue beyond the 14th week. Sounds easy, eh?
Says Hohensee, “You never know what’s going to happen down the road.”
Dameon Who?
“We’re getting healthier. Then all of a sudden, [Dameon] Porter hurts his ankle,” said Hohensee. “We just haven’t been 100% healthy yet. We proved ourselves. We won without Porter today, which I think was big.”
WR/DB Porter was out with an ankle sprain that he suffered the previous week against Dallas. How soon before he’s back? Unknown.
“He’s not a kid that heals real quickly. He doesn’t have a high pain tolerance, I don’t think,” said Hohensee. “So we’ll have to just wait and see how it is come Wednesday and Thurdsday.”
Cornelius Bonner stepped up his game in Porter’s absence and earned the game’s Ironman award, while DuJuan Alfonzo moved from DS to WR/DB just in time for Walker to regain his DS spot after missing five weeks due to a thigh injury.
“I was kind of rusty the first couple of plays,” said Walker. “It felt good to be out there with the fellas, making the plays and everything.”
Fine? Fine
DS Marvin Taylor was fined by the league for a blow to the head he delivered in the game against Dallas.
“I’m not trying to hurt anybody,” said Taylor. “I take this game very seriously but I’m not out there to hurt anybody and I know I didn’t hit the guy with my helmet. If I’d hit him with the head, then my head would have been hurt. I hit him with my shoulder and my elbow. It was a vicious hit that people don’t see every time I hit – I kind of caught them off guard.”
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.
