Overcoming the Unknown
Jeff Sims
Wednesday March 21, 2007
The Rush started out in cautionary mode. New Dragons QB Rohan Davey looked like a star in the first half as he led his team to an early 17 - 7 lead. As has been the case through the first three games this season for the Rush, the Dragons were able to “dink and doink” their way down the field early with 5- yard short pass routes, partially protecting their new unproven QB and also fearing the speed of the Rush secondary.
New Dragons FB Ja’Mar Toombs scored from three yards out on the Dragons’ first possession and then Davey connected on a four-yard touchdown to WR Mike Horacek later in the quarter. Davey would also connect with WR Kevin Swayne later in the half for another score.
“I thought their QB played excellent in the first half with the pressure that we were putting on him,” said rush head coach Mike Hohensee.
Chicago’s offense sputtered early also. QB Matt D’Orazio had difficulty connecting with his receivers as he was getting rushed and forced to release the ball earlier which resulted in incomplete passes and at times, receivers not looking back for the ball.
“We didn’t know a couple of their DBs and a pass rusher at the nose that got to us a couple of times,” stated Hohensee. “We knew nothing about them. So it’s tough going in without a scouting report where it’s a game of one-on-one. If you don’t know, it makes it tough.”
The team was able to keep it close on a Jonathan Ordway 56 yard kickoff return that similarly as it did last week against San Jose, provided a needed spark to get things going. After a pair of Bobby Sippio touchdowns, the Rush trailed 30 – 27 at halftime.
“We had a few mistakes, a few missed balls, a few knocked down,” said Sippio. “We knew what we had and it was just about executing it. We went in at the half and made some adjustments and got it under control from there.”
No Problem
Despite the rough performance in the first half, coach Hohensee said “there was never a sense of panic on our bench or in the locker room at halftime.” The second half proved just that.
A couple of things helped the Rush pull away. First, the defense played more of a pressing style forcing the Dragons to throw deeper which caused a number of missed attempts and gave the Rush defensive line time to get to Davey. Off-season free-agent E.J. Burt responded with his best effort to date sacking Davey twice and forcing two fumbles; one which was recovered by LB DeJuan Alfonso for a defensive TD. The Rush defense held New York to only 10 second half points.
Coach Hohensee credited his defense for making things much more difficult on the Dragons QB. “Things are flying around fast and you have an aggressive defense like we do and you have guys that are proficient in hawking the ball, it makes it tough on a QB.”
Second, Dragons DB Billy Parker lit a fire under Bobby Sippio.
After Sippio caught a touchdown early in the third quarter to give the Rush the lead, Parker started talking trash trying to throw Sippio off of his game. While doing an in-game interview after the score, Parker walked toward the Rush bench and started in with the wrong man.
The star WR for the Rush would add two more touchdowns to give him a total of five for the game en route to a 61 – 40 Chicago victory.
“There is no way that you can get in my head when I just scored on you,” boasted Sippio. “So it (surprised) me that he came all the way over to our sideline to talk junk to me after I just scored on (him) and after I just missed three or four more touchdowns in the first half on (him), so I knew he was out of it. It was over after he started talking junk.”
And the Dragons never made adjustments on defense to compensate for it. They remained in a man-to-man defense that D’Orazio and Sippio took advantage of for the rest of the afternoon.
“It was a bit of a surprise that they continued to play man-to-man,” said Sippio. “I don’t know what they thought that they were going to accomplish with it, but we took advantage of it all night. There was no hope.”
Game Notes
The game was the fourth consecutive sellout for the Rush at Allstate Arena dating back to last season.
Rookie WR Ahmad Merritt caught the first touchdown pass of his AFL career in the third quarter. Merritt played in the NFL with the Chicago Bears from 2000 to 2004.
Jeff has been writing for ArenaFan.com since 2004. Originally from New York, Jeff has been living in the Chicago area for the past ten years and is an avid football fanatic. He holds a BA in communications from Hofstra University in New York and a sports management certificate from Loyola University in Chicago.
