Rush Play Like Crud -- Again
Kevin Sheller
Monday June 25, 2001
Many members of the Rush blamed the defeat on goofy mistakes -- not on their ability to play football. Coaches and players reminded us that despite six turnovers, they only lost by 10. But watching the game, the Chicago Rush simply looked like a bad team.
I have a hard time believing it was a fluke, because they laid the same egg last week in Indiana. Is it a fluke that they fluked two weeks in a row? Is it a fluke that the team has not played well since the first half in Milwaukee, five games ago? And can the Rush really give themselves credit for playing the Mustangs well? At that time, everyone did.
After the final buzzer ended the misery, I went on a mission to figure out what was wrong with the team that had looked so promising a month prior.
I spoke to the Rush’s new hero, WR/DB Dameon Porter. Even he was not immune to the mistakes! Sure, he got another interception to earn him nine on the season, but it was too little too late. Prior to that he’d fumbled a chance to score right before the half. I wondered why the team had played so well earlier in the season, and why not now? He suggested that the Rush may have surprised Indiana and Grand Rapids. Perhaps at the beginning of the season, teams looked over their schedule and said, “Good. Chicago. An expansion team. Automatic win.”
That explains that. But still, the team displayed an ability to hold on to the football and make even the tough catches against those teams. But why have they been goofing up on fundamentals? I talked to Stan Davis, wide receivers/defensive backs coach.
“We work on fundamentals every day... catching, running, holding on to the football,” said Davis. “I have my guys out early, and we work on fundamentals every day.”
Maybe the players just weren’t mentally focused. “No. I never think it’s a situation to where we’re not into it,” said Davis. “Sometimes you just really want to make a good show. Especially at home. We played hard.”
I just don’t get it. How does a team play with such intensity and such flawlessness early in the year and then let it all go down the toilet for two straight weeks?
Coach Hohensee did not identify with my feeling of morbidity, despite the ugly performance. “We’re going to bounce back from this one. I think we had six turnovers. We lost by 10 points. We played well somewhere. And we’re going to try to build on it. We had a chance to win this week, but we beat ourselves. It wasn’t a matter of Detroit playing super football.”
But, really, he didn’t know why either. “For some reason, I thought we were as ready as any week this season. We emphasize the importance of protecting the football. And we work on protecting the football. We’ll continue to work on drills to protect the football. We went ‘live’ this week to try to do that -- to simulate live action -- and for some reason it just kept happening. I don’t know. I don’t have an answer for that. If you’re talking interceptions, it’s one thing. When you are doing fumble drills, that’s all you can do.”
When they looked so bad against Indiana the week prior, I said the team “needed” the loss as a wake-up call. Well, it didn’t work. And I’m wondering if this one will work either. It seems like the players and coaches are still saying the wrong things. They say they’re fine, but they don`t know why this is happening. They say they’re not going to change anything because they are a good team. Two miserable losses in a row proves otherwise.
If they can’t beat the Avengers in Los Angeles this week (who just beat Arizona) then they must still face Grand Rapids away, and Orlando at home. Throw in roller-coaster Milwaukee, and you’ve got a tough table to run. Can six wins make the playoffs? Well, perhaps not if they tie with Detroit, who have beaten the Rush twice.
It’s just gotten a whole lot more difficult.
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.
