Rush Make Playoffs; Time to Eat Words
Mary-Ann Williams
Sunday July 22, 2001
A certain Chicago Rush player, who shall remain nameless, contends that since they made it into the playoffs despite my dire prediction against it, I need to own up to my mistake.
“We’re 7-7 and going into the playoffs,” said the player. “Which, by the way, some of you made predictions that it wouldn’t turn out this way. So in some articles tomorrow I want it to read something about how somebody in this room was wrong.”
 Dameon Porter poses with owner Alan Levin after Porter tied the interception record against Orlando Image courtesy of |
Tough, intense, ready to eat turf. Not the Predators, but the Rush? Yes. It’s true. The Chicago Rush, the boys with the technically okay game and no heart, became a force to be reckoned with against the defending world champions. So much so that by the end of the game, I stared in awe at the stats sheet placed in front of me.
Penalties? Orlando 7-56; Chicago 4-25. What? Only four penalties? Less than 30 yards? Not possible. Not by the team that registered 17 penalties earlier in the year in a single game.
Turnovers? Orlando 3; Chicago 1. Billy Dicken looked like a River Dancer. He scrambled, dodged, high-stepped away from the tackle. He got the ball off while shoving defenders away. The one turnover came from a Joe Douglass fumble. Douglass lost the ball on the Chicago 19 to Orlando’s Antonio Speed. The next play earned the Predators a TD and a 14-point lead.
Thank God for shame.
Douglass turned things around with a 57-yard kickoff return for a TD. He grabbed the next TD, too, giving the Rush a tied game going into the locker room for the half. Much safer facing Coach Hohensee with that under your belt than a fumble.
This was a game! A game to stick around and watch for fun, not out of morbid curiosity.
Orlando fought hard, surprising the staid Rush with off-key plays. A fake field goal attempt in the second quarter ended in an 18-yard run for Orlando backup QB Chris Wallace, a first down, and another shot at the goal line. (Yes, Orlando scored.) Several times in the game Orlando head coach Jay Gruden let his team go for it on a fourth down – once on fourth and ten from their own two-yard line. Did any of this throw the Rush off?
“I wasn’t surprised by it,” said newly signed DS Cedric Walker. “I’ve been in this league for six years. That’s Coach Gruden.”
Back to my point. Watching the game on Saturday I saw a different team than I had been seeing. I saw fire and brimstone. I saw intensity and drive. I saw the Rush that nearly toppled the Grand Rapids Rampage and did topple the Indiana Firebirds. I saw the early Rush, the one that had a winning record by midseason. I saw a team that wanted a win so badly they were willing to pull out all the stops to make it happen. This was the Rush that Coach Hohensee had been telling us they could be. This was not the team, however, that I said wouldn’t make the playoffs.
The team I was talking about played hard this season, sure, but not with heart. Of the 20 men in uniform, you could count on one hand the number of players who acted as if each and every play meant the playoffs. How many times did someone in the press box (yes, way up high on our thrones of knowledge) say, “What was he thinking?”
The truth was, he wasn’t thinking, whoever “he” was. You could count on it. So-and-so didn’t have his head in the game. So-and-so wasn’t sure what to do. So-and-so forgot to read the rules of the game. And I can’t mention names because it was never the same guy twice. (That and they’re bigger than I am.)
So once again we ask ourselves: which team will show up next week? The impressive display of testosterone that sent Orlando home with a loss? Or the anemic team that dropped four games in a row?
I vote for the lean, mean fighting machine I had the privilege to witness Saturday. Shoot, if they show up for the playoffs, there’s a chance they might actually win a game or two. With a little luck, they could go all the way. Now wouldn’t that be a trip?
(There; how’s that, Dameon? Like that prediction better?)
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.
