``Ugly Win`` for Rush Over Fury
Mary-Ann Williams
Monday June 24, 2002
Against San Jose, Chicago stood tall and started fierce. They carried that momentum to the end, scaring the SaberCats in their own den as they nearly wrested a win away from the league’s only 100% team.
Then they faced Detroit.
Detroit hasn’t won a game in six weeks. They barely managed a score against Chicago in the first half of the game the last time they met. (A field goal in the final few minutes of the half helped the Fury save face.) They’re known for mistakes and rough play, neither of which helps their reputation. And damn if they didn’t almost beat Chicago.
The game was a lot closer than the 52-38 score. Were it not for WR/DB Dameon Porter`s last second interception returned for a TD, Chicago would have beaten the division`s lowest rival by a single touchdown.
“It was a hella’ ugly win, but we’ll take it,” said Chicago’s star tackler, DS Cedric Walker. “It’s an ugly victory, and we’ll take it.”
So for the first half, the Chicago Rush, ranked sixth in the league right now, having just pushed the San Jose SaberCats to their limits, played catch-up with the Detroit Fury, ranked 16th of 16. Not that the Fury weren’t playing well, because they were. In fact, they played better than the Rush.
In a near perfect drive, the Fury spent the first five minutes of the game nickel and diming for yards. First a 12-yard pass, then five, then eight, and so on. In the end, a short four-yard toss to Chuck Winters gave Detroit the lead, which they maintained until the fourth quarter.
"When you are playing for a championship, you aren`t going to blow everybody out all the time,” said Chicago head coach Mike Hohensee. “Especially a team that swept us twice last year. And coming back and playing them for the second time in three weeks, that`s very difficult to do."
Especially if your team lacks any real intensity. “We were honestly thinking that they were 1-8, and we can come here and just turn it on,” said Walker. “But we can`t. They get paid just like we get paid. They want to win too."
As usual, Chicago made the right adjustments in time. And as usual, the adjustments had to do with predictability.
"We changed up our coverages a little bit and gave them a different look,” said Hohensee. “I think we got a little too predictable again, and we changed some things up and the whole night we did a good job protecting Billy. I think that was the key to us winning - having the time to go downfield a little bit to stretch these guys."
Now they have a week to relearn, regroup, and reorganize before they face the newly revamped New York Dragons, led by Golden Boy Aaron Garcia. The Dragons have had a couple of weeks to sort through how to work together, and are not going to be easy meat.
At least that’s how Chicago should look at it. It might mean they’ll play a little tougher and not slack again.
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.
