Tough Road Stretch Upcoming For Rush
Jeff Sims
Saturday May 12, 2012
Almost halfway through the 2012 AFL season, the Chicago Rush find themselves in a good position. They have a record of 6-2 after defeating the Iowa Barnstormers last weekend at home 61-50, which ties them with three other teams (San Jose, Utah, and Philadelphia) for best in the league.
But through those eight games, the Rush are a perfect 5-0 within the confines of the friendly Allstate Arena. Away from home, they find themselves at 1-2. The lone road win was an overtime victory against the Iowa Barnstormers. The two losses came at the hands of the Georgia Force in a lopsided defeat and a last second loss to the San Antonio Talons.
The next stretch of four games finds the Rush facing off against each team from the Western Division with three of these games being on the road. The only home game in this stretch is against the Spokane Shock, who are last in their division currently with a 3-4 record, on June 3rd.
The Rush will play in Arizona this upcoming Saturday and then after a bye week, fly back out west for a tilt with the San Jose Sabercats on May 26th. After the home game against the Shock, the team will head west once again to play the much improved Utah Blaze on June 9th.
The Rattlers, Sabercats, and Blaze currently hold a combined home record of 9-2. The two losses were within their own division with both Arizona and Utah losing home games to San Jose.
"(The road stretch) is huge. We will be playing against two of the top teams in the league right now," said Rush head coach Bob McMillen. "Arizona is always a tough place to play. They have great fans out there. The biggest thing that I am concerned about is that we haven't played well on the road. We have to learn how to play well on the road. We have to go out there and execute and not make mistakes. If we start making mistakes against good team like that, we will get kicked out of the building quick."
The good news for the Rush is that their last regular season loss in Arizona came all the way back in 2006. The bad news would be that the last trip to Arizona for the Conference Final last year resulted in a Rush loss and the Rattlers moving on to the Arenabowl.
"We haven't forgotten that they ended our season last year," said Rush wide receiver Reggie Gray.
After a bye week, the Rush will then fly out to San Jose where they have never won a regular season game. The lone win at the HP Pavillion for the Rush came in 2006 in the Conference Final. They would then go on and win the Arenabowl that season.
If the Rush are to have any success on this road trip, it will be important for the defensive line to get a good pass rush against quarterbacks Nick Davila and Mark Grieb.
"We work with tight rush lanes and the nose staying six inches to either side," said McMillen. "We don't want our guys to get wide and allow the opposing quarterback to find passing windows or to take off and run. So we are going to continue to stress it until we average 10 sacks a game."
McMillen also plans to have a few tricks up his sleeve as he did last week against Iowa when he used kicker Mike Salerno to rush for a two-point conversion.
"Arizona has to think about things," Mcmillen said. "We have something different planned for them next weekend."
All in all, the next few weeks for the Rush are critical. Either they will make the necessary improvements and prove themselves to be an elite team in the AFL this season or they will fall back into the pack and have to fight for playoff contention.
"These guys know what's in store for us the next few weeks," McMillen stated. "We have to practice hard and be prepared for a tough game in Arizona."
Team Notes
In the game against Iowa, quarterback Russ Michna had a career best of 369 yards on 22 of 32 passes completed with five touchdowns.
Rookie defensive end Xavier Brown comes into the weekend ranked fourth in the league in sacks with six.
The team made some trades this week in an attempt to bolster the defense. The Rush picked up defensive tackle Darell Campbell from Philadelphia in exchange for defensive back Brandon Freeman. Campbell fills the void left by the injury to Derek Walker earlier in the season. Campbell (6'4" 300) brings a presence once again to the Rush defensive line. Walker has 10.5 sacks in his two AFL seasons. The team also acquired defensive back Brandon Brinkley from the San Jose Sabercats for future considerations. Brinkley becomes the next in the long line of DBs that have played for Chicago this season. Brinkley has five career interceptions to his credit.
"Big Record" Reggie Gray broke Etu Molden's franchise record of 73 all-purpose touchdowns on Sunday when he reeled in two touchdown catches. Gray also tied former Rush wide receiver Bobby Sippio for most receiving touchdowns in franchise history. Both Gray and Sippio recorded 70 touchdowns each through 28 games with the organization. Gray should break this record on Saturday.
"It feels great to do it in front of my hometown," said Gray. "There is nothing like playing in front of your hometown. I wish I could have gotten both (records) out of the way so we could just move on with the rest of the season. But as long as we get the win, that is all that matters."