Rush Continue To Roll

By: Jerome Cusson

After a little history, a poor defensive half, two blocked kicks, and the discovering of a new star receiver, the Chicago Rush improved their record to 3-1 with a 70-35 victory over the Colorado Crush.

It all starts with receiver Damian Harrell, who usurped Eddie Brown’s all-time touchdown record, with his 904th touchdown catch.

“It still hasn’t registered,” Harrell said, “I’m not a big stat guy, and I just tried to enjoy the moment.”

Harrell ended the game with five catches for 50 yards with two touchdown. Despite this, it was Donovan Morgan who provided the early spark for the Rush. In a much-needed effort, Morgan caught nine balls for 44 yards and a touchdown. Travis LeTendresse also got into the act and was the team leader in both receptions as well as yards. Harrell was quick to give his teammates praise.

“They definitely make the game easier,” Harrell said. “Any of these guys can be the man.”

One of the reasons the receivers may have all had such great efforts was the play of quarterback Sherdrick Bonner. Perhaps motivated by Russ Michna and perhaps becoming more comfortable with the offense led to Bonner being the offensive player of the game. He finished a very solid 24-29 for 211 yards and four touchdowns. Even more importantly, he threw no interceptions and wasn’t sacked.

“He was put in good situations, Coach Mike Hohensee said, “He’s seeing plays much better.”

Russ Michna continued to get in the act, particularly in goal line situations. The jumbo package has become an almost guaranteed score in the redzone for Rush. Michna clearly gives this a team a change of pace. He not only ran for a pair of touchdown passes, but threw two more despite only throwing the ball five times.

Overall, this offense was very impressive. Both quarterbacks looked sharp. The Rush got three different receivers heavily involved, and the red zone offense befuddled the Crush defense all game long. As great as Bobby Sippio was last year, this offense has so many more options and the option of throwing both quarterbacks on the field at any time. Coach Hohensee made it clear that this is not a two quarterback system.

“We like to put him [Michna] in later in the game or when we’re going to use our jumbo package at the goal line,” Hohensee said.

Despite what appeared to be a relatively easy victory, Hohensee was very concerned about the defense. The Rush allowed John Dutton to have his way with them. Dutton used his top two receivers, Willie Quinnie and Ben Nelson, early and often. After blowing up the defense for 28 points in the first half, the Rush managed to get it together in the second half to only allow seven points in the second 30 minutes.

“This was our worst game defensively,” Hohensee said, “We broke a lot of assignments, but in the second half we made adjustments.

Talk about this game cannot go without mentioning Joe Peters. Named the iron man of the game, he pressured Dutton all game along. On special teams, he had the second of two blocked field goals (defensive end James Baron had the first). Offensively, he scored a touchdown early in the fourth quarter. Peters discussed what happened on the blocked kick.

“We always have a return set up on field goals,” Peters said,” One person always has the green light to try and block the kick.”

After beginning their season by playing two divisional opponents, the Rush will play a National conference team favored to go to the Arena Bowl - and a big-time conference opponent - the Arizona Rattlers. The Rattlers were once the class of the AFL with two Arena Bowl championships and making the playoffs consistently. Now the Rattlers are a second-class team whose owners are so desperate for attention, they guaranteed to their season ticket holders the team would make the postseason or refund their money completely. The Rattlers stand to lose a reported $2.2 million if they can’t be one of the 12 playoff spots in the AFL.

It will also be Sherdrick Bonner’s first game against his home team. Bonner was the quarterback for both championship teams and spent 14 years with the Rattlers. While the Rush clearly have the mentality of winning every game, Coach Hohensee almost seemed angry at the very idea of a team guaranteeing the postseason. Don’t expect the Rush players to overlook this team. Expect continued development of the offense and a much better effort defensively.

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    Jerome Cusson is a proud graduate of Columbia College Chicago. Currently, he is a freelance writer and a contributer to such websites as The Cool Kids' Table and giveawaytheending.com. Check out his NSR blog as well.

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