Rush Continue To Struggle

By: Jerome Cusson

The Chicago Rush continued to falter with yet another loss, this time to the Georgia Force 50-47. It forces the Rush to try and clinch homefield advantage for the third straight week in the season finale at home against Dallas this Sunday.

The Georgia Force, despite a poor start to the season, managed to clinch the Southern Division and the two seed in the National Conference. Force quarterback Chris Greisen went 25-39 with 263 yards and six touchdown passes. Greisen was able to carve up a Rush defense that was playing without their star linebacker DeJuan Alfonzo, who was announced as being out for the season earlier in the week.

Things got worse during the pre-game as new Rush kicker Paul Edinger injured himself in pre-game. Only in Arena Football could the Rush go into the stand to pluck someone to kick for them. And that’s exactly what happened. No, it wasn’t some random audience member. It was Joe O’Donnell, a former member of the extinct Florida Bobcats, who became the Rush kicker for the night. O’Donnell had been at the Force/Rush game to watch former teammate and current linemen John Moyer play. O’Donnell had not kicked professionally since participating in Bears’ training camp during 2004

And if you thought things couldn’t get worse, Alfonzo’s replacement Ryan Dennard, was injured on the first play of the game and would not return.

Still, the Rush injury situation became even scarier when Damian Harrell, the Rush’s star receiver, had his head and neck directly hit the board and injured his neck. Although he wasn’t out for the game and even came back for the next play, it was another scary moment in a series of them for the Rush.

Donovan Morgan and Travis LeTendresse were once again the stars of the show for the Rush as they each had over 100 yards and combined for five touchdowns. Quarterback Russ Michna played quite well also, completing 23 of 36 passes for 259 yards and five touchdowns.

The Dallas Desperadoes are the next and last opponent for the Rush this regular season. They are the first team in AFL history to have three straight 12-win seasons. They have one of the best quarterbacks of all time in Clint Dolezel, and also one of the best Ironmen of all time in Will Pettis. The Desperadoes still have a chance of winning their division title, so they have every reason to try and win their game against the Rush. With a loss, Dallas would be the three seed and would have to host a playoff game the following week instead of getting a bye.

Unless they defeat Dallas, the Rush could very well lose homefield advantage for a potential championship game against the San Jose Sabercats.

“One is not enough” has been the mantra of the Rush all season long. Judging by the way they’ve played since winning their division, it seems like “A Central Division title is enough.” Maybe this team will wake up next Sunday morning and realize there’s still work to do.

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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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