Wednesday, June 19, 2013

On the Beat with the Chicago Rush-6/15/13

This piece could be titled "A Tale of Two Coaches."  I am sandwiching a couple of player interviews with interviews with Lee Johnson, coach of the San Antonio Talons and Bob McMillen, coach of the Chicago Rush.  Johnson was happy.  McMillen was not.  Twenty minutes prior to these interviews, it would have probably been the opposite.
The San Antonio Talons came from behind to steal a 61-54 victory from the Rush.  The Rush is now 7-6 in 1st place, while the Talons are 6-6 in 2nd place.  The race is tight, but unfortunately the Talons own the tie breaker right now.
I admit, I predicted a 70-48 victory for the Rush.  I was feeling pretty good midway through the 4th quarter, when the Rush lead 54-42.  that is about when things started to fall apart.  That is about when McMillen and Johnson started to exchange moods.
Critical mistakes really cost the Rush.  Rush kicker Jose Martinez missed two extra point attempts after missing three last week.  Quarterback Carson Coffman also incurred the wrath of Coach McMillen for his play late in the game.  McMillen was angered by the general play of the whole team in the last few minutes and he expressed it clearly in the post-game media session.
JohngysBeat.com's Contributor Extraordinaire Matt Parker asked Coach McMillen about Coffman, Martinez and the rest of the team.  McMillen pulled no punches.  I think this will be an interesting week of practice for the tam.
We also got in a few questions with running back J.J. Payne and defender Jorrick Calvin.  Both men had some very nice plays in the game.  Unfortunately, they had to balance the good with the fact that the team lost a game they should have won.  I give both men credit (along with coach McMillen) for hanging in there throughout the media session.  This is a class organization.  The emotions were running high, but the Rush organization stood tall and dealt with the aftermath.
The Rush has away games in Tampa and Philadelphia with an off week in between, before returning to Rockford on July 13 to face the Cleveland Gladiators.  As Coach McMillen stated, the Rush might have to win all of them to make the playoffs.
I will be at the Cleveland game.  Hopefully, the Rush will be on a two game win streak.  We will see, but until then, I will enjoy following them on arenarush.com.
 

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