Brown too much for Rush
The Philadelphia Soul's Mike Brown estimated he ran about 75 yards during his second-quarter, 54-yard kickoff return for a touchdown Sunday against the Chicago Rush.
"Everyone on the field had a chance to tackle that kid," said Rush coach Mike Hohensee. "It was a dynamic return and the type of play that takes the wind out of your sails."
Brown wasn't done.
He also intercepted Rush quarterback Sherdrick Bonner on back-to-back attempts in the third quarter to lead his team to a 60-49 victory before 16,051 at Allstate Arena.
"It's huge for us to win in this crazy environment against the No. 1 team in the league," Brown said.
After a big game in the opener against San Jose, Bonner struggled. He completed 27 of 47 passes for 306 yards. He had 6 touchdowns and 2 picks. The Soul (2-0) took advantage of the miscues by scoring a pair of touchdowns. This helped the Soul turn a 36-35 lead into a 50-35 advantage.
"Giving the ball to the other team when we're in a position to take control of the game is inexcusable," Bonner said. "I put us in an awful position and I will rectify that. This is not where I'm going to be for the rest of the year."
While the Rush (1-1) had success throwing downfield against San Jose, the Soul for the most part took away the deep throws. The new-look Rush offense struggled to sustain drives.
"We're still in training camp mode offensively," Hohensee said. "Philly played a soft defense and didn't let us go over the top. We had to march it down, and our inexperience (together) showed a couple of times."
The Rush did receive tremendous individual performances from wide receiver Damian Harrell and fullback Dan Alexander. Harrell had 10 receptions for 104 yards and 3 touchdowns. He became the fourth player in league history with 900 receptions. His touchdown catch in the fourth quarter was the 300th of his career.
Alexander, who was signed primarily for defense, started at fullback. He moved to the offensive side of the ball because Matt Kinsinger sustained a season-ending knee injury against San Jose.
Alexander set a league-record for single-season rushing touchdowns last year in Nashville, and he continued to find the end zone against the Soul. He ran for 1 score and caught 3 TD passes.
After forcing 5 turnovers against San Jose, the Rush never took it away from the Soul. Quarterback Tony Graziani enjoyed plenty of time to throw and took full advantage (272 yards, 5 touchdowns). Chris Jackson had 9 receptions for 126 yards and 3 touchdowns.
The Rush visits the Grand Rapids Rampage at 6 p.m. Friday.
"We travel to Grand Rapids (on) Wednesday, so we don't have time to pout," Hohensee said. "We'll work more with our minds this week and learn from our mistakes."