St. Louis Battlehawks Head Coach Anthony Becht has choice words to motivate his squad. (ESPN)
Ranking the games
Defenders 29, Brahmas 28 – The usually reliable Parker Romo missed a 53-yard field goal at the buzzer that would’ve kept San Antonio’s playoff hopes alive – and as it turns out, with Arlington’s loss to Houston on Sunday, would’ve put them into the playoffs. DC doesn’t look as invincible as they once did.
Battlehawks 53, Guardians 28 – As a pure thought exercise, this was fascinating. Given the scenario at play, it was a type of game you may never see again. It was like watching a college team try to improve its BCS chances by running up the score on an also-ran.
Sea Dragons 28, Vipers 9 – It seemed at times like Seattle was trying to hit a moving target: “They need to do THIS to make the playoffs! No, they can still make the playoffs if they do THAT.” Vegas kept it close for the first half but in true Viper fashion, it got out of hand in the third quarter.
Roughnecks 25, Renegades 9 – Both teams sleepwalked through the only game that had no playoff implications last weekend. Arlington’s defense seemed disinterested and Houston rested many of its key players.
The Blandino: The Sequel
Orlando’s fake punt worked so well in week nine…but there’s no way they’d try the same play again in week ten, right? Well, when you’re a team with little to lose, why not give it a whirl? That’s what the Guardians did with about 10:00 left in the second quarter, backed up to their own 16-yard line and facing 4th-and-21 – not exactly a situation tailor-made for a fake punt. Yet Mac Brown went for it again, this time finding Jordan Thomas down the sideline. Thomas negotiated a defender out of the way using his large frame, hauled in the pass, and rumbled into the end zone for what ended up being an 84-yard touchdown. Somehow, the play was even more inconceivable than the one run a week prior. The fake punt magic ended there, however, as another attempt by Brown later in the game – on a different play – ended up in the arms of Brandon Sebastian of the Battlehawks for an interception.
All-Access Moment of the Week, Part One
St. Louis’s 53 points is an offensive explosion in any football league, but they started slowly, scoring just three points in the first quarter. With their chances of besting Seattle for the final playoff spot in the XFL North seemingly diminishing by the minute, Head Coach Anthony Becht took a tone with his team that we haven’t often heard him take this year. Facing a 4th-and-goal at the Orlando one-yard line early in the second quarter, Becht had a stern message for his offense, caught on a hot mic: “Hey, let’s go, hunker down and get this f*****’ touchdown.” The message was received by RB Kareem Walker, who ran it in for the TD. With that, the Battlehawks were off to the races.
Tablet time
The final week of the regular season is an unusual time to unveil new ways to bring viewers closer to the action, yet that’s what fans at home were treated to during the DC at San Antonio game. It was a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment: ABC took us inside the tablet Jack Coan was looking at on the sidelines, showing a split screen of what was on the tablet and Coan looking at it. The XFL and its television partners have heavily pushed the idea this season that players can use the sideline tablets to go back and watch video of plays that just happened on the field, fast-forwarding and rewinding as they see fit. The broadcast used this just once; it was interesting to see exactly what Coan was looking at. We’ll see if this is something ESPN utilizes in the playoffs or perhaps next season, as they try to balance the all-access pass they want to give fans with the difficulty of presenting exactly that in real time.
Sideline warning
The most dangerous aspect of Houston’s game against Arlington on Sunday may have been the Roughnecks sideline. Seventy-five year-old Head Coach Wade Phillips took a tumble after being knocked over by a returner who had been pushed out of bounds. Players and staff gathered around the septuagenarian to make sure he was okay and to help him to his feet. Phillips was no worse for the wear, raising his arms in triumph as he regained verticality. Later on, defensive line coach Bill Johnson took a helmet to the forehead from a player during game action, resulting in him needing four stitches. Even Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer immortalized Johnson’s show of toughness in a tweet. The image of Johnson, headset on, blood trickling down his face, still coaching is the definition of, as PFTCommenter would say, “football guy.”
Fixing “The Dumbest Rule in Football”
It took almost the entire regular season before we finally saw the XFL’s interpretation of fixing what The Ringer once called “The Dumbest Rule in Football.” In fact, many fans didn’t even realize the rule was different from the NFL’s version. When a player fumbles the ball through the opposing team’s end zone, traditionally, there is a change of possession and the opposing team takes over at the 20-yard line as a touchback. Fans decry this rule almost every time it is applied, even if no less an authority than Football Zebras, a site that focuses on officiating at all levels, thinks the NFL’s version of the rule makes the most sense.
With less than two minutes remaining in the final game, Vipers WR Matthew Sexton caught a pass from QB Jalan McClendon and went 84 yards. Just as he was about to score, he had the ball knocked out of his hands by Sea Dragons DB Mykael Wright, and it fumbled through the end zone. The XFL rule awards the offensive team the ball at the spot of the fumble, which in this case was determined to be the one-yard line. Vipers RB Shai McKenzie scored on the next play. The camera showed confused Sea Dragons faithful in Seattle, used to the NFL rule, not understanding why their team did not gain possession. This was not one of the rule changes that was amplified by the league before the season, so fans were not prepped on it ahead of time.
All-Access Moment of the Week, Part Two
As a player, San Antonio Brahmas Head Coach and former wide receiver Hines Ward was known as much for his blocking and physicality as he was for his route-running and hands. During his time, the so-called crackback block, where an offensive player delivers a blindside block to a defender, was legal, and Ward was an expert at it. Today, that play has been legislated out of the game for player safety reasons. So when Ward, the leading authority on such blocks, sees a foul for one that wasn’t called, he’s not afraid to make it known. That’s what happened in the game against DC on Saturday. “That was a crack-back block over there on the kickoff return. That’s a crack-back…I’m the king of crack-backs, so I know when I see crack-backs, no one called it over there,” is what Ward told officials after a kickoff return. Suffice to say, the referees did not defer to Ward’s expertise on this one.
