Man oh man. How the mighty have fallen. The Houston Roughnecks disaster of a stretch continued Sunday afternoon when they dropped their third game in a row, in a loss to the St. Louis Battlehawks at home 24-15. The loss dropped the Roughnecks to 4-3 on the season, and now they have 3 games that will determine whether they will make the playoffs or not. What a crazy turnaround for a team, that literally 3 weeks ago, people thought was the best team in the league. Let’s see how it went wrong this week.
First off, I was wrong. Cole McDonald is NOT the answer at quarterback. Brandon Silvers is better than McDonald. He just is. Cole did not look good Sunday afternoon. In fact, he looked pretty bad, with the exception of one drive. He missed some really easy throws, made some really bad throws, and his decision making was even worse. For example, the Roughnecks couldn’t have asked to start this game any better. They were gifted the ball in Battlehawks territory, and McDonald preceded to throw one of the worst picks of the year, near the goal line. Throwing across his body, across the field, and he telegraphed it the whole way. Brandon Sebastian saw it, and he snatched it out of the air. McDonald was 15/32 for 106 yds, which averaged out 3.3 yds per attempt. His longest pass of the day was 17 yds, and he also had 1 TD and that horrible INT. Cole McDonald hopefully never has to start another game this season. His role in the offense was good for what it was, but it definitely should not be the starter. Hopefully Brandon Silvers is ready to go for the final 3 games of the season, and hopefully he is back to MVP form, like he was in the beginning of the season. We shall see. The receiving core is still good, but they do need to do a better job of creating separation.
As for the defense, they were good, but definitely not the big juggernaut they were at the beginning of the season. They were able to sack McCarron 3 times in this game, and they pressured him all game. But the secondary continues to be a struggle. They allowed McCarron to toss 3 TDs against them, while creating no takeaways in terms of INTs. But with how Houston’s offense has been struggling lately, they need the defense to create something in terms of points. And that’s exactly what they did, when William Likely scooped up a fumble and took it to the house for 6. That would be the only other TD the Roughnecks would score for the game. They are going to need more of that, especially if this offense continues to struggle. Their defense is still good enough to win a championship, but they may need to be more than good enough to get it done.
So with 3 games left in the season, we are left asking if the Houston Roughnecks can turn it around and become that elite team they were in the first 4 weeks of the season. Only time will tell, but that’s the thing. There isn’t a lot of time left.
