St. Louis Battlehawks vs. Houston Roughnecks game on ESPN was pushed back about 27 minutes due to pickleball.
Up: Repeat plays
If a play works, go back to it, right? Why reinvent the wheel? XFL teams have been taking this to heart, especially in week seven. Seattle ran the same three plays to start their game against Arlington, going with bubble screens. Later in the first quarter, Renegades TE Sal Cannella dropped a pass on third down; the team went back to the same play on fourth down and this time, he was able to haul it in for a successful conversion. The favorite play for the Orlando Guardians was a Y-crosser to TE Cody Latimer: Not only did they manage to convert a fourth down with it, but they also scored a late TD running it again when Latimer was able to scamper away from the Defender defense. When Houston ran the ball against St. Louis, it was frequently with some version of a draw play. As the season progresses, teams discover what plays work and what plays work to the strength of their players. It’s part of the reason we’re seeing the amount of offense and scoring increasing around the league the past few weeks.
Down: Smart time out usage
Head coaches still seem to be struggling with the new timing rules enacted by the XFL, and with that, how to properly use their timeouts. There’s also just a lack of preparation that causes timeouts to be wasted. For example, in two different games this weekend, teams were forced to call timeout on changes of possession, something that should never happen. In Houston on Sunday night, veteran Head Coach Wade Phillips wasted several seconds before calling his first timeout as St. Louis attempted to run out the clock with under two minutes remaining. With so many playoff spots still up for grabs in the last three weeks, you’d hate to see a game, and potentially a team’s entry into the playoffs, turn on a team misusing its timeouts.
Up: QBs directing traffic
The ability for offensive players to have communication devices in their helmets was supposed to allow plays to be run quicker without the need of a huddle, especially with the shorter play clock. In theory, it would also allow them to know the plays better by hearing them directly from the offensive coordinator. Yet while many (but not all) teams let their receivers wear those devices, we’ve also seen many quarterbacks having to direct players where to line up. By week seven in the season, you’d think players would have a strong enough handle on the playbook that they wouldn’t need to constantly be shepherded around the line of scrimmage by the QB. There is the chance that the OC is changing the play, forcing the QB to communicate that change to his teammates (OCs can speak to the offense up to the point of the snap) but it certainly gives the impression of players not knowing what’s going on and likely contributes to the high number of pre-snap alignment and motion penalties that we’ve seen infiltrate the league.
Down: Pickleball
Being in the business of airing live sports means sometimes games run long, and sometimes, they run into the broadcast window of other games. That’s what happened on Sunday when the St. Louis Battlehawks vs. Houston Roughnecks game on ESPN was pushed back about 27 minutes due to pickleball. The league delayed the game as long as they could, waiting until 14 minutes past the top of the hour to kick off, meaning viewers who didn’t have access to ESPN+ (where the game aired in its entirety) missed the first 13 minutes. For a broadcast partner that many XFL fans feel hasn’t pulled its weight, it’s another mark against ESPN. Roughnecks offensive coordinator AJ Smith had a little fun with the situation, holding up a manila folder to the camera with “Real Pickle Ball Champion” written on it while calling plays from the box early in the first quarter.
Up: Guardians new additions
There will be a lot of time spent trying to figure out how Orlando engineered their upset over DC on Saturday night. One reason for the success of the Guardians on that evening was the recent offensive additions the team made to the roster. Last week, they signed WR KD Cannon and TE Jordan Thomas. Both players suited up and played significant snaps, and made a significant impact. Cannon caught his only pass, a 41-yard touchdown from Quinten Dormady in the first quarter that gave Orlando its first lead of the game. In the third quarter, Thomas got into the act, making an acrobatic 15-yard TD catch on the first drive out of halftime. It was one of two receptions Thomas made on the night. Orlando’s offense has been playing with a different gear the last few games, and recent additions like Cannon and Thomas are part of the reasons why.
Down: Division leaders
Entering week seven, DC and Houston as division leaders had comfortable leads over their second-place rivals. However, losses by both teams this week puts them in jeopardy of being caught from behind over the last three games of the regular season. DC now just has a one-game lead over Seattle and St. Louis after previously having a two-game edge: DC lost and both Seattle and St. Louis won this week. It makes DC vs. Seattle in week eight a huge game, and how the Defenders react to their first loss will be a big storyline leading up to the Sunday nighter. In the XFL South, Houston has lost three in a row to fall to 4-3; the good news for them is that Arlington and San Antonio are both in rough spots right now offensively, which may make it difficult for either to mount a real challenge to the Roughnecks. Houston has just a one-game lead over Arlington. The division may come down to the Roughnecks vs. Renegades week ten matchup.
