By necessity, the St. Louis Battlehawks set a record for most points scored in an XFL game with 53 in a week ten drubbing of the Orlando Guardians. QB AJ McCarron threw for 420 yards and six touchdowns, also XFL records. The seldom-used fourth and fifth tiebreakers for the final playoff spot in the XFL North required St. Louis to put up as many points as possible in an attempt to separate themselves from Seattle in case the Sea Dragons won on Sunday and it came down to combined offensive points scored and defensive points allowed. In the end, the Battlehawks’ offensive outburst still wasn’t enough for them to claw their way into the playoffs. A side benefit, though, is that the performance may have cemented McCarron as XFL MVP.
Down: Orlando defense
At 1-9, the Guardians could’ve played spoiler against the Battlehawks, putting up at least some level of resistance defensively to prevent Anthony Becht’s team from giving themselves hope that they could sneak into the playoffs. Alas, Orlando wasn’t up to the task. They surrendered 53 points and 420 passing yards to St. Louis and AJ McCarron, allowing four different receivers to catch touchdown passes. Guardians Head Coach Terrell Buckley was looking to build some momentum heading into the 2024 season, ending 2023 on a positive note. That didn’t happen for his defense. The shellacking pushed Orlando to the bottom of the points allowed standings, finishing the season giving up an XFL-worst 31 points per game, six more points than seventh place.
Up: Houston sitting starters
Houston and DC played in week ten having already clinched division titles, and with nothing to gain in the standings, there was a question as to how much their front-line players would see the field. We learned pretty quickly that Roughnecks Head Coach Wade Phillips would take the cautious approach. Despite being active, neither QB Brandon Silvers nor RB Max Borghi played. Backup QB Cole McDonald started and saw the bulk of the playing time, while third-stringer Kaleb Eleby played in his first game of the season. Borghi sat, but so too did his backup Brycen Alleyne – he took just two offensive snaps. Jeremy Cox was the workhorse at RB, rushing 21 times for over 100 yards. WR Tavonn Salter, who had played just 22 snaps in four games, played 54 in this one. On defense, players like LB Drew Lewis, CB David Tolentino, CB John Brannon, and CB Stephen Denmark all played a season-high in snaps.
Down: DC sitting starters
While Phillips and Houston chose to give some of their starters a break, there was no such rest afforded the DC Defenders. It was business-as-usual for Head Coach Reggie Barlow’s team. The most likely candidates for rest would’ve been QB Jordan Ta’amu and RB Abram Smith, both key cogs in the team’s offense. Ta’amu played his usual percentage of the game – ceding occasionally to D’Eriq King – and Smith was on the field for 49 of 51 offensive snaps. The Defenders are one of the few teams in the league that doesn’t rotate its offensive line throughout the game. This was an opportunity to give backups some playing time, but instead all five starters played all 51 snaps.
Up: Guest stars in Arlington
Both XFL 2001 and XFL 2020 were happy to have NFL players on their sidelines during games and happy to broadcast it to the world. It gave an air of legitimacy that the league was seeking to have NFL players speak highly of the players and quality of play in the league. XFL 2020 went so far as to have an active NFL player in Cameron Jordan act as sideline reporter for some games. Until week ten, praise from NFL players was limited to tweets and Instagram posts. On Sunday in Arlington, however, the stars all came out. College Football Hall-of-Fame coach Steve Spurrier was there to watch his old friend Bob Stoops lead the Renegades. Former Dallas Cowboys QB Troy Aikman, who works for ESPN on Monday Night Football, was interviewed on the sidelines during the game. Donald Parham, who played for the Renegades in 2020, was in attendance as well. He’s heading into his fourth season with the LA Chargers.
Down: Inactive transparency
A league like the XFL doesn’t have local and national media breathlessly reporting on every injury, interview, and press conference, so fans have to depend on the team’s own reporting for transparency. It doesn’t always feel like we’ve gotten that through the first season. For example, in a must-win game, St. Louis RB Brian Hill was on the inactive list. He did not appear on the team’s injury report and the announcers before and during the early part of the game made vague references to Hill being out. Finally, well into the contest, the announcers mentioned that Hill did not travel with the team for “personal reasons.”
For Orlando, WR Eli Rogers, listed as a starter on the depth chart and the team’s third-leading receiver, was inactive. Like Hill, he was not on the injury report during the week. This has occurred at other times throughout the year where key players have been out despite apparently not being injured – or at least not being listed as injured. For fans and especially the gambling community, which the XFL professes to embrace, the league might want to think about being more transparent when it comes to injury reports, weekly depth charts, and inactive lists.
