San Antonio has been bitten harder by the injury bug than any other team in the league; much of it has affected the offense and much of it has happened within the last week. First, it was new starting QB Reid Sinnett going down in week five, a foot injury sidelining him for the rest of the season. Then, at practice this week on back-to-back plays, QB Jack Coan and RB Kalen Ballage were hurt, forcing Coan to miss week six and perhaps beyond, Ballage tearing his Achilles. Two starting offensive linemen are on IR – OT Derrick Kelly and G Willie Wright – and another, OT Norman Price, was inactive against Arlington. Then starting G Maea Teuhema went down with an injury mid-game. WR Travis Toivonen was inactive due to injury as was WR Calvin Turner, who was just activated from IR last week. Yet somehow, the Brahmas were able to defeat the Renegades to keep their slim playoff hopes alive. They’re going to need to get new QB Kurt Benkert up to speed and get some players healthy if they want to make a late run at the postseason.
Down: Big-name receivers
The XFL managed to acquire some wide receivers with extensive NFL resumes in preparation for the 2023 season. However, most of those players have disappointed. In Seattle, former NFL first-round pick Josh Gordon is third on the team in receptions and has three touchdowns. It’s certainly not bad, but in a June Jones offense and with physical skills that should overmatch defenders, one would’ve expected more dominance from him. In Vegas, Martavis Bryant, who averaged more than 15 yards per reception on 145 NFL catches, has just 11 grabs through five games for a 9.7 yards per catch average. His teammate Geronimo Allison, who has over 1,000 NFL receiving yards, has 10 catches and a 9.6 average. It’s been a tough slog for some offenses through the first half of the season and one of the reasons is the lack of big plays from some of these receivers expected to provide just that.
Up: Cavon Walker’s cardio
Walker was a recent addition to the Vipers but he showed off how in-shape he is on Saturday night. The 278-pounder recovered a fumble at his own five yard-line, though the play was whistled dead due to forward progress. Nevertheless, Walker had already picked up the ball and began running, so he thought, “why not go the distance?” He ended up running it back 95 yards to the end zone, drawing cheers from the Vegas faithful. It didn’t count in the box score – only for Walker himself, perhaps for a bragging point to his fellow defensive linemen when they go over the game film.
When Arlington kicker Taylor Russolino missed a 36-yard field goal that would’ve tied the game against San Antonio with 4:05 left, the thought from most viewers at home was likely, “what happened?” Yet, the sideline reporters never approached Russolino to ask that obvious question. This version of the XFL has pushed a “player-first” narrative, and to that end, it probably extends to the production philosophy of trying not to interview players in their low moments. The league and ESPN have largely avoided interviewing players after bad plays or when frustration is high. It’s not that the league has to go looking for controversy like the XFL did in 2001; rather, they should go after what’s compelling for the fans watching at home. It’s as if they’re not using the broadcast’s all-access to its fullest by avoiding the tough questions and the raw emotional moments.
Up: Special teams penalties
By week six, you’d think XFL teams would have repped special teams situations enough to not make the same mistakes they were making early in the season. Yet teams are still getting penalized on special teams in spades, not just for the usual holding and block in the back penalties, but also for not following the rules in that phase unique to the XFL. In week six, there were 13 special teams penalties, including eight in the Seattle vs. Orlando game alone. Many of them were illegal formations, players leaving the line of scrimmage before the punt, or kickers failing to hit the target area on kickoffs. Fair or not, it gives the impression of sloppy play and a lack of preparedness from the coaching staffs.
Down: Communication in Vegas
There are a lot of negatives about the Vegas team playing their home games at Cashman Field, many of them hashed over plenty already. Another to add to the pile is the communication problems that seem to occur every game in Vegas. Like clockwork, at some point, the players’ headsets will go out and quarterbacks won’t be able to hear the play calls sent in by their offensive coordinators. The latest incident involved Battlehawks QB AJ McCarron’s headset going down in the third quarter. It was first reported that he was hearing Vipers defensive calls in his helmet rather than his own OC, but that report was later corrected by the announcers to say that it was his own defensive coordinator that he heard. And lest we think it’s some nefarious plot by the Vegas team to undermine their opponents, they themselves have not been immune to the outages. With just one game in Vegas left on the calendar, it may not be an issue that gets resolved this year. If the league returns to Cashman Field next year, it’s something they need to investigate and fix, if possible.
