After spending the previous three weeks on the road, the Houston Roughnecks are returning home to take on the visiting St. Louis Battlehawks. This will be the second meeting between the two teams, since they met in week two which resulted in a 28-24 Roughnecks victory.
Going into this week, the Battlehawks were tied for 2nd in the XFL North Division. Now they need to win this game to keep pace with the streaking Seattle Sea Dragons who won their matchup against Arlington. The Battlehawks have a league-high three road victories on the season and will join San Antonio as the only XFL team to have already played all five of their scheduled regular-season road games. St. Louis will complete its regular-season schedule with three straight home games.
What should we look for?
The Houston Roughnecks offense is 2nd in the XFL in scoring with 27 points per game, and 1st in the XFL with 22 touchdowns. They lead the league in the most passing plays over 40-yards with 8 and tied for 2nd in the XFL in rushing plays of 20 plus yards with 3.
Defensively, the Roughnecks defense has also been a force to reckon with, only allowing 18.8 points per game and leading the XFL with 20 sacks and 9 interceptions. They are 3rd in the league in tackles for a loss with 33.
The Battlehawks produced their most dominant victory of the season last week with a a 29-6 victory over the Vegas Vipers at Cashman Field. The St. Louis offense set season highs with 29 points scored, 328 yards of total offense, while the defense held Vegas to 6 points, 230 total yards and 43 rushing yards, all of which were the fewest by a Battlehawks opponent this season.
Quarterback A.J. McCarron went 23-for-29 with 236 passing yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions in the Week 6 victory against Vegas. He also connected on 19 consecutive pass attempts from 9:51 left in the first quarter to 10:06 left in the third quarter during a streak that covered 200 yards and two touchdowns. McCarron leads the XFL with 14 touchdown passes and has completed a league-leading 67.5 percent of his passes on the season (min. 20 pass attempts). He also has an XFL-best 14-4 touchdown/interception ratio through six games. His 131 completions and 1,322 passing yards also rank second in the league, behind only Seattle’s Ben DiNucci (146/1,505).
Offensively, the Battlehawks are rounded out by WR Marcell Ateman who has been activated from injured reserve after he missed three weeks with a hamstring injury, and WR Hakeem Butler who caught five passes for 36 yards in Week 6 at Vegas and has made five-or-more receptions in each of his last four games.
Conclusion
On Sunday we will be treated to a battle of two high-powered offenses. Las Vegas is giving this game to Houston by 3 points and they may be right. But, a good bet might be to bet on McCarron and the Battlehawks to take it to the Roughnecks this week. An over of 44.5 seems achievable in this matchup.
