XFL Game Summary: San Antonio Brahmas at Seattle Sea Dragons, Saturday March 11, 2023

#25 Running Back Morgan Ellison celebrates with the Seattle Sea Dragons
#25 Running Back Morgan Ellison celebrates with the Seattle Sea Dragons (Credit: @XFLSeaDragons)
  • San Antonio Brahmas (1-2) at Seattle Sea Dragons (1-2)
  • Saturday, March 11 at 10 p.m. ET
  • Lumen Field, Seattle
  • Attendance: 15,103
  • Broadcaster: FX, ESPN+
  • Announcers: Lowell Galindo, Sam Acho, Taylor McGregor, Ian Fitzsimmons
  • Odds: Seattle -4.5, O/U 40.5 (DraftKings)

The surging Seattle Sea Dragons hosted the San Antonio Brahmas in a cross-divisional matchup. Both teams had the same 1-2 record going into this, so we could only imagine how each team had the desire to improve to a .500 record at 2-2. Only one team would get there.

San Antonio was coming off a tough 22-13 loss to the Houston Roughnecks. Quarterback Jack Coan had a rough time of it, only completing 8 of 20 passes for 64 yards, one touchdown, and an interception. The Brahmas rushing game struggled with the offensive line unable to open running lanes. The San Antonio defense was poked full of holes, allowing 374 yards to a highly successful Brandon Silvers led Houston offense.

Last week, Seattle had a better time of it, coming off a win against Vegas. Mind you they had to do it in the final seconds, but a win is a win. The best news for the Sea Dragons was how their offensive production peaked, posting a season-best 519 yards. Quarterback Ben DiNucci was impressive, completing 29 of 37 passes for 377 yards, four touchdowns, and an interception. DiNucci’s performance was capped by a game-winning 65-yard touchdown pass to Josh Gordon on fourth-and-2 with a minute remaining. Can Seattle top that performance in this game? The home town crowd were certainly expecting it.

The first thing you noticed on the broadcast was how the Seattle fans were very loud.

The Brahmas took the ball and Jack Coan could not get anything going. Brahmas went three and out.

DiNucci moved the ball with passes to Jackson and Hammonds. He eventually turned over the ball on 4th & 1 on the San Antonio 19.

Jack Coan marched the ball from the San Antonio 20 , racking up three first downs. The drive stalled at 3rd and 18 on the Seattle 27. The Brahmas settled for a 38-yard Parker Romo field goal to make the score 3-0 for San Antonio.

At the end of the first quarter the score was 3-0 for the Brahmas.

DiNucci’s drive stalled and the Sea Dragons had to punt. The Brahmas took over on their own 30. Jack Coan’s drive went three and out and the Brahmas punted the ball back to the Sea Dragons.

Dinucci threw an 18-yard strike to Jawon Green to extend his drive, then a 14-yard pass complete to Damion Willis took the ball to the Seattle 38. Brahmas head coach Hines Ward challenged the Willis catch for offensive pass interference and he was successful. Penalties ended up killing the Sea Dragons drive and they were forced to punt.

Coan completed a first down with a 9-yard pass to Travis Toivonen. Seattle’s defense was tight and held Coan to short passes. Then, the Seattle fans got loud and caused the Brahmas to take a delay of game penalty. San Antonio was forced to punt.

Seattle took over on their own 15-yard line at the two-minute warning. DiNucci led off with a pass over the middle to Blake Jackson who ran the ball into the end zone for a touchdown. The play was reviewed and Jackson was ruled to be down at the 45-yard line. A roughing the passer call put the ball on the San Antonio 40. Morgan Ellison rushed the ball for a 15-yard gain, and then Josh Gordon caught a pass for a 5-yard gain. DiNucci looked to pass to Gordon in the corner of the end zone but was incomplete. A pass to Pearson gave the Sea Dragons a first down on the Brahmas 2-yard line. Ben DiNucci passed to Juwan Green for the Seattle touchdown. The 3-point conversion failed, making the score 6-3 for Seattle.

Jack Coan took over on his own 20-yard line with 20 seconds remaining. A pass interference call took the ball to the San Antonio 45. Then, Coan ran to the Seattle 45 for another Brahmas first down.  Coan completed a pass to Jalen Tolliver with 4 seconds remaining. A Parker Romo 57-yard field goal attempt was good tying the score at 6 points apiece at the half.

The second half led off with DiNucci handing the ball to Morgan Ellison for a 12-yard gain. However, the Sea Dragons could do no more and were forced to punt.

Jack Coan took the ball on the San Antonio 8. A 30-yard pass to Travis Toivonen moved the ball to the San Antonio 40. On 3rd and 7 Coan was sacked for a loss and the Brahmas were forced to punt.

DiNucci began to build a drive for the Sea Dragons starting from their own 23-yard line. After an 8-yard rush, running back Morgan Ellison went down with an injury. Ellison had the wind knocked out of him and was expected to return to the game. On 4th down, a Dominik Eberle 35-yard field goal attempt was good making the score 9-6 for Seattle.

Coan took control of the ball on the San Antonio 20-yard line. A face masking penalty gave the Brahmas a first down. Coan was able to complete a 15-yard pass to Travis Toivonen just as the third quarter came to an end.

The score at the end of the third was 9-6 for Seattle.

The Brahmas could not convert for a first down and were forced to punt.

Ben DiNucci led off his drive with a 17-yard pass to Jahcour Pearson. On first down DiNucci was sacked. On second down Morgan Ellison caught a 5-yard pass. On third down, a pass to Jahcour Pearson was incomplete. Again, the Sea Dragons were forced to punt.

Jack Coan could not drive the ball and was sacked by Miller on third down. The Brahmas were forced to punt.

Ben DiNucci took over on the Seattle 41-yard line. Short passes to Jahcour Pearson and Josh Gordon gave the Sea Dragons a first down. A Morgan Ellison11-yard run made for another first down. Then, a Jordan Veasy catch gave Seattle another first down on the San Antonio 24-yard line, and then a 23-yard pass to Josh Gordon was complete to the Brahmas 1-yard line. All it took was a 1-yard run by Morgan Ellison for the Seattle touchdown. The 1-point conversion attempt failed and the score was 15-6 for Seattle.

San Antonio took over on their own 40-yard line with 2:55 remaining. Jack Coan fumbled when attempting to pass, but they recovered the ball. A third down pass to Jalen Tolliver on the 49-yard line was complete just before the two-minute warning.

Seattle challenged for offensive pass interference on the Tolliver catch, but their challenge failed.

San Antonio could not convert on 4th and 1, and turned over the ball on downs.

Seattle was determined to run off the remainder of the clock. Unfortunately they needed a first down to kill the clock and as Ben DiNucci passed the ball down field intended for Willis, Luq Barcoo picked off the ball. San Antonio took over on their own 20-yard line.

Coan was sacked on first down, but he completed to Jalen Tolliver on 2nd down.  An incomplete pass to Travis Toivonen was followed by a 5-yard penalty to Seattle’s Miller. On 3rd and 5 a pass to Jalen Tolliver was incomplete. On 4th and 5 with 42 seconds remaining, Coan passed to Alize Mack for another first down on the San Antonio 42. With 33 seconds left, Fred Brown caught a 9-yard pass to take the ball into Seattle territory. A pass to Jalen Tolliver was incomplete. Then, on 4th and 1 from the Seattle 49-yard line Coan was incomplete.

An exciting finish, but Seattle was now successful in running out the clock.

The final score was Seattle Sea Dragons 15, San Antonio Brahmas 6.

Box scores – Statistics Summary

Scoring

	1	2	3	4	F
SA	3	3	0	0	6
SEA	0	6	3	6	15

------ SAN ANTONIO BRAHMAS ------

Passing

PLAYER		C/ATT	YDS	AVG	TD	INT	LONG	SCK-YDS
Jack Coan	20/39	189	4.8	0	0	30	4 - 19

Rushing

PLAYER		CAR	YDS	AVG	TD	LONG
Jack Coan	2	9	4.5	0	10
Kalen Ballage	5	5	1.0	0	3
Jacques Patrick	2	5	2.5	0	5
Jon Hilliman	1	2	2.0	0	2
Darece Roberson	1	0	0.0	0	0
TEAM TOTAL	11	21	1.9	0	10

Receiving

PLAYER		REC	YDS	AVG	TD	LONG	TGTS
Travis Toivonen	3	54	18.0	0	30	7
Jalen Tolliver	6	34	5.7	0	10	10
Fred Brown	3	31	10.3	0	18	6
Alize Mack	3	29	9.7	0	14	4
Kalen Ballage	2	19	9.5	0	10	6
Jacques Patrick	2	17	8.5	0	16	3
Travis Jonsen	1	5	5.0	0	5	1
Kameron Kelly	0	0	0.0	0	0	1
Deon Yelder	0	0	0.0	0	0	1
TEAM TOTAL	20	189	9.4	0	30	39

Fumbles

PLAYER		FUM	LOST	REC
Jack Coan	1	0	1

Defensive

PLAYER		SOLO	AST	TOT	SACKS-YDS	TFL	INT	FF	FR
Jordan Williams	8	4	12.0	0.0 - 0.0	1.0	0	0	0
Terrell Bonds	6	1	7.0	0.0 - 0.0	0.0	0	0	0
Luq Barcoo	3	3	6.0	1.0 - 2.0	1.0	1	0	0
Jack Koerner	5	0	5.0	0.0 - 0.0	1.0	0	0	0
Tenny Adewusi	4	0	4.0	0.0 - 0.0	0.0	0	0	0
Kameron Kelly	3	0	3.0	0.0 - 0.0	0.0	0	0	0
Mike Tverdov	1	2	3.0	0.0 - 0.0	0.0	0	0	0
Ben Davis	2	0	2.0	0.0 - 0.0	0.0	0	0	0
Drew Beesley	1	1	2.0	0.0 - 0.0	0.0	0	0	0
Ranthony Texada	1	1	2.0	0.0 - 0.0	0.0	0	0	0
Drew Lewis	1	1	2.0	0.0 - 0.0	1.0	0	0	0
Sean Williams	1	0	1.0	0.0 - 0.0	1.0	0	0	0
Ryan Lewis	0	1	1.0	0.0 - 0.0	0.0	0	0	0
Da'Sean Downey	0	1	1.0	0.0 - 0.0	0.0	0	0	0
Shakir Soto	1	0	1.0	0.0 - 0.0	0.0	0	0	0
Riko Jeffers	1	0	1.0	0.0 - 0.0	0.0	0	0	0
Matthew Gotel	0	1	1.0	0.0 - 0.0	0.0	0	0	0
TEAM TOTAL	38	16	54.0	1.0 - 2.0	5.0	1	0	0

Interceptions

PLAYER		INT	YDS	TD
Luq Barcoo	1	0	0

Punt Returns

PLAYER		NO	YDS	AVG	LONG	TD
Darece Roberson	3	26	8.7	23	0

Kick Returns

PLAYER		NO	YDS	AVG	LONG	TD
Fred Brown	4	90	22.5	31	0

Punting

PLAYER		NO	YDS	AVG	TB	IN-20	LONG
Brad Wing	5	229	45.8	0	2	51
Kameron Kelly	1	48	48.0	0	1	48
TEAM TOTAL	6	277	46.2	0	3	51



------ SEATTLE SEA DRAGONS ------

Passing

PLAYER		C/ATT	YDS	AVG	TD	INT	LONG	SCK-YDS
Ben DiNucci	28/41	264	6.4	1	1	30	1 - 2

Rushing

PLAYER		CAR	YDS	AVG	TD	LONG
Morgan Ellison	16	69	4.3	1	15
T.J. Hammonds	1	5	5.0	0	5
Darius Bradwell	1	5	5.0	0	5
Ben DiNucci	2	2	1.0	0	3
TEAM TOTAL	20	81	4.0	1	15

Receiving

PLAYER		REC	YDS	AVG	TD	LONG	TGTS
Tre Walker	1	85	85.0	1	85	1
Jahcour Pearson	8	76	9.5	0	18	9
Blake Jackson	5	59	11.8	0	30	8
Josh Gordon	5	57	11.4	0	23	8
Juwan Green	4	36	9.0	1	18	6
Jordan Veasy	3	14	4.7	0	8	4
T.J. Hammonds	1	12	12.0	0	12	1
Antoine Brooks	1	11	11.0	0	11	1
Morgan Ellison	2	10	5.0	0	5	2
Damion Willis	0	0	0.0	0	0	2
TEAM TOTAL	30	360	12.0	2	85	42

Fumbles

FUM	LOST	REC
0	0	0

Defensive

PLAYER			SOLO	AST	TOT	SACKS-YDS	TFL	INT	FF	FR
Qwynnterrio Cole	4	1	5.0	0.0 - 0.0	0.0	0	0	0
Jordan Evans		4	0	4.0	0.0 - 0.0	1.0	0	0	0
Antoine Brooks		3	1	4.0	0.0 - 0.0	0.0	0	0	0
Tuzar Skipper		3	1	4.0	2.0 - 10.0	2.0	0	1	0
Linden Stephens		3	1	4.0	0.0 - 0.0	0.0	0	0	0
Bryce Thompson		3	0	3.0	0.0 - 0.0	1.0	0	0	0
Austin Faoliu		2	1	3.0	0.0 - 0.0	0.0	0	0	0
Tre Walker		1	1	2.0	0.0 - 0.0	0.0	0	0	0
Chris Jones		2	0	2.0	0.0 - 0.0	0.0	0	0	0
Shareef Miller		1	1	2.0	1.0 - 4.0	1.0	0	0	0
Clarence Hicks		1	0	1.0	0.0 - 0.0	0.0	0	0	0
Antwuan Jackson		0	1	1.0	0.0 - 0.0	0.0	0	0	0
Alijah Holder		1	0	1.0	0.0 - 0.0	0.0	0	0	0
Emmanuel Smith		1	0	1.0	0.0 - 0.0	0.0	0	0	0
Elijah Ponder		1	0	1.0	1.0 - 5.0	1.0	0	0	0
Niko Lalos		1	0	1.0	0.0 - 0.0	0.0	0	0	0
TEAM TOTAL		31	8	39.0	4.0 - 19.0	6.0	0	1	0

Interceptions

INT	YDS	TD
0	0	0

Punt Returns

PLAYER		NO	YDS	AVG	LONG	TD
Kelvin McKnight	5	33	6.6	13	0

Kick Returns

PLAYER		NO	YDS	AVG	LONG	TD
Kelvin McKnight	2	36	18.0	21	0

Punting

PLAYER			NO	YDS	AVG	TB	IN-20	LONG
Cameron Nizialek	4	168	42.0	0	1	55





------ TEAM STATS ------
TEAM STATS		SAN	SEA
TOTAL PLAYS		54	62
TOTAL YARDS		191	343
YARDS PER PLAY		3.5	5.5
FIRST DOWNS		11	21
FIRST DOWNS PASSING	7	14
FIRST DOWNS RUSHING	2	6
FIRST DOWNS PENALTY	2	1
THIRD DOWN EFFICIENCY	23.1%	53.8%
FOURTH DOWN EFFICIENCY	33.3%	0.0%
TOTAL PASSING YARDS	170	262
PASS COMPLETIONS	20	28
PASS ATTEMPTS		39	41
INTERCEPTIONS THROWN	0	1
YARDS PER PASS		4.4	6.4
PASSING TOUCHDOWNS	0	1
SACKS ALLOWED		4	1
SACK YARDS LOST		19	2
TOTAL RUSHING YARDS	21	81
RUSH ATTEMPTS		11	20
YARDS PER RUSH		1.9	4.0
RUSHING TOUCHDOWNS	0	1
PENALTIES		5	6
TURNOVERS		0	1
FUMBLES			0	0
DEFENSIVE TOUCHDOWNS	0	0
SPECIAL TEAMS TDS	0	0
POSSESSION		26:22	33:38