I know the season is only 10 weeks long and there are only 8 teams, but it seems like it might be a little too early for this rematch. To be fair, it’s not as bad as the situation that the Renegades and Brahmas are in, where they are playing each other 2 weeks in a row for some reason. You’re telling me they couldn’t switch any other games around to make them not go back to back? Psssh. Okay XFL.
Here we are, 2 weeks after a brawl, with the Battlehawks taking on the Defenders, but at home this time.
DC Defenders @ STL Battlehawks
Saturday 3/18, 6 pm Central
Battlehawks Offense v Defenders Defense
In round 1 of this match-up, the game was decided by turnovers. The Battlehawks threw 2 interceptions and fumbled twice in a 34-28 loss. Those turnovers accounted for 14 points. In other words, it could’ve been a 36-28 win.
This Defenders’ defense can be and has been exposed.
Their defense is based on pressures, presnap looks, and post-snap movement. This leaves a lot of gaps in coverage that can lead to big gains. Last week the Defenders won 32-18 against the Vipers. The Vipers threw for 323 yards for an average of 8.3 yards per catch. A whole bunch of weird stuff happened that game with TDs being caught out of bounds and a really unlucky call right before half that took a touchdown away from the Vipers. They could’ve/should’ve scored 36 points, but they’re one of those teams that doesn’t know how to win a game, so I guess bummer for them? Whatever.
The point is that we can all bathe in the beautiful irony that the Defenders’ defense is their weaker side of the ball.
One of, if not the biggest difference in this game from the first one, is that Francis Bernard is still suspended from the fight. He’s the linebacker who had the Polamalu-eque flow. He was an absolute menace with 5 tackles and 1 TFL. That means the only stand-out threat in the middle of the field is #17, Davin Bellamy.
On top of that, we also have Eric Magwood playing Left Tackle again because Jaryd Jones-Smith is still sussied from the same fight. He played pretty well last week, save for a couple of doofus plays where he looked like a real dummy when he whiffed on guys.
The Battlehawks also have Brian Hill who really came alive last week. In the first game, Hill was coming off a week with a hammy, so now that he’s confident and healthy he should make a real impact.
With the running game working and setting up play actions, and receivers being as physical as they were last week, the Battlehawks have a real opportunity to put up 315+ passing yards this game and get 30+ points. That is, if they can turn over the ball even half of the times they did in round 1.
Battlehawks Defense v Defenders Offense
In case you need a reminder the Defenders use a 2 quarterback system with Jordan Ta’amu and D’Eriq King.
They did something different last week that we didn’t see them do in the week 3 game. They were using D’Eriq King as the quarterback in goalline situations and it worked out really well because he score 2 TDs on a 5-yard and 2-yard run. I’m going to be interested to see how they use him on Saturday because the Battlehawks pretty much made King a non-factor in the first game.
Ta’amu had himself a game last week. He was 14/19 for 117 yards in the air and he had carried the ball 9 times for 89 yards, including a mondo 49-yard run where he wasn’t touched until he went down.
The Battlehawks had a really tough time playing him. It seemed like every time they showed some respect to the receivers, Ta’amu or a running back would run for 7 or 8 yards, and every time they showed the running game some respect, Ta’amu would take advantage of a receiver, specifically Lucky Jackson, for an easy completion.
If the defense doesn’t want this to turn into a shoot-out, they’re going to have to chill out with the whole “play soft coverage and hope your corners can make a quick tackle” scheme, because it hasn’t been working. I have faith in the D-Line to be able to pressure the QBs to make them move and throw bad balls and that’s exactly what they’re going to need to do. Ta’amu only had 5 incompletions last week because he didn’t have to make tough throws. The 5 that he did throw were when he was in a bad spot and the receivers weren’t absolutely wide open. Do that. Make that happen.
As far as stopping the run goes? Sheesh man. I don’t know. The Defenders are the only team in the XFL that has more rushing yards than passing yards. 610 passing and 622 rushing. It’s a great balance that they have and the option reads they use are very very super effective. One thing the Battlehawks did before, was that they got into the backfield and forced the QB to make that read early. Then DC adjusted and isolated the cornerbacks to make them tackle runningbacks who had a full head of steam. That was also very very super effective. If they want to have a chance here, they need to make sure they get good first contact on early-down runs in order to keep drives short. They need to make sure they’re not trying to do those arm tackles that they love on the two Big Boi running backs. It sounds like it should be easy, but I mean, it never is.
I do think the home-field advantage will be important though. Last week was the first time the Renegades had to do a silent count. The crowd definitely can make DC do that and make mental presnap errors to get 3rd or 2nd long. That’d be dope.
My prediction:
28-26 Battlehawks win.