Around the XFL: Week 4

Story posted March 1, 2020 in CommRadio, Sports by Logan Bourandas

Another week is in the books and for a majority of the week XFL fans saw some more close games which all kicked off in the Big Apple. After back to back blowout losses for the Guardians, they looked to rebound at home against the most surprising team from last week in the LA Wildcats.

In an effort to spark a momentum change, Guardians head coach Kevin Gilbride chose to bench the struggling Matt McGloin for Texas A&M alum Luis Perez. With the QB change Perez led a solid offensive attack to scrape by the Wildcats 17-14. The Wildcats came off of an upset win against the previously undefeated DC Defenders but couldn’t get a run game going against the New York defense.

Game two on the opening day of the week saw the Seattle Dragons travel to the toughest place to play in the XFL in St. Louis to take on the Battlehawks. The home field advantage proved to be just that in the game.

The Dragons had three different signal callers take snaps on Saturday all of whom struggled against the production of potential MVP candidate Jordan Ta’amu. The Battlehawks quarterback threw for over 250 yards and a touchdown and also led the team in rushing with 63 yards.

Even with the quarterback changes the game was close until the end but just 253 yards of offense for Seattle just wasn’t enough as the Battlehawks beat the Dragons 23-16.

Sunday’s slate of games started off in a battle for the Lonestar State as the undefeated Houston Roughnecks traveled to Dallas to take on the Renegades. While star quarterback Phillip Walker didn’t have his best day for Houston, his competition managed to be way worse.

In his three starts for Dallas, Landry Jones has already thrown seven interceptions, falling way short of the expectations for him being the best player in the new league.

In the game against Houston he kept that going with three more picks in the game. A normally solid Dallas rushing attack failed to show up as well with Cameron Artis-Payne and Lance Dunbar combining for less than 100 yards on the day. All Phillip Walker had to do was manage the game, and he did, leading to the 27-20 Houston victory to improve to 4-0.

The final game of the week proved to be the worst of the bunch with the DC Defenders looking to rebound after their embarrassing blowout loss against another winless team in the Tampa Bay Vipers.

To sum it up, the Defenders couldn’t bounce back. For the second straight week Cardale Jones failed to lead the offense, completing only nine passes and a subsequent benching. The change in quarterbacks couldn’t change the result as the Defenders couldn’t even score a point in the 25-0 shutout. Two running backs for the Vipers rushed for over 100 yards in Jacques Patrick and De’Veon Smith.

 

Logan Bourandas is a freshman majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him email lxb5412@psu.edu.