A mistake-filled defeat for Tampa, two close games in the Atlantic, and two teams on the rise out west mark Week 6 play in the USFL.
BOS 24 NJ 25—It was a game for the ages in front of 52,000 at the Meadowlands as the Generals erased an 8 point 4th quarter deficit to knock off the suddenly hard-luck Breakers from Boston. Both teams moved the ball well all day, with Boston’s Richard Crump rushing for 91 yards, while New Jersey’s Herschel Walker rumbled for 122. Johnny Walton had a strong day, with 301 yards passing, but two turnovers, an early interception in the first quarter and a costly fumble in the 4th led to 10 New Jersey points. For his part, Generals QB Bobby Scott contributed 219 yards passing and two scores, including the winning TD, a 9-yard pass to backup RB Rob Fuller with 2:22 left in the game. When the 2pt try failed, Boston had a chance to win the game with a field goal, but a 4th and 10 pass on their own 41 yard line got stifled for only 8 yards, turning the ball over on downs and giving New Jersey a well-earned division win.
WSH 28 PHI 34—Another good game on a sunny day in Philly, as the two teams battled to a 21-21 tie at in the 3rd quarter before Philly went on a 13 point run that put the game away. Washington would score a late TD to make the game close, but Philly recovered the onside kick and salted the game away. The star of the day was Philly backup RB Booker Russell. While Kelvin Bryant got most of the carries (28 for 81 yards), Russell proved invaluable around the endzone, where he scored 2 TD’s for the Stars. For Washington, the game grew tougher when lead RB Craig James went out with an injury after only 2 carries in the 1st quarter. Backup Curtis Bledsoe rushed 14 times for 60 yards, but the shift in rushers clearly impacted the game. With the loss, Washington falls 2 games behind division leaders NJ and Philly at 2-4. For the Stars a division win is a valuable commodity as they join the Generals at the top of the Atlantic Division.
CHI 17 MGN 20—Another big crowd at the Silverdome as the Panthers bounced back from their surprise loss in LA to knock down the division rival Blitz. 43,000 showed up in Pontiac to watch a close game between two evenly matched foes. The two swapped the lead all day and it was not decided until Hebert hit Anthony Carter for a 14 yard score with 1:59 left in the game. It was actually a pretty slow day for Hebert, who only threw for 187 yards. John Williams, the shifty Panther back took up a lot of the load, carrying the ball 21 times for 104 yards. On the other sideline it was Frank Corral who actually provided a lot of the offense, kicking 5 fieldgoals for a Blitz offense that never saw the endzone. Corral’s 5 kicks and a safety were all the scoring the Blitz could muster. Had they been able to turn just one of their FG drives into 7 they would have won this one, but the Michigan D, led by LB John Corker, held tough in the red zone all day, giving Michigan the win and moving their record to 4-2.
BIR 33 TBY 11—This was the game of the week, at least that is what the billing said. The undefeated Bandits taking on the 4-1 Stallions. Over 47,000 showed up at Tampa Stadium to watch the fireworks, but what they got was a lot more from Bob Lane and the Stallions than from John Reaves and the Bandits. The Stalliions figured out a way to shut down the longball, the bread and butter of Bandit Ball, holding Reaves to only 163 yards passing and forcing three interceptions and 2 fumbles from the Bandit offense. Birmingham capitalized on those turnovers, scoring on an INT return by Jason Brown and snagging a safety when Gary Anderson could not get out of his own way on a poorly run counter play from the Tampa 1 yard line. Lane would add two short TD passes and Tampa just could not recover. Birmingham, with the win, moves into a tie for the lead of the Central Division at 5-1, and Tampa has to hope they can find a way to avoid such a mistake-filled game next week against Chicago.
LA 40 OAK 13—Someone break up the Express. After going 0-4 LA has won two in a row and QB Tom Ramsey has grown each week. From a close loss in week 4 to a decent game in week 5, this week Ramsey exploded, throwing for 4 TD’s against a bewildered Invader secondary. The other big surprise this week was backup RB LaRue Harrington, filling in for the injured Tony Boddie, and racing for 145 yards on 20 carries. Oakland’s defensive gameplan was simply not up to snuff, and the O did not look much better. Playing much of the game from behind, the rushing attack of Whittington was largely abandoned. Fred Besana threw for 309 yards as the Invaders tried to keep pace with the Express, but going 5 for 14 on third down just kept Oakland drives from leading to scores. The win pushes LA to 2-4 and 2nd in the weak Pacific Division. Oakland will need to regroup next week as they take on division-leading Denver.
DEN 26 ARZ 14—The Gold pulled to .500 with a win over the hapless and winless Arizona Wranglers. Denver scored the first 17 points of the game and never relinquished that lead as Arizona struggled to move the ball. The Wranglers would total only 213 yards of total offense for the game, compared to Denver’s 423. After a rough first half the Wranglers pulled a struggling Alan Risher, only to find that their backup, Dan Manucci, was also not up to the task. For Denver, it was a strong game from RB Harry Sydney, who raced up 105 yards on only 13 carries. Ken Johnson dinked and dunked for an impressive 311 yards as well. The loss drops the Wranglers to 0-6 and now face a revived and dangerous LA Express squad. Denver will be back home at Mile High to take on the 1-5 Oakland Invaders next week.
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