1988 Week 11 Recap: Denver D Dominates as Races Tighten

SCORES

POR 10 WSH 23

In a pretty sloppy game, Washington gets a much-needed win despite two Lomax interceptions, 6 penalties, and only 92 yards rushing. It helped that Portland completed only 4 of 14 third downs and missed on 3 different 4th down attempts.

OAK 13 BAL 20

Vince Evans rushed 8 times for 30 yards and a score as the Blitz keep pace in the Atlantic. Jeff Kemp, in his first start in 2 years in the USFL, looked rusty, completing only 56% of his passes and being sacked 4 times. Jackie Flowers was the star on the day, catching 6 for 130 and a key last second before the half score for the Blitz.

LA 10 PIT 19

The cross-country flight and early start clearly affected the Express as Pittsburgh scored 10 in the final quarter to steal a win. Mike Rozier had one of his better games of the year, rushing for 118, and Alan Risher completed 30 of 43 with no picks to help Pittsburgh move to 5-6 and within range of a Wild Card berth.

DEN 20 NJ 3

Denver, feeling disrespected and overlooked, made a statement by shutting down the usually potent New Jersey offense. The Gold defense held the Generals to only 6 yards rushing in the game, while the combo of Harry Sydney and Timmy Smith gained 96. Bob Gagliano returned, and while still a little rusty, avoided turnovers and completed 70% of his passes to lead the Gold to a defiant win.

TEX 30 TBY 20

Texas outgained Tampa 417-248 and overcame 8 penalties to take a 10-point win from the Bandits in Tampa Stadium. The loss, Tampa’s 9th, now guarantees their first losing season in the 6 years of USFL play. Brian Bosworth’s 11 tackles led the Outlaws and Najee Mustafaa gained his league-leading 7th interception off of Oliver Luck as Texas scored 4 times in the 2nd half to overtake a Tampa 17-10 halftime lead.

NOR 24 BIR 17

In front of a huge Legion Field crowd, with at least 20,000 Breaker fans in attendance, New Orleans edged the Stallions on the strength of a 21-point 2nd quarter that saw Hilliard, Dupree and Franz all score within the span of 9 minutes. The Stallions fought back, but it was too much to overcome without takeaways and New Orleans knew it.

MGN 23 ORL 6

Michigan declares that their season is not over yet, knocking off the favored Renegades in the Citrus Bowl. In an even game (232 total yards to 227), neither team ran the ball effectively, putting the game on the shoulders of the two quarterbacks. Jack Trudeau only completed 12 of his 28 tosses, but it was enough to set up kicker Tony Franklin for 3 field goals and to get John Williams into striking distance for a game-ending touchdown late in the 4th. Orlando committed 6 turnovers on the day, including 4 interceptions of Reggie Collier by the Michigan D.

CHI 3 MEM 26

Chicago gave Steve Beurlein the start, trying to shake things up, but Memphis dominated from kickoff to the final whistle. Mike Kelley found TE Keith Jackson and wideout Bobby Joe Edmunds for scores, and veteran Mel Gray returned to action to lead the team with 100 yards receiving on 7 grabs.

HOU 23 JAX 16

Jacksonville entered the 4th with a 16-13 lead after frustrating Jim Kelly all day, but the final quarter belonged to Houston as Kelly found Jacobs for a lead-changing TD and then led Houston on a long, time consuming drive for 3 that put the game solidly in their hands. George Adams was a highlight for Jacksonville, as he returned from injury and gained 115 on the ground.

GAME OF THE WEEK

Arizona Wranglers 13 Philadelphia Stars 19

The Stars trailed most of the day, but never by more than 4, and wore down the Wrangler defense in time to steal a home win against a tough opponent. David Trout kicked 4 field goals as Philly’s redzone offense stalled consistently within yards of the endzone, but it was enough as the Stars’ defense held Arizona’s Kelly Stouffer to only 207 yards passing. Both Kelvin Bryant (124) and James Wilder (114) ran for over 100 yards as both teams were content to slow the game down and play for a close win.

After a Stars field goal to open scoring, Stouffer had his best moment of the day, leading Arizona down the field and finding Steve Wilkes for a lead-changing TD. Philly and Arizona would trade field goals for the rest of the first half, as neither could find the right formula to get into the endzone. At the half the score was Wranglers 10, Stars 9.

In the second half much the same situation emerged. The sole bright spot, and a big one, was a 28-yard TD toss from Fusina to Mike Quick which flipped the score from 13-9 to 13-16, a lead the Stars would never relinquish. In the 4th, both defenses kept things in the middle of the field, and Arizona never got the shot downfield they needed to take back the lead. It did not help that over the course of the second half the Wranglers committed 10 penalties, including 5 false starts due to the noise of the rambunctious Philadelphia crowd.

In the end Philadelphia’s grit and the ability to grind out the clock with Kelvin Bryant runs won the day. The combo of their win and New Jerseys’s loss to Denver pulls the Stars back to within 1 game of the lead in the Atlantic, while Arizona, along with LA, fall 1 game behind Denver in the Pacific.

PERFORMANCE OF THE WEEK

This was a week without a lot of eye-popping offensive stats, so our attention focuses on defense this week. Najee Mustafaa’s 7th interception and its runback for 6 is certainly worthy of praise, but we are going to offer special attention to a player who rarely gets it, Michigan weakside linebacker Scott Stephen. When you line up alongside John Corker and Hardy Nickerson, you are likely not to get a lot of attention, but this week Stephen showed up big. Not only did he sack the elusive Reggie Collier twice, but he also picked him off, diving for a deflected ball, and forced two Curtis Bledsoe fumbles, one of which he also recovered. It was an all-around dominant performance by a player often overshadowed by his own teammates in the linebacker corps.

PLAYOFF PICTURE

While very few teams (Tampa, Portland) are mathematically out of playoff contention, it seems safe to say that we are beginning to see some separation between the top and the bottom of the league. New Orleans at 9-2 is looking good, though they still have Houston (8-3) and Texas (7-4) on their heels. Denver picked up a game against both LA and Arizona this week, while New Jersey slipped back to a 1 game lead over Baltimore and Philly. Orlando and Memphis are also only 1 game behind Birmingham. With key wins this week even seeming longshots such as Michigan, Pittsburgh and Washington seem to still have life. This year, unlike most, may actually come down to the final week of the season and the league office may actually have to break out some tiebreakers to figure this one out as we are seeing greater parity than ever before.

NEWS & NOTES

We don’t spend a lot of time talking about the league’s outfitters or design team here, but this week we got news from both. There is no league-wide contract for team uniforms, but this week we moved closer to one, as Russell Athletic signed up 3 more teams (Baltimore, Washington and Oakland), moving their share of the USFL to 11 teams, with Champion next at 6 and Wilson at 3. It is not complete dominance, but it certainly feels like Russell Athletic is looking to corner the market. Obviously, with a lot of money made on replica jerseys as well as team gear such as t-shirts, sweatshirts and hats out there, gaining the lion’s share of the market is good for RA.

What may even be more lucrative is getting engaged in the design aspect, as both the Federals and Blitz announced this week that with their new Russell Athletic contract, both teams would be working with RA and the league office to redesign the team’s looks for the 1989 season. While this certainly means changes to the uniform, it is unclear at this time if this will be a deeper change, with new colors or team logos also part of the mix, but one must suspect that this is the case as a simple uniform change would not require league support and input. We also have to wonder whether the recent addition of Nike Sportswear CEO Phil Knight as a league owner (Portland) might eventually lead the league to consider the upstart company as a partner for design, outfitting, and merchandise. For now, all teams are under contract with a different outfitter, but we would not be surprised to see Mr. Knight push the league towards a contract with the shoe company, at least for cleats, and perhaps for more as the company continues to grow.

INJURY REPORT

A few injuries to mention this week, most notably long-time Denver TE Bob Niziolek left the game in New Jersey with what looks to be a bad hamstring injury. We are still awaiting details to determine how severe. Philadelphia Free Safety Elmo Gardiner may be out up to 2 months after suffering cracked ribs on a poorly timed tackle of James Wilder. Former General and current Stallion wideout Clarence Collins is expected to be out the rest of the year after fracturing both bones in his lower arm, while Oakland’s Mark Duper may miss 2-3 weeks with a dislocated knee, an ugly injury to observe, but luckily one without major ligament damage.

LOOKING AHEAD

Week 12 has some important divisional matchups as we look at playoff drives. Baltimore is in DC to renew their rivalry with the surging Federals, winners of 3 in a row. New Jersey has a huge game in Philadelphia to try to rebuild their lead in the division. Birmingham hopes to re-establish themselves by winning in Tampa, while Memphis hopes to keep pace with a game in Jacksonville. Texas faces Houston for the second time, this time in San Marcos, as both teams try to gain on division-leading New Orleans. Arizona and LA, both 6-5, know that they need a win to keep pace with Denver, who are favored to leave Portland this week with their 8th win of the year. Out of division we have Pittsburgh at Oakland and Orlando visiting the Breakers in the Super Dome.