SCORES
WSH 27 NJ 19
A big win for the Federals and backup QB Don Majkowski and a bad loss for the Generals. Majkowski throws for 222 and 2 scores, Craig James rushes for 128 and Webster Slaughter earns Offensive Player of the week for his 118 yards and 2 scores as the Federals shock the Generals in the Meadowlands to pull back into the playoff race at 6-8. New Jersey now at 7-7 in a division that no one seems ready to lead.
ORL 9 BIR 31
Birmingham dominates at home as Joe Cribbs rushes for 139 and a score. The Stallions are outgained by Orlando, but the Renegades commit 3 turnovers, including two costly fumbles, and 7 penalties in the loss. Cliff Stoudt again looks like an MVP candidate, going 21 for 25 and throwing 3 scores in the win.
TBY 16 JAX 13
Tampa builds a 16-0 lead only to watch Jacksonville battle back throughout the second half. In a rare USFL game with no turnovers, the key to Tampa’s victory is their ability to hem in George Adams. Tampa’s defense has been shredded most weeks, but they came up big this week, limiting Adams to only 36 yards on the ground.
DEN 23 ARZ 3
Robbie Bosco comes back from injury, but gets an unwanted welcome from the Denver D, who sack him 4 times and pick him off on a key 2nd quarter drive. Bob Gagliano finds Bill Brooks for two scores as the Gold return to the top of the Pacific Division with the win.
POR 10 OAK 37
Kerwin Bell goes out early with what looks like a season-ending injury and once again Portland can get nothing going on the ground with Owen Gill struggling to only 1.4 yards per carry. Oakland rolls behind 91 yards and 3 scores from Richard Williams.
HOU 37 CHI 14
Three Kelly TD passes in the 2nd quarter take Chicago out of their game plan and force Chuck Long to throw 49 passes, with 2 going back to the Houston D. The Machine limit Thurman Thomas to 51 yards on the ground, but he adds another 52 and a score through the air as Houston garners their 10th win of the year.
TEX 24 NOR 34
The Breakers stay a game ahead of Houston with a 10-point win over the Texas Outlaws. Texas’s D holds Matt Robinson to only 221 and 1 TD, but the combo of Dupree and Hilliard gain 110 and account for 3 scores as the Breakers pull away in the 3rd and keep Texas out of range despite two late scores in the 4th.
PHI 20 LA 28
LA notches a quality victory at home against the Philadelphia Stars as a late Young to Townsell 30 yard TD toss gives them the 8-point lead with 4:42 in the game. Philly mounts a final drive, but it falls short as the LA Defense holds.
MEM 0 MGN 9
In one of the more bizarre games of the year, Michigan earns only 3 fieldgoals as Jack Trudeau completes a mere 39% of his passes, but it is enough against a Memphis offense that suddenly can’t even line up straight, gaining only 161 total yards. The absence of Greg Boone from the lineup certainly hurt, but Buford Jordan rushed for a stunningly bad -4 yards on 13 attempts as Memphis simply could not get anything going. John Williams gained 120 on 25 carries to lead Michigan to a bizarre but much-needed win.
GAME OF THE WEEK
Pittsburgh Maulers 25 Baltimore Blitz 23
These are not the same old Maulers. In a tough divisional game, with a chance to move above .500 this late in the season, the Maulers almost revert to their old ways by giving up 17 points in the 4th quarter to fall behind 22-23, but this year the team from the Steel City has more firepower and more grit, and the Maulers mount a final drive that ends with a winning Rafael Septien fieldgoal as the final seconds come off the clock. A big win for a team that is trying to change its stars.
Pittsburgh looked to have this game in hand early, as Mike Rozier’s effective running and some big plays from the much-maligned Mauler defense, help to build a 15-3 halftime lead. Defensive POTW Sean Smith sacks Vince Evans in the endzone for what would turn out to be a crucial 2 points, and Stanford Jennings finds the corner on a 10 yard run that helps Pittsburgh build a solid lead.
It was 15-6 after a largely uneventful 3rd quarter when things started to unravel for the Maulers. They went up 22-6 early in the 4th on a Mike Rozier plunge from the 1, but then, on the first play of the next drive, Evans finds Jackie Flowers on a perfect fly route and Flowers goes 73 yards for the score. The Blitz get the 2pt Pat and then use an unexpected onside kick to regain the ball. They drive to the Pittsburgh 3, but are stymied by a solid goal line stand, leading only to a Zendejas field goal.
Baltimore’s D holds on the next drive, and the Blitz again turn to Jackie Flowers, this time on a short fade route, to take their first lead of the day 23-22. But Pittsburgh, despite the apparent 4th quarter melt down, is not accepting defeat. They get the ball back with just under 2 minutes to play, and they get to work. Risher hits on a 12 and then a 24 yard completion to move the ball down the field. Another completion to Buggs, and the Maulers are within range, though a tenuous one, for Rafael Septien. They use a Rozier run to set up what would be a 48 yard field goal, and despite an attempt by Marv Levy to ice Rafael Septien with a late timeout, the former Cowboy kicker lines up the kick and drives a stake in the heart of the Blitz as the ball sails through the uprights to give Pittsburgh the win with no time left on the clock.
For the Maulers, this is the type of game that can help them define themselves as a plucky blue-collar team that is miles from the sad sack Mauler squads we have seen in past years. Alan Risher has started to pay dividends for the Maulers after returning from a lackluster stint in the NFL, while Mike Rozier is clearly enjoying being part of a winning team after years struggling through 10-loss seasons. The Maulers still have 3 weeks of tough games to try to secure the franchise’s first playoff berth, but this is a squad that seems to be heading in the right direction.
PERFORMANCE OF THE WEEK
He did not win Offensive POTW, but we have to give kudos to Washington’s Don Majkowski. Subbing for the injured Neil Lomax, the “Majik Man” has again proven to be one of the best backups in the league. In a game the Federals desperately needed, against a team that many expect will win the Atlantic Division, Majkowski attempted only 16 passes, but completed 12 of them for 222 yards and 2 key scores. He helped Washington gain 457 yards on the day, and avoided costly mistakes, earning a whopping 156.2 QBR on the day. All this, of course, was done with only limited snaps with the first team all week. When Lomax went out midway through the 2nd quarter, Majkowski came off the bench and continued to impress, as he has done in past games, as a QB on the rise. Lomax is expected to return next week, as tests on his injured hip showed no bone damage, but the Federals have to feel good knowing that if he cannot go, his replacement will be able to keep the ball moving.
PLAYOFF PICTURE
I don’t think we have ever seen the kind of neck and neck races that we are seeing this year. The Atlantic is a huge cluster as 4 teams sit at 7-6 and the 5th is 6-7. To say that this is anyone’s race is about the only thing that can be said. In the other divisions, there is no team with more than a 1 game lead on the division title. Memphis is within 1 of Birmingham, LA trails Denver by 1, and Houston is keeping pace with New Orleans despite the Breaker’s 10 game win streak.
So what can we say definitively? Well, we can say that Portland, Jacksonville, Tampa and Chicago are definitely out of the picture, but any of these 4 could impact the playoff race in a big way with late season upsets. We can say that Arizona, losers of 3 straight, and Orlando, losers of 4 straight, seem to be fading out of contention, though there is time to turn it around. New Jersey appears to be blowing their chance to win the Atlantic, losing 3 in a row down the stretch, but they remain tied in that 4-team cluster at 7-6. We also feel confident saying that the winner of the Central Division will get the #1 seed while the 2nd place team will be a very dangerous Wild Card club. Other than that, it is all open, all to play for in the season’s final 3 weeks.
NEWS & NOTES
We mentioned earlier that Cliff Stoudt was in the MVP running, and that made us want to look at all the award candidates to see where we are.
MVP: While Stoudt, Joe Cribbs, and Herschel Walker are having outstanding seasons, it looks clearly that the MVP will go to an unexpected winner this year, New Orleans QB Matt Robinson. Robinson has a legitimate chance to break the league record for TD passes in a season and is the only QB rated over 100 in the league’s QBR. If New Orleans finishes as the overall #1 seed we don’t see how he doesn’t win the MVP title.
Rookie of the Year: Thurman Thomas, with over 1,000 yards rushing and a chance to reach 500 yards receiving, now seems the obvious choice as well. Jamie Morris is perhaps his closest rival, with Oakland LB Ken Harvey a distant 3rd.
Coach of the Year: It has to be Breaker’s 1st year coach and former LSU head man, Bill Arnsparger. The Breakers are a completely different team under Arnsparger than they were under the affable, but largely ineffective Dick Coury. Arnsparger has this team on a 10 game win streak and they look like a solid contender for the title, so another relatively easy pick. Trailin, though likely to get some votes, are Birminghman’s Rollie Dotsch, Texas’s Woody Widenhofer, Pittsburgh’s Joe Bugel, and Birmingham’s Marv Levy.
Defensive Player of the Year: This one is tough. Brian Noble and Brian Bosworth are battling for the tackles title, but we also cannot overlook the strong season that Kurt Gouveia has had for Denver. And don’t count out Najee Mustafaa, Texas’s shut down corner, who leads the league with 7 interceptions.
Offensive Player of the Year: If Robinson takes the MVP title, and Thomas is the clear Rookie of the Year, the league, which hates to double up award winners, may look to Cliff Stoudt here, or could go with whichever back (Walker or Cribbs) wins the rushing title. If it were up to us, we would go with Carlos Carson, the Texas Outlaw receiver who leads the league in yardage and is a close second in receptions.
Comeback Player of the Year: This one is tougher, but we like Herschel Walker, who has never really been gone, but has simply not produced in recent years as he has this year. There really isn’t anyone who has returned from a devastating injury to retake the lead on his team. So rising back to the top of the rushing leaderboard after several years of struggles to make the Top 5 seems like a comeback of sorts to us.
LOOKING AHEAD
Week 14 has the Atlantic facing the Southern Division and the Central traveling to the Pacific. Within those inter-divisional matchups, we have some interesting matchups. Baltimore will be in Memphis, with both teams pursuing a playoff spot. New Jersey has a tough challenge in Orlando, while Philadelphia revives an old rivalry with Tampa Bay. The Maulers face an uphill challenge at Birmingham, while Washington hopes to notch another win in Jacksonville. Out West, Chicago is in LA to face the Express, while Denver hosts the Texas Outlaws in a key matchup. Oakland will welcome the Houston Gamblers, while Michigan, hoping to get back in the playoff hunt, is in Portland. Finally the Breakers hope to keep their win streak alive as they face the Wranglers in Tempe.