1993 USFL Mid-Season Report

USA Today, May 14, 1993

Eight weeks into the season and it seems clear that this is one of the most surprising years to date. Sometimes surprises are good, and we get more than we expected, other times they are disappointments, leaving us feeling shortchanged. This USFL season has had plenty of both. For our Midseason Report this year we are going to look at the 5 biggest disappointments and the 5 biggest surprise success stories. We will wrap it up with revisions to our absolutely inaccurate preseason predictions. Let’s get to it.

BIGGEST DOWNSIDE SURPRISES

The rookie season of Reggie Brooks: Coming out of Notre Dame, and after a senior year in which he rushed for over 1,300 yards and 13 TDs for a 10-1-1 Lou Holtz team, a lot was expected of Brooks in Baltimore. He was going to overtake Barry Foster as the lead back, add some dynamism and big play ability, and, according to some fans, make the Blitz into a top 5 offense. What have we seen in 8 weeks? A grand total of 29 carries for 129 yards. Now, some of that has to be on Coach Infante, but if he is not seeing it in practice, why would he give the ball to Brooks during the game? Is this a case where a very good Notre Dame line made Brooks look better than he was? Or does he just need more time to get up to speed in the prog game?

The Swan Song of Coach Stanley: A 2-6 first half is not the farewell tour the Michigan Panthers wanted to give their 2-time Champion head coach as he plans to retire. The fact that the team is simply not very good should not come as a complete shock, after all they have barely scraped by at 7-9 the past two seasons, and, if you ask most fans, they have simply not been the same team since Bobby Hebert and Anthony Carter left, and John Corker retired. Michigan has not been very successful in the draft, and the talent level has not kept pace with their early years, but even so, one would expect the team to rally behind Stanley. Eight weeks in and there is no sign it is happening. Perhaps it will take a change of regime to revive the Panthers.

The New Jersey Generals offense: I feel we have said this before, but when your team has names like Herschel Walker, Doug Flutie, Lam Jones and Irving Fryar, you expect them to be at or near the top of the offensive stats, and yet, once again, we just are not seeing the production from the Generals that we expect. Yes, Walker is among the Top 5 in rushing, but he only has 1 TD this season. How is that even possible for a back with his talents? Doug Flutie has thrown for 18 TD’s, but has also been very erratic week to week, and while Jones has been a solid performer, near the league lead in receiving yards, Irving Fryar has been almost a no show. Obviously, the defense has not been stellar either, but no one expected that. Once again it is the offense, which is supposed to be Coach Wyche’s forte, which seems to be letting the fans in the tri-state area down.

Bobby Hebert in Oakland: While he has had a couple of solid games, particularly these last two weeks, the season being had by the former league MVP is not what fans in Oakland expected. Hebert is currently 15th of 20 starting QB’s in passing yards, and even worse, is 19th in passing TD’s with only 10 in 8 games. That is not the Bobby Hebert that we remember. While Coach Vermeil is playing politics, taking the blame for Oakland’s offensive woes, and while fans are making the case that Hebert cannot be at full strength after completing a full NFL season and then jumping right into a second season with the Invaders, the case of Bernie Kosar would seem to refute claims of exhaustion. Maybe it just affects them differently, but while Hebert has been a huge disappointment, Kosar has shone in his back to back season performance for Chicago. Coach Vermeil has made some alterations to the playcalling, and Hebert does seem to be getting a bit better as the season wears on, so perhaps by season’s end he will be looking like his former self, and maybe next year, after a fall rest, he will be what Oakland fans wanted, because he is not even close right now.

The Tampa Bay Bandits: Yes, they lost Aikman for a couple of games, but that alone is not even close to explaining away a 1-7 first half. We picked this club to vie for the USFL Championship, which I guess is on us, but not many in the football world saw this coming. The run game remains a shambles, despite Coach Spurrier moving Kevin Harmon to lead back and reserving Eric Bienemy for 3rd downs and passing situations. The Bandits are last in both scoring and yardage in the league, which is not surprising when you see that they are in the bottom 5 in both passing and rushing. The defense has been middling all year as well, playing well one week and completely collapsing the next. Steve Spurrier still holds something of an iconic status in the league, but we should remember that his one and only league title came in 1983. Perhaps it is time to change directions, revamp the roster, and maybe even look in a new direction on the sideline as well.

BIGGEST UPSIDE SURPRISES

Natrone Means’s impact on the Denver Gold: If Reggie Brooks is underproducing, Natrone Means is giving Denver fans all they could have asked for and more. The Denver offense is scoring points, dominating tempo, and keeping possessions going thanks in large part to the ability of Means to produce on 1st down, creating makeable third downs, and his ability to earn the tough 3rd and 2 plays. Means has taken pressure off of QB Dave Krieg, which has made Krieg more effective in play action. The result? Denver is 3rd in rushing in the league with Means and Timmy Smith combining for 871 yards to date, and the Gold are in the hunt for a Wild Card. Now, if they could just get over .500 and stay there, fans would be ecstatic.

Birmingham’s 1-2 punch at QB: After setting records in passing yards and TDs last year, we all expected Brett Favre to be solid this year, but he has once again been spectacular, leading the league with 23 TD passes in only 6 games. When he fell to an injury there was concern as to whether Cliff Stoudt could play at his former steady form as a backup coming in. Those doubts were quickly wiped out as Stoudt threw for nearly 900 yards and 10 TD’s in two and a half games. Yes, the Stallions did suffer their first loss of the season under Stoudt, but that was a 42-36 shootout against Washington and we place the blame there on the defense which gave up a late lead. This Stallions team is poised for greatness, and having not only a top flight starting QB but perhaps the best backup in the league is a big reason why.

Bernie Kosar igniting MartyBall in Chicago: We thought Chicago was a team on the rise, but we had been saying that for years. And while Bobby Hebert’s back-to-back seasons have lead to a less-than-stellar start in Oakland, Bernie Kosar’s shift from the NFL Browns to the USFL Machine has gone better than anyone could have hoped. Kosar currently leads the league in passing yards with over 2,800 at the halfway point (on pace to break last year’s record set by Brett Favre), and with 20 TD passes in 8 games, Kosar and the Schottenheimer offense have the Machine at 6-2 and right there with the defending champion Houston Gamblers atop the Central Division.

The Philadelphia Stars defense: The surprising success of Philadelphia (4-4) has a lot to do with the rapid gelling of a new defense. Philly currently sits 3rd in scoring defense, and is top 10 in both passing and rush defense, thanks in large part to a full team concept. This is not a squad with a single superstar, this is a squad working hard and working together to make it happen. The secondary of Marcus Quinn, Lorenzo Lynch, Chris Snyder, and Todd Bowles has become one of the best zone coverage defenses in the league, and while they are not creating a ton of turnovers, they are breaking up those key 3rd down passes that keep drives moving. Up front Steve Bryan and veteran William Fuller have combined for 19 sacks, and in the LB corps the acquisition of Ed Brady from Tampa has paid off, providing solid veteran leadership. Philadelphia’s offense still has some questions to answer, but if the defense keeps playing like this, we may see Philadelphia in some August football.

Arizona’s 6-2 start: The thing that makes Arizona’s white hot start so mystifying is that we cannot figure out how they are doing it. This is a Wrangler squad that currently ranks dead last in passing yards in the league, and while their rushing game is solid, it is not unstoppable, ranking only 6th in the league. On defense they are middle of the pack in both rush yardage and passing yardage allowed, though they somehow rank 2nd behind only Memphis in scoring defense. They are only +4 in turnovers, far from the best in the league. So, how are they doing it? And, perhaps more importantly, can they keep it up all season and into the playoffs? Fans in Phoenix are not asking these questions. They are just enjoying the ride. But we want to know how a team that simply does not seem to excel in any one area, and which has very few players we would call “stars” in the USFL, can be so successful, at least through 8 games. It is a mystery, wrapped in an enigma.

Halfway through a season that has been full of surprises, so the one thing that is not a surprise is that our preseason prognostications were way off base. If you recall the preseason primer, we made some pretty strong predictions, and while some of them are looking solid, others are clearly way off base. Here is where we went right, went very wrong, and what we now think:

GOT IT RIGHT:

• Memphis’s defense would carry the team: So far, that is the picture being painted.

• Houston would contend for a back to back title: That seems to be well on its way.

• Natrone Means could win Rookie of the Year: He is more than half way there.

• Brett Favre was an MVP candidate: No error here, he is the clear frontrunner.

GOT IT WRONG:

• New Jersey would contend for a division title while Washington faded: Not so much what is happening.

• Oakland would win the Pacific Division: Not impossible, but not looking good right now.

• Jacksonville was due for a letdown: So far no signs of that as the Bulls are looking like a contender.

• Tampa would be the Eastern Conference Champion: So very, very wrong on this one.

With 8 weeks of insight, what do we now see as the future of the 1993 season? Here is our revised projection:

Atlantic: Washington and Pittsburgh battle down to the wire for the title. Philly just misses a Wild Card.

Southern: Birmingham loses 2 games at most, Jacksonville is close behind, and without Kelley, Memphis fades down the stretch.

Central: Chicago comes close but Houston holds on for the division title.

Pacific: Both Oakland and Denver tighten Arizona’s lead, but both end up as Wild Cards.

USFL Championship: Birmingham over Houston in a shootout between Favre and Kelly.

USFL MVP: Still Favre, though Kosar gets some votes.

USFL Rookie of the Year: Means takes it, but Memphis CB Deon Figures gets solid 2nd place votes.

USFL Coach of the Year: After struggling through several bad seasons in Baltimore and Chicago, MartyBall finally works as intended and Schottenheimer gets the award for Chicago’s strong season.

There you have it. We hope we are better at mid-season predictions than we were back in February. Eight weeks down, eight more to go to see who gets to play on in the post-season. So much good football already this spring, so much more to come. Stick with us as we bring you all the USFL highlights, lowlights, and, particularly this year, surprises.