The second half of the season saw the return of Don Majkowski, the moxie of the Chicago Machine, and the possible ascension of the Birmingham Stallions. The wheat is beginning to separate from the chaff as teams try to put distance between themselves and the cluster of 5 and 4-win teams. Parity still seems to be the name of the game, but we may be looking at a home stretch where the cream will rise to the top.
Bobby Hebert did his part for the Invaders, but two late scores from Chicago spoiled the day for Oakland. The Machine survived 11 penalties, and combined the deep ball from backup Scott Zolak with a decent rushing game to upend the Invaders. It was not always pretty, but the Machine will certainly take the win.
Chicago built up a 6-0 lead in the first on two short drives that gave John Carney the chance to put points on the board, but it was quickly wiped out when Bobby Hebert found Mark Duper in the endzone as the quarter winded down. The Invaders looked like they might pull away for good in the 2nd as Hebert hit Henry Ellard with a 29-yard scoring strike, and then Siran Stacy scored to put Oakland up 21-6, but Chicago would not quit. The Machine added a third field goal to go into the half down 21-9, but opened the second half with a long, slow, 15-play, 82-yard drive that ended when Johnny Johnson crashed through the Invader line and scored from 4 yards out.
Oakland would once again pull ahead, with Hebert hitting Duper again, this time from 27 yards out, and the 3rd quarter ended with Oakland up 28-16. In the 4th, it was again Johnson who put Chicago on the board, as his 9 yard corner run got them back within 5 at 23-28. Oakland would score its final points of the day on the next drive, a Matt Bahr field goal that boosted the lead to 8. With time running out in the 4th, Chicago had a chance to tie after Zolak hit Wendell Davis for a 32-yard score. The 2 point conversion would have tied the game, but Zolak threw too high for TE Wessley Walls and the Machine were still down by 2. They opted to kick the ball deep with 3:14 left in the game.
The gambit paid off as the Machine defense shut down the Invaders and forced a punt with a full 2:03 left to play. That was more than enough time for Zolak to get the ball into position for John Carney, and the veteran kicker connected on the 47-yard kick to give Chicago it’s first lead since the 1st quarter. The Machine would bend but not break in Oakland’s last ditch effort to get into field goal range. With only 1 time left, Oakland was out of range and had to go for a Hail Mary. When SS Anthony Prior swatted the deep ball to the ground, the game ended and Chicago found themselves at 5-4 and well in the playoff hunt despite playing nearly the entire season without Bernie Kosar at QB.
BAL 10 MEM 3
Monsoon-like conditions in Memphis depressed both attendance and offensive production as the Blitz edged the homestanding Showboats in horrible conditions on Saturday. The game was 3-3 until a late Memphis fumble gave Baltimore great field position, leading to a Barry Foster 1 yard plunge (splash?) that gave the game to the visitors.
NJ 31 ORL 14
No rain in Orlando, unless, of course, you count the storm of points the Generals put up in the 4th to blow the game open. What had been a 14-10 Orlando lead after three fell apart as Flutie found Lam Jones twice and Herschel Walker added a third score all in the span of about 10 minutes in the final period.
PHI 23 TBY 10
In Tampa Bay it Chris Snyder’s 104 yard kickoff return highlighted a solid win for the Stars. Philly’s defense continued to feast on the opposition, holding Tampa Bay to 10 points. David Trout did most of the rest, putting up 3 second quarter field goals to help Philadelphia build up a 16-3 lead they would never relinquish.
PIT 30 BIR 38
Playing on Sunday, this game avoided the rain that hit the region the day before, allowing for a wide open game between the Maulers and Stallions. Brett Favre threw for 4 scores and 350 yards, while Pittsburgh got a 112-yard day from Mike Rozier to keep it close. Two late Lawrence Dawsey touchdowns helped Birmingham pull out to a 15 point lead, which Pittsburgh narrowed late in the game, but could not erase.
WSH 21 JAX 30
Don Majkowski returned for the Feds, but Jacksonville had the answer, blanketing Herman Moore and frustrating the Federal offense. Meanwhile, Tony Eason and the Bulls O-line handled the Washington pass rush, throwing for 394 and 3 scores as the Bulls got a key win to move over .500.
HOU 28 POR 18
Houston got a strong game from Thomas and Jim Kelly threw for 2 scores with no picks as the Gamblers outpaced the Thunder in Civic Stadium. Thomas rushed for 113 and opened scoring in the first quarter, but also caught a late TD to help the Gamblers pull away from what had been a tight game through three.
MGN 34 STL 24
The Panthers offense once again showed signs of growth as they feasted on the uncoordinated St. Louis defense. Joe Montana completed 82% of his passes for 259 and 3 scores on a day when the pass rush never really threatened him. St. Louis kept it close (tied at 24 after 3) but the 4th quarter was owned by the Panthers, who used a clock-killing run game to keep the ball out of the Knights hands.
NOR 16 ARZ 10
The Wranglers offense came out for the second half of the season flat as James and Lester combined for only 35 yards rushing, allowing Breaker backup QB Brent Pease to get his first win as a starter, hitting Herman Fontenot for the game winning TD early in the 4th in a game dominated by both defenses.
TEX 17 DEN 16
Texas eked out a win in Denver as the Outlaws held the Gold to only 188 total yards. Dave Krieg looked rusty and inaccurate against the Outlaws, throwing 2 costly picks. While Texas hardly lit the game up, Kelly Stouffer was able to offset 4 interceptions with 2 scoring tosses and helped set up the Outlaws for a last-second game-winning Boniol field goal by connecting on 2 key third down passes during the game’s final drive.
We are going to do something a bit unorthodox this week and give the POTW award to a player on a losing side. Cornerback Bruce Pickens had a monster game for the Denver Gold, and while he could not stop Texas from scoring on a game-ending kick, he kept Denver in the game, and provided the only TD of the day for the Gold. Pickens had the unenviable assignment of covering Texas #1 receiver Eric Metcalf all day. Metcalf was targeted 16 times, and while he did catch 9 of those, Pickens allowed almost no YAC yardage, and twice cut off Metcalf and picked off the Kelly Stouffer pass. The first of the two big picks was in the first quarter, and resulted in a 32-yard return touchdown for the Gold. The second occurred in the 3rd quarter, killing a promising Outlaws drive. Pickens’s success in covering and tackling Eric Metcalf forced Stouffer to look elsewhere, and that helped to produce 2 more picks by the Denver secondary. Had the Gold offense done their part, the game could have easily swung their way, but we certainly cannot blame the Gold D for the loss this week, and Pickens, in particular, deserves kudos for how he handled the tough chore of minimizing the damage that Eric Metcalf could do for the Outlaws.
USFL LEAGUE OFFICE: So we now know the 4 expansion clubs, their names and head coaches have been revealed, and the league has outlined the expansion and college draft processes. This week we got another piece of the puzzle as the league office in New York revealed the divisional alignment and schedule format for the league’s first season as a 24-club organization. As expected, the league will maintain the 4 current divisions, with each division now hosting 6 franchises. The Atlantic and Southern Divisions just have a basic addition, with Ohio joining the Atlantic and potential rival Pittsburgh, while Atlanta, as most predicted, joined the Southern Division with good local rivalries with both Jacksonville and Birmingham. In the West, a bit more movement was needed, with St. Louis moving over to the Central Division, and a potential home & away series with Chicago each year. That created 2 spaces in the Pacific Division, spaces to be filled by Seattle and Los Angeles.
The schedule format was also released, and here we found a bit of a twist. Most pundits expected the league to move to 10 division games (home and away for all division rivals) and to leave only 6 non-division games in the schedule, but the USFL owners wanted more national games and were willing to sacrifice some division games to make It happen. So, the league will have a more balanced schedule, with each team playing 8 games in division and 8 games against inter-division and inter-conference foes. The schedule will see each club play 3 division foes in home & away series of 2 games, but play the 2 remaining division foes only once, one away and one at home, to create 8 division games. Teams will then play 4 games against clubs in the other division within their conference and 2 games each against foes from the 2 divisions of the opposing conference. This means opportunities for some great inter-conference and inter-division games, but could lead (as schedules rotate year to year) for possible loss of some key divisional games each year. We would hope that pairings such as NJ-PHI, BAL-WSH, PIT-OHIO, MGN-CHI, TBY-JAX, BIR-MEM, HOU-TEX, SEA-POR, and OAK-LA will be retained year to year, but this may not always be possible. In theory, once every 4 years it might be the case that the Generals would only face off against the Stars once, as would be the case with all other rivalry pairings. We hope the league figures out a way to avoid this, as they could certainly do if the will is there.
Coming out of Week 9, we saw a few more tough injuries, including broken ribs for Breakers S Mark Kelso, a broken collarbone for DT Pio Sagapolutele in St. Louis, and another Knight down, CB Ron Pitts is likely to miss up to 2 months with a torn quad. Pittsburgh will be without safety Kyle Kramer at least a month with a stress fracture in his left foot, while Tampa will be without the services of TE Ben Coates due to a dislocated elbow. And, we should not forget the broken index finger of Timm Rosenbach, the QB of the Breakers, as he is likely to need at least 1 week or 2 before he can properly grip the ball.
Some great intra-divisional rivalry games this week, headlined by New Jersey at Philadelphia, with only 1 game separating these two bitter rivals. Pittsburgh also has a big matchup against a Washington Federals team that is hoping for a big second half hot streak. In the South it is a battle of playoff hopefuls when Jacksonville heads to the Liberty Bowl to face the Memphis Showboats. Orlando will be in Tampa, where the Bandits hope to get back to .500 with a win. In the Central, recent success for Michigan faces a big test with Houston in town, while 4-5 New Orleans faces off against 5-4 Texas in San Antonio. Out in Denver we have a key Pacific Division clash between the Invaders and the Gold. Portland is hoping to even their record at home against the St. Louis Knights. In inter-divisional games, we see Arizona flying cross country to face the Blitz in Balltimore, while the Chicago Machine will have to try to contain the Birmingham Stallions in Legion Field, a tall order to be sure.