Week Ten is the traditional start of what most clubs consider the home stretch. 6 weeks to make a push for playoff positions, to turn around a midling season, or to endure the sad end of a lost season. We have a bit of all three happening in the league this year as St. Louis and Tampa Bay are running roughshod through the league, while a cluster of teams between 4-6 wins are all thinking that a solid streak of good play is all they need to make a move and enjoy the sweet taste of late summer playoff football, like a sweet tea on a hot July day.
The first overtime game in over a month saw Michigan come back big against the Gamblers to force overtime, where the right foot of Chris Boniol proved decisive for the home club. The Gamblers have been one of the pleasant surprises this year, and with the overtime win they move to 6-4 and are now an unanticipated playoff contender. Michigan was expected to vie for the Central title with Texas, but now both clubs are looking up at the Gamblers and Knights.
Once again Michigan proved they can gain yards with their balance of run and pass, but once again points were at a premium as Houston’s defense played the bend-but-don’t-break game all day. The Panthers outgained the Gamblers 465 to 219, but lost the turnover battle 3-1, which was huge in this game. All three turnovers were Doug Flutie picks as Houston keyed on Jeff Campbell. With Michigan thinking they could exploit the Houston pass defense, Flutie kept putting the ball up, to the tune of 415 yards, mostly short zonebeaters, but despite Jeff Campbell ending the game with 15 receptions (for only 113 yards, a 7.5 average) and Muhsin Muhammad catching 14 balls (again short passes, 7.9 yard average), the biggest plays were made by the Houston defense.
It was 7-3 Houston at the half, thanks to an early Mario Greer run, a rarity for a club that is just not putting together a solid run game option despite the decent win record. In the 3rd quarter, the Gamblers used a post-pick short field to double up their score, with Hartlieb hitting Hart Lee Dykes for a short TD grab. Down 14-3, Michigan did just enough to come back and tie the game, first with a 25 yard Brett Conway kick, and then, with 22 seconds left in regulation, with Flutie finally getting the offense into the endzone, hitting Muhammad with a fade route and then connecting with Butch Rolle on the 2 point play to tie the game at 14.
In overtime the offenses again sputtered, and we looked like we were heading for a tie for certain, but Houston did just enough to give Conway a shot, and from 54 yards out, his longest attempt in 2 years, Conway connected and gave Houston the win. The Gamblers cannot feel comfortable with their offense these days, but with the trade deadline having passed, we don’t see a lot of options for them to boost that anemic run game. However, that Houston defense is now ranked #7 in scoring and is making plays that keep teams off the board, a good sign if the Gamblers want to snag a Wild Card spot.
OAK 14 DEN 30
A statement game for the Denver Gold as they upend the Oakland Invaders thanks to 3 takeaways and a stingy defense. Denver went up 14-0 in the first as Brunell hit Odessa Turner and Marco Battaglia with early TD tosses. They then put the ball in Rashaan Salaam’s hands, as he carried the rock 26 times to keep Oakland at arm’s length and secure a big divisional win.
PIT 20 TBY 34
A 24-0 run between the second and third quartes helped Tampa Bay pull past the Maulers and secure their 9th win of the year. In a POTW performance, Troy Aikman connected on 4 TDs despite the Mauler defense putting pressure on all day. Six sacks for the Pittsburgh D, but not enough to slow down Aikman or his dangerous receivers. Randy Moss again was uncoverable, catching 3 balls, including a 76 yard score. Ben Coates led all receivers with 149 yards on 5 catches as the deep vertical game continues to be a major force for the Bandits.
STL 26 NOR 13
The Knights doubled up the Breakers again on the strength of that defense. It would have been a much bigger win for St. Louis, but for 4 turnovers , including 3 uncharacteristic Todd Collins picks, that helped keep New Orleans in the game. Terrell Davis also rushed for 97 yards on 19 carries, but still seemed gruff after the game, frustrated by the conservative play calling and lack of inventiveness in the Breaker offense.
POR 34 ARZ 24
Portland’s turnaround and Arizona’s swoon both continued as the Thunder overcame an early 21-7 deficit to take the win behind another decent game from backup Bill Musgrave. The former Oregon Duck threw for 333 yards and 3 scores against a pretty solid Wrangler D. The Thunder also contained Rocket Ismael and the Wrangler offense, winning the time of possession 34-26 minutes.
BAL 36 BIR 24
Baltimore was the latest club to take advantage of Birmingham’s porous defense, racking up 389 yards of offense and scoring on 7 drives to overtake the home club. Again with Wally Richardson at the helm, despite the trade for Jeff Garcia, Baltimore looked like a dangerous club. Rob Moore had 8 catches and Tim Dwight caught a long TD pass to keep the Stallions reeling.
WSH 48 ATL 6
The Federals made a statement in Atlanta, absolutely dismantling the Fire. Despite the return of Jeff George, the Fire could do nothing against that Federal defense. Meanwhile Barry Word found plenty of gaps in the Fire’s D-Line, rushing 15 times for 135 yards, a whopping 9 yards per carry. Add in 116 yards in the air from Herman Moore and a 21 for 27 day from Kordell Stewart and this game got ugly quickly.
PHI 10 ORL 30
Every time we think the Stars are ready to take command in the Atlantic they seem to lay an egg. In Orlando they could not get anything going, and they also could not keep Orlando’s Keenan McCardell away from the ball. The result? A big win for the Renegades to stay alive at 5-5 and another head scratching loss for Coach Berry and the Stars.
OHI 23 MEM 10
Don’t look now, but the 0-5 Glory have won 4 of their last 5 and are a respectable 4-6 at the 10-game mark. A Vince Buck pick-6 got the ball rolling for Ohio, and the Glory defense held Memphis to only 2 of 13 on third down and only 45 yards rushing. Picking off Heath Shuler 3 times, the Ohio defense is improving each week.
NJ 30 JAX 13
The Generals got a good game from Curtis Enis (78 yards and a score) and Tommy Maddox kept the ball out of the hands of the Bulls’ defense, allowing New Jersey’s defense to take over the game. Other than a solid 9 catch, 119 yard day from Terrell Owens, the Bulls never found their rhythm in the home loss.
SEA 31 LA 21
Seattle moved to 5-5 with a road win in the division as LA fell once again. Corey Dillon’s 76 yards rushing helped, but it was 4 TDs from rookie Brian Griese that has to give Dragon fans hope for the season. Griese went 31 of 49 in one of the more dynamic weeks for the Dragon offense. We have to remember that this is the LA defense we are talking about, so maybe don’t read too much into it, but it is a good win for Seattle.
TEX 38 CHI 7
Chicago’s brutal season continues, and there are real concerns that Marty has lost control of his squad. The effort just was not there, and new QB Chris Miller looked pretty rusty as Chicago simply failed to mount much offense. Texas, on the other hand, had a field day, with Kelly Stouffer hitting Carl Pickens for 3 scores and the combo of Reggie Cobb and Rodney Thomas had their best week rushing all year, a combined 126 yards.
MARTY FEELING THE HEAT
We just referenced this, but after 7 seasons in Chicago, which have included 4 playoff appearances and 1 Summer Bowl appearance, the ice seems to be getting a little thin under Coach Schottenheimer’s feet. It is hard to imagine that Chicago was 10-6 last year as this club looks like a pale shadow of last season. The Machine currently rank 23rd, second to last, in both scoring and scoring defense. Their usually stout defense has been anything but this year, and currently rank dead last against the rush, which, of course, opens up the play action game as well. On offense the run game has not been open for Tyrone Wheatley, and opting to go with Alex Van Pelt as their starter through 9 weeks has simply not panned out. While we could certainly see giving Marty a freebee on this year, if the Machine continue to sleepwalk, or if we hear more dissent on the roster, it could be a bad sign for the long-time USFL coach.
GO DEEP
What can we say about Coach Seifert’s reimagination of Tampa Bay’s vertical offense? When Seifert was named as the new head coach of the Bandits, most expected some version of the West Coast offense to be the new plan, but Seifert doubled down on Tampa’s deep ball style and that, along with the arrival or rookie standout Randy Moss, have create a truly dynamic and nearly unstoppable offense. With 6 games left to play, Aikman has a legitimate shot at breaking league records for passing yards and passing TDs. He sits at nearly 4,000 yards already and should easily surpass 5,000, while his 35 TDs put him only 12 away from the record held by Brett Favre. Helping him out is a receiving corps that is loving the fly routes and deep balls. Robert Brooks leads the club with 54 receptions, but it is Moss, who has turned his 51 receptions into over 1,200 yards and 12 TDs who is the big revelation this season. Add to this that the deep ball has made life easier for the TE’s with Ben Coates matching Moss with 12 TDs and closing in on 1,000 yards, with 912 yards to date. Troy Drayton has more modest numbers, but his 44 targets are a career high. Even Errict Rhett is getting into the game, serving as an outlet for Aikman, and catching 24 balls for 429 yards so far.
GOLDEN SAFETY
Denver’s Jamel Williams is having himself a run, snagging 4 picks in just the last 3 games to take the lead among all defenders. The 2nd year player took over as the starting free safety this year after a solid rookie season, but in 1997 he had only 3 picks all year, whereas this year his 6 lead all DB’sand go along with a solid 23 tackles and 15 passes defended. Coach Jauron is using Williams deeper than Coach Phillips last year, and the freedom to focus on pass defense is clearly paying off for the young safety.
Week 10 and time to look at the playoff picture. The first official playoff rankings came out this week and while there are not exactly surprises at the top, with Tampa Bay and St. Louis dominating their respective conferences at 9-1, the battles below are quite interesting. Baltimore is a surprise leader in the Atlantic, but they have Philadelphia and Washington in the hunt just a game behind. Tampa has an amazing 4-game lead over both Atlanta and Orlando, so it looks like those two clubs will have to battle with the Atlantic clubs (including 5-5 New Jersey and Pitsburgh) for Wild Card spots.
In the West, Oakland has a slim lead over Denver and Portland for the Pacific title, and this week’s loss to Denver certainly does not help their cause. Houston comes in at #5 right now, but they have both Seattle and Arizona right behind them at 5-5 for that final playoff spot.
The only other race worth tracking may be the race for the #1 draft pick. Both Chicago and LA are mired at 1-9 right now, with both very likely looking for a QB in the draft. With a possible 5 QB’s expected to be picked in the first round of of the two league drafts (NFL and USFL), there are certainly options available to them. But, of course, with that pick comes the indignity of being the worst team in the league, something no team wants and few coaches can survive.
Denver may need to rely on Jamel Williams to do even more as they have lost CB Anthony Tuggle to a ruptured Achilles. Tuggle should be ready to go for 1999, but his season is done. A similar concern in New Jersey, where DE Marcellus Wiley is out for the year, which may just make life tougher for Phil Hansen on the other side. Hansen is 2 sacks behind Orlando’s Chris Doleman, and now will almost certainly face more double teams.
Chicago got more bad news, with WR Ricky Proehl, their slot specialist, down with a broken foot. 8-12 weeks is the expected recover time, which means he is no longer part of this season. Seattle has their own wideout issues, as Eric Metcalf is still not ready to return, and could need as much as another rmonth to deal with his broken foot. On the good news side, some players ready to return include QB Jack Trudeau in Portland, LB Sam Rogers in New Orleans, Ohio RT Joe Valerio, STL DT Jery Ball and Pittsburgh wideout Freddie Solomon.
He may be several months from assuming the mantle of the USFL, but Dick Ebersol is already making news, stating this week that he sees a larger role for pay cable in the USFL’s future. At present ESPN is the only cable network covering the league, part of a joint ABC/ESPN agreement, with FOX being the other broadcast partner, but Ebersol in an interview with the Sporting News this week talked about the future of the league and its broadcast options. Ebersol cited the growth of cable options as a factor the league has to consider. With the FOX contract coming due in 1999, there is a window to broaden the broadcast options to a possible 4th network by reducing the FOX contract from 10 games a week down to 6 or 8. There has been talk of expanding into Monday Night, as the NFL has done for years, or even to Friday night, as the USFL does not have the same issue of competition with High School football on Fall Friday’s. Adding a marquee game on Friday Night is a risky prospect as television viewership is often low on the night with many Americans opting to bypass TV for a night out. Monday may actually be a better option.
Ebersol also spoke somewhat candidly about the botched attempt of league owners to adjust the calendar and move from a 16 to a 14-week regular season last year. While he cites the potential benefits of reducing the league season, he also seemed adamant that to go into such discussions without a clear plan in place with the USFLPA was a significant mistake, a mistake we all saw revealed last season as the union took a hard stand on salaries in a reduced schedule format.
Finally, the topic of expansion came up. Ebersol acknowledged that he was well aware that there were ownership groups in multiple major markets that would love to see another wave of expansion in the spring league, but insisted that the 1995 expansion is still having effects on the league, and with none of the 1995 clubs having made it to .500 much less a playoff spot yet, he believes there is no immediate interest in going through the disruptive process in the near future. Bad news for cities like Boston, Dallas, Miami, and Minneapolis-St. Paul, but a reasonable position considering the recent issues the league has faced.
An interesting week ahead with all 4 divisions in inter-conference play, Atlantic v. Pacific and Southern v. Central. At the top of the TV ratings is sure to be the big Saturday Night matchup between the 7-3 Baltimore Blitz and the 6-4 Portland Thunder, though we also love the potential of the game in Oakland where the Invaders (7-3) face off against that tough Washington Federal defense. Two 6-4 clubs clash in Denver when the Gold host the Stars, and an intriguing game between two clubs that started hot but have slipped, 5-5 Arizona is hosting 5-5 Pittsburgh in a game one of them has to win.
In Seattle, the Ohio Glory (4-1 in their last 5 games) may prove to be a tough opponent for the 5-5 Dragons, while in Pontiac the Showboats and Panthers are both 4-6, with Michigan having slipped over the past month. Tampa Bay takes their 9-1 record to New Orleans to face an erratic but dangerous Breakers squad, while the league’s other 9-1 club, St. Louis is hosting Atlanta in the Edward Jones Dome. Perhaps of less interest to a national audience we have Orlando at Texas, Jacksonville in Houston, Birmingham at Chicago, and New Jersey at Los Angeles.
Damn it Arizona.