A world turned upside down. That is what the USFL feels like after 3 weeks. Teams expected to vie for a title are sitting at or near the bottom of their divisions while teams expected to struggle are sitting pretty at 3-0. It’s a topsy turvy world, especially after the NFL raids last August required teams to reinvent their rosters, and it seems that some of the clubs around the league are still trying to fit the pieces together while others are rocketing to a fast start and beginning to build believers among their fanbase. Could this be a lasting seismic shift in the league or will the league regain its balance as the season moves along? Too soon to tell, but for now it is enough to make Las Vegas bookmakers go grey while fanbases which have not had much to cheer lately are finding players to get excited about and results to cheer.
A clash of 2-0 quick starters in Atlanta, where the Fire have been reveling in the early season success of QB Jeff George. Meanwhile Baltimore came into the game with a solid defense and a new short passing game with QB Trent Green at the helm. What we got from these two early surprises was a really well-played game, and a Fire squad that was able to overcome 4 turnovers to mount an epic comeback and take home a win that got fans in the stands jumping for joy.
Baltimore got off to a fast start in this game despite Atlanta completely stifling the run game. Carlos King’s 5-yard TD run was the longest run of the day for the Blitz, but after only 3:44 the Blitz were up 7-0. Atlanta got on the board on their next drive with an Elam field goal, and then took the lead on a very rare play, a Jeff George run. Well, to be honest, it was more of a fall into the endzone, as George avoided a potential sack and just edged the ball across the plane.
But, leading 10-7, Atlanta started to make mistakes. George threw a careless pick deep in his own territory, giving Baltimore a short field. The D held and the Blitz tied with a Zendejas field goal, but on their very next possession, a triple calamity struck as John Randall sacked Jeff George, caused a fumble, picked it up and ran it back for a Blitz score. It was a triple because not only was it a sack-fumble, and a scoop & score, but it would also knock George out of the game with what initially looked like a knee injury. George would later be tested and it appears to only be a hamstring partial tear, and the QB could be back under center for Atlanta in as few as 2 weeks.
Baltimore’s good fortune continued in the third quarter, when Atlanta FB Zack Crockett fumbled, leading to another Blitz score, a Rob Moore TD toss from Trent Green. Up 24-10, things were looking up for the Blitz. Atlanta was forced to give up on a run game that had shown some flashes of potential against the stacked fronts of the Blitz. QB Timm Rosenbach was called on to throw the Fire back into the game. He did just that, attempting 42 passes in 2 ½ quarters of play. He completed 32 of them, and in the fourth quarter that added up to TDs to Deems May and Terrance Mathis. That second TD tied the game with just over 1 minute left to play. Rosenbach was on fire, as were the Fire receivers, with Lake Dawson seemingly uncoverable, catching 13 of 17 targets for 145 yards on the day. Ernie Jones added 6 more, Frank Wycheck and Zach Crockett 6 apiece and Tiki Barber also proved an effective outlet receiver, catching 4 balls for 41 yards.
With the game tied after regulation it went to overtime. Here Baltimore’s inability to run the ball truly hurt the Blitz. They had two possessions in overtime, with their defense holding Atlanta out of field goal range as well. But, without the ability to run the ball, the Blitz found themselves in third and long situations on both drives, and in both cases they failed to convert against a very feisty Fire secondary. On their second drive, Atlanta got the break they needed, when the Blitz secondary overplayed the run and left Lake Dawson open for a 33 yard gain on a 3rd and 2. That pass put the Fire in range for Jason Elam, and after 2 short runs to set up the ball, the former Denver Gold kicker, now with the Fire, knocked through the winning kick, moving the Fire to a stunning 3-0 start and first place in the Southern Division.
WSH 31 TBY 33
Another potential GOTW saw Washington’s immovable object face off against Tampa Bay’s irresistible force. Troy Aikman found enough space to connect for 3 TDs, and while Randy Moss was contained from going deep by the Federals, he still brought in a score along with 6 receptions. For the Federals, the combo of Word and Fletcher combined for over 120 yards, but 3 picks from Kordell Stewart kept Washington from building a lead. Tampa got two late field goals to take a 33-24 lead, and that helped them hold on for the 2-point win and move to 3-0.
PIT 23 ORL 13
The surprisingly good defense of the Maulers helped them move to 3-0 and send Orlando to a deflating 3rd straight loss. Orlando was held to only 49 yards rushing, while Pittsburgh’s Dorsey Levins went off for 129 on 21 carries to pace the Maulers. Pittsburgh sacked Scott Mitchell 5 times and picked off two as their swarming defenders seemed to overwhelm the Orlando line. Demetrius DuBose retained his All-USFL form, garnering 6 tackles, a forced fumble, a pick, and 2 key RB stuffs to lead a Mauler D that is opening eyes around the league.
PHI 38 MEM 24
The Stars kept pace with Pittsburgh by outgunning the Showboats. Memphis got 2 early Shuler to Horn TDs to build a 14-point lead, but the Stars rallied behind Bobby Hebert’s 420 yards passing and 2 scores from Charlie Garner to outpace the Showboats for the final 3 quarters. Rooke Germaine Crowell played like a vet for Hebert, catching 5 balls for 112 yards and a score from the slot.
LA 29 OAK 35 OT
The Express finally showed signs of offensive life but still fell to the Ryan Leaf-led Invaders. LA got TDs from Mike Pritchard, Dedric Smith, and Michael Pittman to keep pace through 4 quarters, tying the game with Oakland on a 2-point conversion midway through the 4th quarter, but in overtime the Invaders pushed the ball down the field on the opening drive, and when Siran Stacy crossed the plane the home club had moved to 3-0 and sent LA to a rough 0-3 start.
STL 20 TEX 0
Another huge win for the Knights, and for their defense, as they totally hogtied the Outlaws. Once again the problem was at QB. Kelly Stouffer only three passes before a rough tackle took him out of the game, and Texas’s lack of backup QB talent showed up again, with both Tony Sacca and Tony Graziani struggling to get anything going against the fierce Knight defense. After 3 quarters it was only 13-0, but a late TD to Bert Emmanuel locked up a dominant win for the road warriors from the Gateway City.
POR 21 SEA 38
Don’t look now but we may be witnessing an uprising out west. Oakland is 3-0 and the Dragons just knocked off conference champ Portland. They did it thanks to a 3-headed run game from Dillon, Potts, and Loville and a defense that held Robert Drummond to only 3.1 yards per carry (50 on 16 touches). Potts and Dillon both scored twice as Seattle used the run game to keep the Portland defense honest and allow Kitna to find time in the pocket.
MGN 24 NOR 34
A Breaker team desperate to not fall to 3-0 found what they needed in home cooking at the Super Dome. Jamie Martin was not sacked once by the Panther D and found 3 different receivers for scores. Double coverage on former Mauler Raynard Brown allowed Herman Fontenot to catch 4 balls for 123 yards, including a beautiful 67 yard catch and run for a score as New Orleans outpaced the Panthers, sending both clubs to 1-2 on the year.
CHI 30 HOU 24
The Machine got their first W of the year by scoring 21 unanswered points in the 2nd half to overcome a 24-10 deficit and get the road win in the AstroDome. Ricky Watters and Duce Staley both found running room, with Watters rushing for 104 on 13 carries. Alex Van pelt took advantage of the run game to play action pass his way to 301 yards and 2 scores against the Houston defense.
ARZ 26 DEN 22
A good game at Mile High, where the Gold are struggling to keep that home field advantage in place. The Wranglers got a late Plummer to Stokes TD to take the lead and then sealed the win with a last minute Carlos Huerta FG. Rashaan Salaam was held in check by an improved Arizona defense, while Plummer found 8 different receivers on his way to a 300-yard passing day.
NJ 27 BIR 14
The slow start of the Stallions continues as they lose at home to a defiant Generals club. The Stallion O-line is in deep trouble, allowing 10 sacks of Favre, who was visibly aggressive with his line and his coach by game’s end. Curtis Enis gained 83 yards on the ground and Terry Glenn had 111 in the air to power the Generals to a road win and a 2-1 start.
OHI 17 JAX 45
Ohio looked really rough, particularly on defense, where Jacksonville just ran roughshod over the Glory defenders. Chris Chandler threw for 355 and 3 scores and Natrone Means combined with Kenny Bynum for 165 yards (103 from Means) and 3 rushing touchdowns. The Bulls finished the game with 529 total offensive yards, more than 200 over Ohio’s total. Not a good look for Coach Saban and the Glory.
A DEEPER LOOK:
Still amazed by Oakland and Atlanta at 3-0? It can’t all be due to new QB’s under center, right? Let’s take a look at the stats and see what both are getting right. Starting with Atlanta, while the temptation is to look at their whopping 445 yards per game average as the key reason they have started the year with 3 consecutive wins, let’s not sleep on the improvements their defense has made in their second season under Sherm Lewis. Atlanta’s hefty +10.7 PPG advantage is due just as much to their defense limiting teams to only 17.3 points per game as it is to Jeff George and the offense scoring 28 PPG. Atlanta currently ranks #1 in yards allowed, is second in rushing yards allowed and 3rd in passing. This is a team that is not just squeaking past opponents, but is putting a hurt on them. Will the good times end? Well, squeaking past Baltimore by only 3 may be a sign that the opposition is catching up with what the Fire D has been doing, but with their next three games against 0-3 Orlando, 1-2 Memphis, and 0-3 Ohio, the Fire may enjoy the advantage well into midseason.
In Oakland we see a similar pattern, with the Invaders 2nd in PPG with a 35.3 average, while the defense is holding clubs to a very solid 18.3 points. Critics are fast to point out that the combined record of their 3 victims is an underwhelming 1-8, so perhaps we should not jump on the bandwagon so quickly. They face Portland and Texas next, so we might learn something, and Oakland still seems to have difficulty running the ball, with only 66.3 yards per game, something that will need to change if they want to keep the good times rolling.
And what about the other surprise 3-0 club, St. Louis? Well, their story is one that is not surprising, They are winning with defense. Teams are averaging only 290 total yards a game against the Knights, and fewer than 50 yards per game on the ground. That can win you a lot of games, especially if your offense avoids turnovers. Todd Collins has thrown 5 picks this year, and that is not great, but he has found new talent in rookie HB Ahman Green, who has combined with Darrell Thompson, with Green rushing for 149 yards to Thompson’s 132 after 3 games, a combination that would put the two as the league leader if they were 1 back. The other new arrival is WR Bert Emmanuel, who left Orlando to become the clear #1 in St. Louis. So far he has 20 catches in 3 games, for a solid 279 yards. Not a bad start for an offense that has been playing second fiddle in the Gateway City for several years.
NOT GOING AS PLANNED:
We’ve seen the good, now the bad. Texas, Birmingham and Orlando were not expected to start the year out 3-0. All three were seen as potential division winners, or at least solid Wild Card contenders, but things have not gone to plan. Let’s start with Birmingham, where the big issue has been that rush defense. The Stallions are 23rd in the league, allowing over 107 yards per game. Of course the pass defense has hardly been stellar either, 19th in the league. The result is an average of 27.3 PPG in their 3 games. What may be even more troubling is that the club has scored only 14 points in each of their last 2 games. This is a team built to get out to an early lead and then rush the passer to avoid comebacks, but the defense cannot hold up if the Stallions cannot build that lead. Their leading rusher is Mike Alstott, with only 68 yards on the year. That is not going to get it done in any league.
In Texas the issue is the worst scoring offense in the league. Averaging only 11.3 points per game, and dead last in both total yards and passing yards, the Outlaws were humiliated this week in a shutout loss to St. Louis. There is plenty of blame to go around. Kelly Stouffer has been dinged up, Irving Fryar is new to the club but now has to fill the #1 slot, and halfback Reggie Cobb is not looking like a 1,000 yard back, with only 127 to his name after 3 games. And with the offense suffering, the defense is overworked and tires at the end of games. They need the offense to control the ball, score more than 2 TDs and give them something to work with.
The last of our surprising 0-3 clubs, Orlando, is middle of the pack in many categories: 14th in Yards Allowed, 14th also in Yards Gained, 15th in scoring defense, but only 23rd in points. Scott Mitchell and WR Keenan McCardell have developed a nice chemistry, but behind him the loss of Bert Emmanuel is clearly hurting the Orlando passing game, with the next best receiver, Tamarick Vanover, with only 16 yards to date and a 9.8 average as well. The run game has also been slow to get on track. Terry Kirby leads the club with a per game average of only 31 yards, while Kantroy Barber has only 14 touches this season.
Can any of these three teams come back and avoid a lost season? That is up for debate, and while many expect Birmingham’s offense to wake up, or Texas’s defense to improve, there are serious concerns that the window for both clubs may have closed as other teams around the league seem to have not only caught up, but bypassed them on the way to competitives advantages.
While the downing of Jeff George and Kelly Stouffer were much discussed this week, it appears that both will be back in action soon. The same cannot be said for several other USFL players, including Baltimore FS Joe King, who is likely out for the year with a torn quad. Birmingham also took a huge hit as star wideout Ernest Givens is likely done for the year (and a career?) with a knee injury that may require surgery to repair. Portland lost G Victor Allotey for at least a month with his own knee injury, and New Orleans is likely without their RT Eduardo Vega with a leg injury as well.
Texas will likely have QB Kelly Stouffer back after he was shaken up this week, but #2 QB Tony Sacca is now out after jamming his thumb on a helmet strike with a Knight lineman. Also likely out this week are Seattle WR Bobby Olive (shoulder), Blitz LB Tarek Salah (finger), STL LT Jason Fabini (knee), Portland DE Hugh Douglas (neck), and Jacksonville WR Terrell Owens (scratched cornea after a finger to the eye). And lets keep watch on St. Louis QB Todd Collins, who apparently picked up a bad flu midweek and is now listed as questionable to be healthy enough to play on Saturday.
After last year’s debacle, there is a lot of interest around the league to renegotiate how the USFL and NFL limit leaguewide roster switches, off-season contract negotiations, and free agency in general. Both leagues are somewhat limited in what they can do because of both strong union representation, unions which favor a more wide open system, but also because of labor laws which make it impossible to prevent free agents from being held to one league or the other. Once a player is no longer under contract, he could sign with any team in either league, or go to Canada, or just decide to be a plumber, for that matter. So, what is being tossed around by the USFL owners as they push Commissioner Bullard to petition the NFL for changes?
One idea getting a lot of attention is almost the opposite of the current model, a model where we have 2 months of open transfer each year, 4 weeks each in January & February followed by another 4-week period in August-September. Some owners believe that instead of an open transfer window at the end of each league’s season, the opposite should be in place, a one month moratorium on cross-league signings during the same period. So what you would have is essentially a “First rights” period in February for NFL clubs to fight over NFL talent, and another in September when only USFL teams could vie for the services of players on expired USFL contracts. This would essentially mean that NFL teams would only really be able to poach USFL players once their own season was under way in October, while USFL teams would do the same in March. Would that actually make any sense for either league? Players would certainly be less likely to swap leagues, and teams would hesitate to add new pieces 3-4 weeks into their seasons, disrupting rosters in both leagues during seasonal play.
But reversing the calendar does not make sense either. If NFL players only have exclusive rights to their own players in July-August, then it leaves a solid 4-5 months between the Super Bowl and the start of the NFL season when USFL teams could ravage NFL rosters. The same would be true between August-February in the USFL, with the NFL would have free reign to sign USFL players during the heart of the USFL season. What you would get is a bevvy of players who sign future contracts to jump leagues when their season ended, and how would that impact play in a lame duck season? That is a prospect fans certainly don’t want to see, players dogging it so as not to get hurt or ruin their chances to cash in the following year.
This is a tough nut to crack for both leagues, neither of which want to see players distracted during the year, but also want to be able to sign talent from their rival league in a timely manner to make a difference on rosters. This is the inherent struggle of having two leagues whose seasons barely pass each other, with only 3-5 weeks between the end of one season and the start of the next. Is there a solution? It certainly does not appear that there is one that all parties will embrace fully. The simple fact is that we may have to be satisfied with an imperfect system that leads to a couple of months of chaos each year.
Desperation time for the 0-3 clubs, so let’s start with them in a week where all 24 USFL clubs are in divisional play. Ohio does not look likely to snap their streak of losses as they will face off against a Federals team that is not at all happy about 2 straight losses themselves. Orlando is hoping that the magic start the Fire have had will end when the Gades come to town. Playing without Jeff George may hurt Atlanta in this matchup. The 0-3 Stallions are hoping the combination of a big rivalry game crowd at Legion Field and a pretty mediocre Memphis club will help them get a W even with the big injury to Ernest Givens. 0-3 Texas will likely have Stouffer back, and they are at home against New Orleans, so expect them to pull out all the stops to get a W and avoid an 0-4 start. And finally, we have the LA Express, who are unlikely to draw a crowd in Farmer’s Insurance Stadium as they face off against the Denver Gold. At least they showed signs of offensive life this week, so they may have a shot.
In other games we have some nice matchups to pay attention to this week. 3-0 Oakland likely has a big test as they visit the Portland Thunder. Arizona and Seattle, both off to good starts at 2-1 face off in Husky Stadium on Sunday. Houston is the next foe for the 3-0 Knights as they return to St. Louis for what should be an engaging home game. Chicago and Michigan are both 1-2, so their matchup in Pontiac is big for both clubs. In the South we have a nice Florida rivalry between the 2-1 Jacksonville Bulls and the visiting 3-0 Tampa Bay Bandits. This one could be a real shootout between two very dynamic offenses. And finally, in the Atlantic we find the 3-0 Maulers headed to Baltimore to face the 2-1 Blitz and the 3-0 Stars battling their perennial rival, the 2-1 New Jersey Generals, with the big game in the Meadowlands expected to bring in 50,000 fans this weekend, with a big Stars contingent headed up the turnpike to attend the game.
I have an Idea relocate the Invaders to Sacramento or Las Vegas