If you are a fan of hard hitting, no nonsense, slobberknocker football, this year’s USFL Championship Game between the Philadelphia Stars and the Chicago Blitz had everything you could ever want. These two blue collar teams went at it for 60 minutes tooth & nail. It had big plays on both sides of the ball, big hits, key defensive stops and outstanding execution. And to think that next year, with the Blitz relocating to Baltimore, these two clubs will be battling it out within the same division, what a show that will be.
The USFL’s final game of their 3rd season took place in front of 58,588 at the home of the New Jersey Generals, Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands. The crowd itself was a fascinating mix of neutral football fans from the NY-NJ area, a slew of Philly fans who made the drive up the turnpike, a decent number of Chicagoans who flew in, and perhaps surprising to some, a large contingent of Baltimoreans who were ready to root for the Blitz even before their first day in Baltimore was official. Let’s just say this was a happy, enthusiastic, and rowdy crowd all the way around. It was just the show the USFL wanted to put on.
On the field, the action started with a rousing first quarter that saw 19 points scored between the two teams. It began looking like Chicago had all the right moves. On their first drive the Blitz found success in the air, and after only 6 plays Vince Evans hit their top receiver Eric Truvillion for a 30 yard score to open things up. Philly hoped to get off on the right foot, but when Tom Donovan bobbled the kickoff on the 2, the Stars were lucky to come up with the ball. But only 2 plays later, Chuck Fusina found himself wrapped up in the endzone by Chicago sack master Junior Ah You for a safety, the defender’s 2nd in the last 2 playoff games. Within only 7 minutes the score was 9-0 Chicago. However, when Philly kicked the ball back to Chicago after the safety the game saw the first of Chicago’s 4 turnovers in the game. On their first play from scrimmage, at their own 47 yard line, halfback Tim Spencer got sideswiped by Philly DE William Fuller, the ball popped out and was recovered by CB Chris Snyder, giving the Stars their first break of the game.
Fusina and the Stars advanced the ball from there, ending up at the Chicago 27 with a 4th and 1. They chose to go for the 1st down, but a false start ended that idea and they settled for a David Trout field goal. On the next drive, the Stars defense again came up big, snagging a ball that tipped off the fingers of Chicago TE Mark Keel and getting a 2nd turnover of the quarter. 7 plays later the Stars’ biggest star, HB Kelvin Bryant, plunged over the pile to give the Stars another 6, and after the PAT it was Philadelphia 10 and Chicago 9, the first of 5 lead changes in the game.
Chicago battled back, and over the course of the 2nd quarter both teams traded blows. The only score of the half was a Luis Zendejas 27 yarder to put Chicago back up 12-10 at the half. In the second half the score continued to bounce back and forth. Philly got another Trout field goal to make it 13-12, and then Chicago drove to the Philly 2 yard line, where the Stars mounted an epic goal line stand, one that would essentially lead to their victory. On first down from the 2, Tim Spencer tried to rush off tackle left, but was met by the diminutive but mighty Sam Mills, who drove Spencer back. On 2nd and goal now from the 3 a Vince Evans pass for Neal Balholm went too far outside, leaving Chicago with a 3rd and goal from the 3. The Blitz ran a HB fake, with Evans pulling the ball back from Spencer and bootlegging out left. Philly was not fooled, and safety Scott Woerner got enough of Evans to keep him out of the endzone. The disheartened Blitz settled for 3, and again Chicago took the lead 15-13.
Chicago added to the lead in the 4th, with yet another Zendejas field goal, making it 18-13, but Philadelphia was not done yet. Following the Field Goal at the 13:25 mark of the final quarter, the Stars mounted a no-huddle quick-strike drive of only 5 plays as Fusina connected with both Scott Fitzkee and Steve Folsom on long strikes, the most impressive a safety-splitting seam route by Folsom which gained the Stars 38 yards in one fell swoop. After a 7 yard rush by Bryant, Fusina found a third receiver, Tom Donovan with the game winning score, a 10 yard fade pattern that Donovan snagged in the front corner of the endzone, sending the Philly faithful to their feet.
With the score 19-18, Chicago got the ball back, a with over 9 minutes still left, they had all the time they needed. Vince Evans and a combination of Tim Spencer and Calvin Murphy moved Chicago to midfield, but they would get no further as the 3rd turnover of the day ended the drive and Chicago’s hopes. On a 2nd and 8 Philadelphia went off-character and blitzed Evans. Evans tried to hit Murphy in the flat but did not see backup linebacker Robert Gooch loitering just past the end of the line. Gooch tipped the ball and then caught his own tip, falling to the ground at the Philly 44. The Stars bench erupted and the offense took the field. It took Philadelphia, stretching the clock and keeping the ball on the ground with a combo of Bryant and Johnnie Hector, 6 minutes to finally end up with a short David Trout field goal, but that time burning was the end of Chicago.
Evans and the Blitz tried valiantly to get down the field, but with 5 seconds left they were still out of range, needing a touchdown, so they tried the rarely effective multiple lateral play, but eventually the ball ended up on the turf, recovered by CB Loren Hawk, and the game was over. Philadelphia, one of only 3 USFL teams to have made the playoffs all 3 years of the league, had won the title. The Stars and their fans celebrated as you would expect for a city that has been hungry for a title of any kind for a long time, and even though they lost, the Blitz also got a lot of love from the Baltimore contingency that made the trip up to New Jersey. All around it was a great day for the USFL, a league that started with a crazy dream, but now feels more secure and more optimistic than ever.