SCORES
BIR 26 MEM 27 Birmingham loses a heartbreaker on last-second Herrera fieldgoal.
DEN 20 BOS 14 Boston loses 5th in a row as Eason is pulled for Robinson.
ARZ 34 NJ 13 Wranglers corral the Generals as Landry throws for 377 and 3 TD.
OAK 16 PHI 24 Philly takes 21-3 lead at half and holds on for 8 point win.
LA 16 WSH 19 Resurgent Federals edge LA in overtime for 3rd win in 4 games.
BYES: CHI, HOU, MGN, PIT
GAME OF THE WEEK
Tampa Bay Bandits 24 Jacksonville Bulls 28
In a stunning turn of events. Doug Williams leads the Bulls back from a 24-7 deficit with 3 scores in the 4th quarter to stun the Bandits. For 3 quarters it looked like Tampa would defeat their in-state rival and move a game up in the unusually weak Southern Division, but with their backs to the wall, the Bulls rallied late to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Tampa Bay had built a 17 point lead in 3 quarters, with John Reaves hitting his TE’s for 2 scores and Greg Boone scoring a third. Jacksonville had focused, with some success, on limiting Reaves’s access to his top targets, wideouts Eric Truvillion and Cris Collinsworth as well as HB Gary Anderson, but Tampa Bay was still the better team foremost of the game. That all changed when Bulls CB Terry Kinard jumped in front of a pass intended for Truvillion and set the Bulls up deep in Tampa territory at the end of the 3rd quarter. It would take Jacksonville only 3 plays to score from there, a Thomas Lear TD catch from Williams.
Jacksonville would add another on their next drive, a 1 yard George Adams run that capped a 9 play drive. Tampa was feeling the heat, and with their top receivers blanketed by the Bulls defensive scheme, Reaves again forced a ball, this time trying to hit Willie Gillespie. Kevin Harris, the Bulls nickel corner, was right there and took the ball away, giving the Bulls a shot with 3.45 left in the game. Doug Williams led the Bulls down the field, aided by an untimely defensive holding call on 3rd and 4. Killing clock as they marched downfield, the Bulls punched the ball in with only 40 seconds left. Tampa tried, but failed to mount a final drive, needing a TD to win, and the Bulls faithful, all 51,202 in attendance for the rivalry game, went home happy.
PERFORMANCE OF THE WEEK
While the Bulls CB’s came up big in our game of the week, we cannot bypass a great performance by the “Old Man Wrangler”, Greg Landry. Landry had gracefully accepted his role as backup to the young gunslinger Rick Neuheisel when the season began, and once again injury hit Neuheisel, putting Landry back behind center. After a couple of lackluster games, one in which Landry too was sidelined by injury, the old man came out guns blazing this week. Landry would rip apart the suspect New Jersey secondary for 377 yards on a 31 for 38 day. His 3 TD passes were more than enough to defeat the spiraling Generals, but what was even more amazing was that in the few times he was pressured by NJ defenders, Landry actually scrambled for good yardage. He ended the game with his highest USFL rushing total ever, 10 carries for 30 yards and 3 first downs. Those are not Joe Cribbs or Herschel Walker numbers, but for the knobby kneed veteran, those were impressive. With Neuheisel possibly making his return to the lineup after a wrist injury next week, this might be Landry’s swansong. If so, it sure was a beaut.
NEWS AND NOTES
Some big changes announced this week around some of the more desperate teams. As anticipated, Generals owner Donald Trump announced just one day after the team’s latest defeat that Walt Michaels would no longer be coaching the Generals. Trump also announced that the team’s GM and Head of Football Operations would also be let go. Team DC Joe Mazur will lead the team on an interim basis. In Boston, 2nd year QB Tony Eason was pulled from the game with Denver after another rough half of football. After the game coach Dick Coury stated that the Breakers would use the bye week to determine their QB future. While backup Matt Robinson also did not have much success against the Gold, there is a sense that he could be the starter once Boston resumes play in Week 10. And in Birmingham, with the Stallions having collapsed from USFL Championship contender to 1-6 disaster in short order, coach Rollie Dotsch is also making a change. Backup and 1983 starter Bob Lane has split snaps with Cliff Stoudt over the 2 week hiatus of their bye week, and while Stoudt was given the start in Week 8, leading to a 6th loss, we expect to see the cagey Lane under center when the Stallions face off against Denver next week.
INJURIES
While there were no major losses this week, attrition is certainly hitting some teams harder than others. Looking at the injury report for the week we see that some, like Birmingham (3 listed), Chicago (2 listed) and LA (2 listed) are relatively healthy, while other clubs, like Boston (6 listed), Memphis (7 listed) and New Jersey (9 listed, including “probable” status for both Flutie and Walker) are having to go deep into their bench to suit up 45 each week. Philadelphia, despite their gaudy 7-1 record, must be looking forward to the bye this week as they list 9 players on their injury list, but most in the Doubtful-Questionable-Probable range, meaning that there is a good chance all of these injuries will come off the report by their Week 10 matchup.
LOOKING AHEAD
As mentioned, Week 9 is the bye week for the four Atlantic Division teams, giving New Jersey and Boston time to reassess and restructure, while Washington and Philly, both red hot, are hoping to maintain momentum over the pause. In Week 9 action, we have the Central playing within their division with an intriguing Pittsburgh-Houston matchup, but an utterly huge game as the 7-0 Panthers travel to the 6-1 Blitz. In other games, Denver will host the flailing Stallions, LA will try to move to 6-3 (their best record ever) as they host the Showboats, Jacksonville will travel to Oakland, and the Tampa Bay Bandits will try to get back to playoff form but have a tough matchup as they travel to Tempe to face the surprisingly 6-2 Wranglers.