Sports Yes, the Birmingham Stallions are in the playoffs — all all over again.
With four weeks left in the UFL season, the Stallions already clinched a postseason berth with a runaway, 39-21 victory over the Memphis Showboats (1-5) on Saturday, pushing the physique of workers’s successful plod to 13 games dating back to final season and bettering to 6-0 on the yr.
For the valuable time this season, Birmingham head coach Skip Holtz started QB Adrian Martinez in back-to-back games. Martinez didn’t disappoint, finishing 64% of his passes for 368 yards and four touchdowns, both UFL-highs this yr.
Wideout Kevin Austin executed with four catches for 108 yards, including an 80-yard reception for a procure. Linebacker Kyahva Tezino led the Stallions with seven combined tackles.
Martinez, who’s second in the UFL in rushing yards (327) and fourth in passing yards (971), acknowledged he’ll proceed to focal point on the things he can control.
“For me, I’m very fortunate to play this game,” Martinez acknowledged. “I have must you reach to it from a standpoint of gratitude, I’m thankful to procure this opportunity for my end purpose, which is to procure into the NFL. And I’m fortunate that we beget a giant quarterback room with J’Mar Smith and Matt Corral. All of us beget identical objectives, and we trace that it’s tricky. Most steadily most productive one guy can play, but all of us have to procure to that end purpose.
“All of us have to salvage. All of us have to thrill in this expertise. Some stuff you would maybe presumably presumably additionally control and a few stuff you would maybe presumably presumably additionally’t, and for me, one of those things is I’m able to reach to the skill, reach to the topic with gratitude, and we can procure sure we’re making improvements to.”
Right here’s a more in-depth behold at some of quite a lot of storylines from Week 6.
Battlehawks ‘ salvage sets up seemingly UFL championship preview
The Battlehawks won their fifth straight game this weekend, a 22-8 victory over the Houston Roughnecks (1-5), in entrance of a crowd of 32,969 fans at The Dome at The US’s Heart in St. Louis on Saturday.
Receiver Hakeem Butler had one more huge game, finishing with six catches for 134 yards and two scores. Butler now has a physique of workers-leading 5 scores on the season.
With the salvage, the Battlehawks remain atop the XFL Conference standings, leading to a doable championship preview in Week 7 after they take on the USFL Conference-leading Stallions (Saturday, 4 p.m. ET on FOX and the FOX Sports actions app).
“It is most practical to want to be in games that topic.,” head coach Anthony Becht acknowledged. “It is most practical to want to be in games the put they (the Stallions) state they’re primarily the most productive physique of workers. I have this is a game the put we talk about our physique of workers, and all people has to play smartly. We know who our simplest gamers are, and our simplest gamers want to existing up in this game. That’s what it’s all about.”
On the other hand, Holtz took a internet page from his father — retired legendary Notre Dame head coach Lou Holtz — declining to position to any extent additional emphasis on the weekend’s huge matchup.
“That’s the luxury that all people else has,” Holtz acknowledged. “We call it the circus that’s going on outside the lines, and we can’t procure mad in regards to the circus. We procure mad about it on Saturday night and Sunday, and when our game is over, we can behold at the massive image.
“Nonetheless reach Sunday when our game is over and we attach this part to bed, it’s time to hit the reset button — and we can procure started on Monday. This physique of workers has done a giant job of doing that.”
Jake Bates drills one more game winner, keeps Renegades winless
Amid chants of “MVP” from the stands at Ford Enviornment, Michigan’s huge title kicker hit a 42-yard topic purpose as time expired to seal a 28-27 victory over Arlington. Bates’ heroics had been situation up by a 45-yard kick return by Marcus Simms and helped by a defensive face mask penalty on the Renegades.
The hassle became part of a 5-for-5 day on topic objectives for Bates, including his third topic purpose of 60-plus yards this season — this one from 60 yards out. Bates had a UFL-long 64-yarder to beat St. Louis in Week 1. He’s now 12 of 14 on the yr and 3 of 4 from 60-plus yards.
Bates is below contract with the UFL for the remainder of the season and would maybe presumably additionally’t entertain talks with NFL groups until the season wraps, but he hopes there’s an opportunity for him at the completion of this season. For now, Bates acknowledged he’s targeted on making kicks and serving to his physique of workers salvage.
The victory kept Michigan (4-2) in second location in the USFL division, while the Renegades fell to 0-6 on the season in what became their fourth loss this season by eight positive aspects or fewer.
Defenders reach .500 attach on Kelvin Harmon TD accumulate
With the game tied at 12-all and 7:30 final in the fourth quarter, Chris Rowland returned a kickoff 39 yards to position the Defenders in scoring location.
Five performs later, QB Jordan Ta’amu found Harmon for an acrobatic, 13-yard touchdown on a shuffle route for the game-successful procure, giving the Defenders an 18-12 victory over the visiting San Antonio Brahmas (4-2).
Harmon executed with a game-excessive eight receptions for 101 yards.
With the salvage, the Defenders improved to a pair of-3 on the yr, correct one game in the back of the Brahmas in the XFL Conference.
San Antonio working back John Lovett churned out a league-excessive 153 rushing yards in the loss.
Houston edge rusher Chris Odom regaining playmaking skill
Odom executed with 5 combined tackles, including three tackles for loss, and a sack in Week 6’s loss to St. Louis. He also had a sack negated thanks to a defensive keeping penalty.
Working his device back from a season-ending ACL knee distress he suffered two years ago all the device thru an NFL preseason game with the Cleveland Browns, the USFL Defensive Player of the Yr in 2022 is getting back to making game-changing performs on defense for Houston.
Through six games, Odom has 3.5 sacks and 17 combined tackles, including six tackles for loss. Houston held St. Louis to 22 positive aspects — the Battlehawks’ lowest offensive output since Week 1.
Eric D. Williams has reported on the NFL for better than a decade, overlaying the Los Angeles Rams for Sports actions Illustrated, the Los Angeles Chargers for ESPN and the Seattle Seahawks for the Tacoma News Tribune. Follow him at @eric_d_williams .
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