For someone who haven't watched an actual game for a month, I did pretty well with my picks. I'm currently 14-6 as we cross the halfway point. The teams are doing, for the most part, what I expected them to do at the beginning of the season. The Roughnecks are at the top of their division, the Renegades are OK and the Guardians are trash. I've been keeping up with the games by watching the highlight videos on YouTube. They're now back on ABC this week.
ABC will broadcast games 4 of the next 5 weeks. Their divisional titles will be on ESPN(2) but their championship game will be on ABC. I guess there's more skippable NBA and NHL games at this point of their seasons, so Disney doesn't mind throwing the XFL a bone for a couple months. I don't watch either, so I don't know what's going on over there. Well, there's not much else to say here that I won't end up repeating for the end of season review so here's the picks.
THE GAMES
Seattle Sea Dragons 27
Orlando Guardians 24
The Sea Dragons delivered a shocking upset to the Renegades. They blocked 2 punts and completely shutdown Houston's offense for most of the game. This game would've been a blowout if Ben DiNucci didn't throw 2 endzone INTs, plus a late Morgan Ellison fumble that set up Houston for their first TD along with ANOTHER DiNucci interception in the 4th quarter. Their defense bailed them out by forcing a fumbleception to end the game. Former Roughnecks coach June Jones runs their #1 passing attack but their turnovers keeps them from being treated like a top tier team. At least they're not the Guardians. They're the last remaining winless team.
At least Quinten Dormady is out of the doghouse. He went from being cut from the team due to allegations that he gave plays to opposing teams to replacing Paxton Lynch in a 32-35 shootout against the Vipers. He was 22/25 for 256 yards and 2 TDs (Their other Quinton, Flowers had a rushing TD). But fuckups late in the game that ESPN didn't show in the highlights killed their final drive concluding with a false start to end the game. So once again, it looks like Dormady isn't the reason why this team sticks. It's just that Terrell Buckley is a shitty coach who was looking for a scapegoat to cover his ass. It's always the hardasses who pull this shit.
St. Louis Battlehawks 31
Vegas Vipers 30
2 TDs, 2 turnovers. Not a great stat line for A.J. McCarron in a close loss to the Defenders. They go against the Vipers that lit up the scoreboard against Orlando. Both teams air it out so this might turn out to be another shootout. This might bite me in the ass but I'll stick with St. Louis.
San Antonio Brahmas 11
Arlington Renegades 13
These teams played last week. Weird. Maybe it's because I'm used to NFL scheduling but teams don't usually play each other 2 straight weeks unless it's a regular season finale to a playoff game. Maybe they scheduled a home and home series since it's only about a 4 hour drive from San Antonio to Arlington. Also, the Brahmas have to go there anyway since that's where the XFL base of operations is. The Renegades eked out a win despite their defense forcing 3 INTs. Neither team is good offensively while both have quality defenses. These teams are so similar in how meh they are. With that said, I'm picking Arlington to sweep them.
Houston Roughnecks 17
D.C. Defenders 20
What happened Houston?!?! You picked off DiNucci 3 times and forced a fumble and STILL LOST! It was bad when they let him scramble 20 yards for a TD. But I didn't expect them to not do dick until late in the 4th quarter! Hopefully this serves as a wakeup call for them as they have a tough fight with the Defenders who are now the top dogs of the XFL. Jordan Ta'amu didn't do much against his old team but the run game made the Battlehawks look silly. Give me D.C. here.
LAST WEEK: 2-2
SEASON: 14-6
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