Re: XFL 2001
Posted: Thu Mar 09, 2023 10:29 pm
Rourke Pledges he's 'ready to go' for Playoffs
July 9, 2023
Houston, TX - Houston Roughnecks QB Nathan Rourke’s plan all along was to be back for the CFL playoffs. Getting a sampler taste of action in the regular-season finale last week was “a bonus,” according to the 24-year-old quarterback. Those three series under center have given Rourke a psychological boost as he leads the Roughnecks against the Seattle Dragons in the First Round. “We were always trying to be back and ready for the playoffs,” said Rourke. “Playing in that game and participating in practice last week certainly made it easier to do so and I feel a lot more confident going into this week. I’m glad that I’m going to be able to participate in practice and do all the things that I need to do in terms of prep.”
Roughnecks head coach Wade Phillips named Rourke the starter for the Seattle game, obviously content with what he saw in the regular season finale. Houston lost the game, which had no baring on the standings, 24-9. “I think it’s been good. He seems good,” Phillips said when asked how Rourke’s body responded to returning to action. “I think it keeps getting more normal for him. I think it was another step forward him getting into the game and even getting hit and just playing football again. I think it’s also going to be helpful that it’s not an experiment this week. It’s going to be a normal week, where he’s taking all the reps and feels like it felt all season.”
XFL First Round: Crusaders Edge BattleHawks to Earn Quarter-Final Round
July 10, 2023
London, ENGLAND - The offenses took over in the second half, with London QB Taylor Heinicke willing his team to victory by helping London's offense execute in crunch time with a 31-27 overtime victory over the Charlotte BattleHawks. While the two offenses sputtered in the first half, they combined for 31 points in the fourth quarter and overtime. The back-and-forth affair had six lead changes. London appeared to be in good position to close out the game after K Brett Lauther drilled a 59-yard field goal to give the Crusaders a 20-17 advantage with 3:16 left in regulation. "He's our guy," Heinicke said. "We watch him practice hit like 65 yards. It's like easy to him."
However, the BattleHawks retook the lead when starting QB AJ McCarron threw a 55-yard touchdown to WR Hakeem Butler on a go route and Charlotte grabbed a 24-20 lead with 2:04 left. But that lead did not last long, as Heinicke drove the Crusaders 51 yards on eight plays. The key play came on fourth-and-goal from the 7-yard line, when Heinicke found WR Malik Henry on a perfectly thrown ball on a skinny post for the go-ahead score and a 27-24 lead with 39 seconds left. Once again, though, McCarron proved up to the task, driving the BattleHawks 38 yards on seven plays, to set up a K Donny Hageman 47-yard field goal to send the game into overtime. McCarron and the BattleHawks started slow, scoring just three points and turning it over three times in the first half but heated up in the second, as he finished 23-of-38 passing for 370 yards, with two touchdowns and an interception. "In the second half we took care of the ball, and everyone made plays," McCarron said. "Hakeem is a foot out of bounds in the first half on a big play, and in the second half, we're in bounds with Darrius Shepherd down the sideline. Marcell Ateman blowing past everyone on the field and then Hakeem obviously. So at the end of the day, those guys made great plays. And in the first half, we were shooting ourselves in the foot a little bit."
Even with Charlotte gaining some momentum heading into overtime, the Crusaders kept their composure. Heinicke converted the first try from 2 yards out when he found TE Tyree Jackson over the middle on a play-action pass. London's defense then forced RB Mataeo Durant to fumble at the goal line. The ball was recovered by Butler in the end zone, but in overtime, a ball recovered by the offense in the end zone reverts to where the ball was fumbled, so the try was no good. Heinicke took matters into his own hands on the second try, running in for a score. And then London's defense stepped up, with DL Casey Sayles swatting down McCarron's attempt to end the game with the Crusaders rushing the field. "We struggled early, but I want to thank these guys for having faith in me. They didn't know me. They knew me from nobody. We had a plan, and we implemented that plan. Nobody said it was going to be easy. And it wasn't," said head coach Ray Horton. "It's not. And it shouldn't be, for the rewards that you get."
-- (12-8)BattleHawks 27 - 31 Crusaders(15-5)
(CHA): QB McCarron - 23/38 370 yards, 2 TDs, 1 INT, RB Galloway - 13 carries, 40 yards, WR Butler - 5 catches, 104 yards, 1 TD, WR Ateman - 3 catches, 87 yards, 1 TD, WR Shepherd - 5 catches, 57 yards
(LON): QB Heinicke - 23/40 203 yards, 1 TD, RB Michael - 20 carries, 54 yards, 1 TD, RB Jones - 8 carries, 40 yards, 2 catches, 38 yards, 1 TD, WR Henry - 6 catches, 83 yards
XFL First Round: Brawlers Advance to Quarter-Finals
July 10, 2023
Houston, TX - The Philadelphia Brawlers defeated the Baltimore Brigade, 26-11. The Brawlers erupted for 23 points and three touchdowns in the first half. Philadelphia opened the scoring with a touchdown on their first drive as QB PJ Walker connected with WR Cam Phillips for a 14-yard score. The team built a 14-0 lead when Phillips hauled in a 59-yard bomb from Walker early in the second quarter and Phillips would also convert on the ensuing two-point try. WR Travis Fulgham hauled in a 14-yard touchdown with just under 5 minutes left in the first half to give the Brawlers a 12-point advantage. Philadelphia's defense held stout in the second half and earned a takeaway for an 21st straight game as DB Deji Olatoye picked off Baltimore QB Kenji Bahar late in the 4th quarter as the Brigade attempted to press down the field.
-- (15-5)Brawlers 26 - 11 Brigade(12-8)
(PHI): QB Walker - 19/27 289 yards, 3 TDs, RB Butler - 24 carries, 94 yards, WR Phillips - 5 catches, 121 yards, 2 TDs, WR Fulgham - 5 catches, 60 yards
(BAL): QB Bahar - 12/31 104 yards, 1 INT, RB Thompson - 18 carries, 85 yards, WR Chism - 4 catches, 57 yards
-- (12-8)Valor - Apollos(16-4)
(DC): QB Bortles -
(ORL): QB Gilbert -
XFL First Round: 'Very disappointing': Dragons' mistakes costly in Playoff loss to Roughnecks
July 11, 2023
Seattle, WA - The Seattle Dragons truly believed they had a team that was capable of winning the championship this year. It won’t happen, though, not after a mistake-riddled game in the Western Conference First Round that saw the home Dragons fail to execute in key moments and fall 30-16 to the Houston Roughnecks. Against a quarterback like Nathan Rourke, the Dragons were going to need to be at their best. Instead, they took penalties in key moments that extended drives and kept the ball in the Roughnecks superstar’s hands and then failed to convert on two third-and-short situations. So there will be no championship this year. “It’s a team loss, I’m not going to say that we weren’t outplayed and out-coached,” said Dragons head coach Dave Dickenson. “Very disappointing, though, I love this team, proud of this team. We’ve got a great team but can’t pick a playoff game to not necessarily play your best and also, the Roughnecks played well. A lot of contested catches. We went for it on third down, get stopped. They go on theirs, get a touchdown. Kind of a microcosm of the game and that’s when you win or lose, when you make those big plays and they made a lot more of them than we did.”
The Dragons made mistakes that will be tough to swallow. They took penalty after penalty, allowing the Roughnecks opportunities to extend drives and put up points. There were penalties on all three of the Roughnecks' first-half scoring drives, including an offside penalty when Houston was in a fourth-and-five situation that extended the drive and led to a field goal and then a roughing the passer when the Roughnecks were in a third-and-10 situation that led to a touchdown a couple of plays later. It wasn’t just the penalties, though. Twice, the Dragons were on third-and-short situations deep in Roughnecks territory. Twice, they wound up turning the ball over. When the other team has Rourke as their quarterback, those sorts of mistakes are lethal. Give him enough of the ball and he’s going to put up points and he did. Even as the Dragons threw pressure at Rourke and sacked him four times, he remained calm and composed. It was another big game from Rourke, who may very well use these playoffs as a chance to formally take his place on the throne as the XFL’s top quarterback.
The Dragons simply had no way of matching him on offense. They appeared reluctant to simply hand the ball to the running backs who had put up huge numbers in recent weeks, in part because the Roughnecks had clearly devised a game plan to limit the ground game. That meant it was up to QB Ben DiNucci to make things happen through the air. He couldn’t get it done. “First of all I want to give credit to Houston, they played a hell of a game,” DiNucci said. “To be honest, I feel terrible for the guys in that locker-room, I really do. We had a great week of preparation, we were peaking at the right time, everybody was bought-in, we had great leadership in there and guys gave it everything we had, we just didn’t execute, I didn’t execute it."
There will be questions about the play-calling on short yardage situations that led to the turnovers-on-downs. The untimely penalties will be painful for those involved to look back on and if Rourke stays in Houston, the Dragons are going to be seeing a lot of him in the playoffs for a long, long time now. Maybe they’ll find a way to beat him, but they’ll need to make a lot less mistakes than they did. “It’s disappointing with a 14-win season to not make any noise in the playoffs, it’s disappointing,” Dickenson said. “We’ll solve that. John Hufnagel and I will take a look tomorrow, we’ll solve it. You miss opportunities, but I think we had a team that could win it, I really do, and that’s the problem with not playing our best game.”
-- (14-6)Dragons 16 - 30 Roughnecks(13-7)
(SEA): QB DiNucci - 20/33 285 yards, RB Lindsay - 17 carries, 83 yards, 1 TD, WR Gordon - 7 catches, 78 yards, WR Pearson - 7 catches, 119 yards
(HOU): QB Rourke - 23/31 366 yards, 3 TDs, RB Borghi - 20 carries, 95 yards, WR Burnett - 8 catches, 162 yards, 1 TD, WR Cottoy - 5 catches, 73 yards, WR Rhymes - 5 catches, 72 yards, TE Owens - 3 catches, 45 yards, 1 TD
-- (12-8)Fleet - Breakers(14-6)
(SD): QB Johnson -
(LA): QB Bethel-Thompson -
XFL First Round: Mountain Lions Jump on Stampede Early
July 11, 2023
Salt Lake City, UT - Salt Lake jumped to a 22-6 halftime lead and held on to defeat the Oklahoma City Stampede in the Eastern Conference First Round before 40,693 spectators. WR Kaelin Clay and RB Devontae Booker scored the Mountain Lions’ touchdowns, while K Jake Verity kicked two field goals. But the outcome was in doubt until Stampede QB Bryce Petty was sacked by DL Karter Schult and fumbled. The ball was recovered by LB Kamalei Correa.
The Mountain Lions scored on their opening possession and found the end zone on three of their opening four drives. The game began with a 49-yard kickoff return by WR Auden Tate. Two plays later, QB Josh Rosen passed 23 yards to WR Justyn Ross and, two plays after that, found Clay for a 13-yard touchdown. Stampede cut into that lead with a 47-yard field goal. After Salt Lake failed to generate a first down, they scored again, going 81 yards in eight plays. The drive included a 33-yard reception by Ross. Following a 12-yard pass to Clay, RB Devontae Booker scored on a one-yard run. Oklahoma City kicked a 23-yard field goal early in the second period, reducing the Stampede’s deficit to 14-6, but Salt Lake then engineered a five-play, 70-yard drive to take a 21-6 lead. Following a 20-yard reception by Ross, Booker scored on a 33-yard sweep. DB Damarious Randall intercepted Petty's pass on the next play, but the Mountain Lions couldn’t capitalize on the turnover. There was no additional scoring in the half. At the intermission, Rosen had completed 21 of 27 passes for 219 yards. The Mountain Lions generated 15 first downs and 278 yards net offense in the half. At the same time, Salt Lake’s defense limited the Stampede to five first downs.
Petty completed five of six passes on his opening possession, culminating in a 12-yard touchdown reception by TE Donald Parham and suddenly it was a one-possession game. Salt Lake’s offense failed to generate any offense in the quarter. Even following a 47-yard punt return by Tate to the Oklahoma City 18, the Mountain Lions couldn’t produce a first down, settling for a 33-yard field goal on the final play. Stampede’s 36-yard field goal of the fourth quarter reduced the margin to 25-18. The Mountain Lions didn’t produce a second half first down until early in the fourth quarter. After the Stampede were guilty of a contacting the kicker penalty, the Mountain Lions gambled on fourth-and-one from the 50, but Booker was stopped short. Fortunately for Salt Lake, Petty was intercepted three plays later.
-- (11-9)Stampede 17 - 28 Mountain Lions(15-5)
(OKC): QB Petty - 18/29 250 yards, 1 TD, 2 INTs, RB Brooks - 9 carries, 37 yards, WR Davis - 8 catches, 142 yards, TE Parham - 3 catches, 52 yards, 1 TD
(SLC): QB Rosen - 27/34 243 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT, RB Booker - 20 carries, 145 yards, 2 TDs, WR Ross - 7 catches, 98 yards, WR Clay - 5 catches, 60 yards, 1 TD
One Meeting at a Time, Luis Perez Raised the Renegades Ceiling to the XFL Championship
July 15, 2023
Dallas, TX - Renegades WR LuJuan Winningham was at dinner when new teammate Luis Perez sent a text along the lines of this: Hey guys, I'm just trying to meet real quick at 7:30. Perez was new to the Dallas team, having been acquired in a midseason trade with the Mexico City Vipers. He wanted to catch up as quickly as possible and felt his teammates would be able to help him do it. "I'm thinking this is just gonna happen like once a week maybe," Winningham said. "The very next day, 'so 7:45 again, guys.' 'Oh my god.' And it's been every single day since throughout the week."
Those meetings exemplify the leadership and attention-to-detail Perez brought to a Renegades offense that spent most of the year like a car in neutral. But the hard work paid off in the First Round against the Houston Roughnecks with Perez at the helm. He threw for 289 yards and three touchdowns as the Renegades pulled off the 26-11 upset. Dallas hopes to surprise the football world a second time against the D.C. Defenders. The likelihood of an upset is directly tied to how well Perez plays against a stout Defenders defense. "That's why they made the trade to come get me, right?" Perez said. "They brought me here to win a championship so hopefully we go out there and do that."
Perez opened the 2023 XFL season with the Vipers as the starting quarterback, ironically throwing for 249 yards and three touchdowns in the opening game against Dallas. But he spent weeks battling Brett Hundley for the full-time starting role. The 28-year-old quarterback, who has spent the last six years in the XFL, said he respects the Vipers coaching staff but felt a trade was for the best. Dallas couldn't be happier, either. "He's a true leader," Renegades head coach Bob Stoops said. "He's a guy that kind of galvanizes everybody together. He's had an impact in the locker room as well as out on the field."
July 9, 2023
Houston, TX - Houston Roughnecks QB Nathan Rourke’s plan all along was to be back for the CFL playoffs. Getting a sampler taste of action in the regular-season finale last week was “a bonus,” according to the 24-year-old quarterback. Those three series under center have given Rourke a psychological boost as he leads the Roughnecks against the Seattle Dragons in the First Round. “We were always trying to be back and ready for the playoffs,” said Rourke. “Playing in that game and participating in practice last week certainly made it easier to do so and I feel a lot more confident going into this week. I’m glad that I’m going to be able to participate in practice and do all the things that I need to do in terms of prep.”
Roughnecks head coach Wade Phillips named Rourke the starter for the Seattle game, obviously content with what he saw in the regular season finale. Houston lost the game, which had no baring on the standings, 24-9. “I think it’s been good. He seems good,” Phillips said when asked how Rourke’s body responded to returning to action. “I think it keeps getting more normal for him. I think it was another step forward him getting into the game and even getting hit and just playing football again. I think it’s also going to be helpful that it’s not an experiment this week. It’s going to be a normal week, where he’s taking all the reps and feels like it felt all season.”
XFL First Round: Crusaders Edge BattleHawks to Earn Quarter-Final Round
July 10, 2023
London, ENGLAND - The offenses took over in the second half, with London QB Taylor Heinicke willing his team to victory by helping London's offense execute in crunch time with a 31-27 overtime victory over the Charlotte BattleHawks. While the two offenses sputtered in the first half, they combined for 31 points in the fourth quarter and overtime. The back-and-forth affair had six lead changes. London appeared to be in good position to close out the game after K Brett Lauther drilled a 59-yard field goal to give the Crusaders a 20-17 advantage with 3:16 left in regulation. "He's our guy," Heinicke said. "We watch him practice hit like 65 yards. It's like easy to him."
However, the BattleHawks retook the lead when starting QB AJ McCarron threw a 55-yard touchdown to WR Hakeem Butler on a go route and Charlotte grabbed a 24-20 lead with 2:04 left. But that lead did not last long, as Heinicke drove the Crusaders 51 yards on eight plays. The key play came on fourth-and-goal from the 7-yard line, when Heinicke found WR Malik Henry on a perfectly thrown ball on a skinny post for the go-ahead score and a 27-24 lead with 39 seconds left. Once again, though, McCarron proved up to the task, driving the BattleHawks 38 yards on seven plays, to set up a K Donny Hageman 47-yard field goal to send the game into overtime. McCarron and the BattleHawks started slow, scoring just three points and turning it over three times in the first half but heated up in the second, as he finished 23-of-38 passing for 370 yards, with two touchdowns and an interception. "In the second half we took care of the ball, and everyone made plays," McCarron said. "Hakeem is a foot out of bounds in the first half on a big play, and in the second half, we're in bounds with Darrius Shepherd down the sideline. Marcell Ateman blowing past everyone on the field and then Hakeem obviously. So at the end of the day, those guys made great plays. And in the first half, we were shooting ourselves in the foot a little bit."
Even with Charlotte gaining some momentum heading into overtime, the Crusaders kept their composure. Heinicke converted the first try from 2 yards out when he found TE Tyree Jackson over the middle on a play-action pass. London's defense then forced RB Mataeo Durant to fumble at the goal line. The ball was recovered by Butler in the end zone, but in overtime, a ball recovered by the offense in the end zone reverts to where the ball was fumbled, so the try was no good. Heinicke took matters into his own hands on the second try, running in for a score. And then London's defense stepped up, with DL Casey Sayles swatting down McCarron's attempt to end the game with the Crusaders rushing the field. "We struggled early, but I want to thank these guys for having faith in me. They didn't know me. They knew me from nobody. We had a plan, and we implemented that plan. Nobody said it was going to be easy. And it wasn't," said head coach Ray Horton. "It's not. And it shouldn't be, for the rewards that you get."
-- (12-8)BattleHawks 27 - 31 Crusaders(15-5)
(CHA): QB McCarron - 23/38 370 yards, 2 TDs, 1 INT, RB Galloway - 13 carries, 40 yards, WR Butler - 5 catches, 104 yards, 1 TD, WR Ateman - 3 catches, 87 yards, 1 TD, WR Shepherd - 5 catches, 57 yards
(LON): QB Heinicke - 23/40 203 yards, 1 TD, RB Michael - 20 carries, 54 yards, 1 TD, RB Jones - 8 carries, 40 yards, 2 catches, 38 yards, 1 TD, WR Henry - 6 catches, 83 yards
XFL First Round: Brawlers Advance to Quarter-Finals
July 10, 2023
Houston, TX - The Philadelphia Brawlers defeated the Baltimore Brigade, 26-11. The Brawlers erupted for 23 points and three touchdowns in the first half. Philadelphia opened the scoring with a touchdown on their first drive as QB PJ Walker connected with WR Cam Phillips for a 14-yard score. The team built a 14-0 lead when Phillips hauled in a 59-yard bomb from Walker early in the second quarter and Phillips would also convert on the ensuing two-point try. WR Travis Fulgham hauled in a 14-yard touchdown with just under 5 minutes left in the first half to give the Brawlers a 12-point advantage. Philadelphia's defense held stout in the second half and earned a takeaway for an 21st straight game as DB Deji Olatoye picked off Baltimore QB Kenji Bahar late in the 4th quarter as the Brigade attempted to press down the field.
-- (15-5)Brawlers 26 - 11 Brigade(12-8)
(PHI): QB Walker - 19/27 289 yards, 3 TDs, RB Butler - 24 carries, 94 yards, WR Phillips - 5 catches, 121 yards, 2 TDs, WR Fulgham - 5 catches, 60 yards
(BAL): QB Bahar - 12/31 104 yards, 1 INT, RB Thompson - 18 carries, 85 yards, WR Chism - 4 catches, 57 yards
-- (12-8)Valor - Apollos(16-4)
(DC): QB Bortles -
(ORL): QB Gilbert -
XFL First Round: 'Very disappointing': Dragons' mistakes costly in Playoff loss to Roughnecks
July 11, 2023
Seattle, WA - The Seattle Dragons truly believed they had a team that was capable of winning the championship this year. It won’t happen, though, not after a mistake-riddled game in the Western Conference First Round that saw the home Dragons fail to execute in key moments and fall 30-16 to the Houston Roughnecks. Against a quarterback like Nathan Rourke, the Dragons were going to need to be at their best. Instead, they took penalties in key moments that extended drives and kept the ball in the Roughnecks superstar’s hands and then failed to convert on two third-and-short situations. So there will be no championship this year. “It’s a team loss, I’m not going to say that we weren’t outplayed and out-coached,” said Dragons head coach Dave Dickenson. “Very disappointing, though, I love this team, proud of this team. We’ve got a great team but can’t pick a playoff game to not necessarily play your best and also, the Roughnecks played well. A lot of contested catches. We went for it on third down, get stopped. They go on theirs, get a touchdown. Kind of a microcosm of the game and that’s when you win or lose, when you make those big plays and they made a lot more of them than we did.”
The Dragons made mistakes that will be tough to swallow. They took penalty after penalty, allowing the Roughnecks opportunities to extend drives and put up points. There were penalties on all three of the Roughnecks' first-half scoring drives, including an offside penalty when Houston was in a fourth-and-five situation that extended the drive and led to a field goal and then a roughing the passer when the Roughnecks were in a third-and-10 situation that led to a touchdown a couple of plays later. It wasn’t just the penalties, though. Twice, the Dragons were on third-and-short situations deep in Roughnecks territory. Twice, they wound up turning the ball over. When the other team has Rourke as their quarterback, those sorts of mistakes are lethal. Give him enough of the ball and he’s going to put up points and he did. Even as the Dragons threw pressure at Rourke and sacked him four times, he remained calm and composed. It was another big game from Rourke, who may very well use these playoffs as a chance to formally take his place on the throne as the XFL’s top quarterback.
The Dragons simply had no way of matching him on offense. They appeared reluctant to simply hand the ball to the running backs who had put up huge numbers in recent weeks, in part because the Roughnecks had clearly devised a game plan to limit the ground game. That meant it was up to QB Ben DiNucci to make things happen through the air. He couldn’t get it done. “First of all I want to give credit to Houston, they played a hell of a game,” DiNucci said. “To be honest, I feel terrible for the guys in that locker-room, I really do. We had a great week of preparation, we were peaking at the right time, everybody was bought-in, we had great leadership in there and guys gave it everything we had, we just didn’t execute, I didn’t execute it."
There will be questions about the play-calling on short yardage situations that led to the turnovers-on-downs. The untimely penalties will be painful for those involved to look back on and if Rourke stays in Houston, the Dragons are going to be seeing a lot of him in the playoffs for a long, long time now. Maybe they’ll find a way to beat him, but they’ll need to make a lot less mistakes than they did. “It’s disappointing with a 14-win season to not make any noise in the playoffs, it’s disappointing,” Dickenson said. “We’ll solve that. John Hufnagel and I will take a look tomorrow, we’ll solve it. You miss opportunities, but I think we had a team that could win it, I really do, and that’s the problem with not playing our best game.”
-- (14-6)Dragons 16 - 30 Roughnecks(13-7)
(SEA): QB DiNucci - 20/33 285 yards, RB Lindsay - 17 carries, 83 yards, 1 TD, WR Gordon - 7 catches, 78 yards, WR Pearson - 7 catches, 119 yards
(HOU): QB Rourke - 23/31 366 yards, 3 TDs, RB Borghi - 20 carries, 95 yards, WR Burnett - 8 catches, 162 yards, 1 TD, WR Cottoy - 5 catches, 73 yards, WR Rhymes - 5 catches, 72 yards, TE Owens - 3 catches, 45 yards, 1 TD
-- (12-8)Fleet - Breakers(14-6)
(SD): QB Johnson -
(LA): QB Bethel-Thompson -
XFL First Round: Mountain Lions Jump on Stampede Early
July 11, 2023
Salt Lake City, UT - Salt Lake jumped to a 22-6 halftime lead and held on to defeat the Oklahoma City Stampede in the Eastern Conference First Round before 40,693 spectators. WR Kaelin Clay and RB Devontae Booker scored the Mountain Lions’ touchdowns, while K Jake Verity kicked two field goals. But the outcome was in doubt until Stampede QB Bryce Petty was sacked by DL Karter Schult and fumbled. The ball was recovered by LB Kamalei Correa.
The Mountain Lions scored on their opening possession and found the end zone on three of their opening four drives. The game began with a 49-yard kickoff return by WR Auden Tate. Two plays later, QB Josh Rosen passed 23 yards to WR Justyn Ross and, two plays after that, found Clay for a 13-yard touchdown. Stampede cut into that lead with a 47-yard field goal. After Salt Lake failed to generate a first down, they scored again, going 81 yards in eight plays. The drive included a 33-yard reception by Ross. Following a 12-yard pass to Clay, RB Devontae Booker scored on a one-yard run. Oklahoma City kicked a 23-yard field goal early in the second period, reducing the Stampede’s deficit to 14-6, but Salt Lake then engineered a five-play, 70-yard drive to take a 21-6 lead. Following a 20-yard reception by Ross, Booker scored on a 33-yard sweep. DB Damarious Randall intercepted Petty's pass on the next play, but the Mountain Lions couldn’t capitalize on the turnover. There was no additional scoring in the half. At the intermission, Rosen had completed 21 of 27 passes for 219 yards. The Mountain Lions generated 15 first downs and 278 yards net offense in the half. At the same time, Salt Lake’s defense limited the Stampede to five first downs.
Petty completed five of six passes on his opening possession, culminating in a 12-yard touchdown reception by TE Donald Parham and suddenly it was a one-possession game. Salt Lake’s offense failed to generate any offense in the quarter. Even following a 47-yard punt return by Tate to the Oklahoma City 18, the Mountain Lions couldn’t produce a first down, settling for a 33-yard field goal on the final play. Stampede’s 36-yard field goal of the fourth quarter reduced the margin to 25-18. The Mountain Lions didn’t produce a second half first down until early in the fourth quarter. After the Stampede were guilty of a contacting the kicker penalty, the Mountain Lions gambled on fourth-and-one from the 50, but Booker was stopped short. Fortunately for Salt Lake, Petty was intercepted three plays later.
-- (11-9)Stampede 17 - 28 Mountain Lions(15-5)
(OKC): QB Petty - 18/29 250 yards, 1 TD, 2 INTs, RB Brooks - 9 carries, 37 yards, WR Davis - 8 catches, 142 yards, TE Parham - 3 catches, 52 yards, 1 TD
(SLC): QB Rosen - 27/34 243 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT, RB Booker - 20 carries, 145 yards, 2 TDs, WR Ross - 7 catches, 98 yards, WR Clay - 5 catches, 60 yards, 1 TD
One Meeting at a Time, Luis Perez Raised the Renegades Ceiling to the XFL Championship
July 15, 2023
Dallas, TX - Renegades WR LuJuan Winningham was at dinner when new teammate Luis Perez sent a text along the lines of this: Hey guys, I'm just trying to meet real quick at 7:30. Perez was new to the Dallas team, having been acquired in a midseason trade with the Mexico City Vipers. He wanted to catch up as quickly as possible and felt his teammates would be able to help him do it. "I'm thinking this is just gonna happen like once a week maybe," Winningham said. "The very next day, 'so 7:45 again, guys.' 'Oh my god.' And it's been every single day since throughout the week."
Those meetings exemplify the leadership and attention-to-detail Perez brought to a Renegades offense that spent most of the year like a car in neutral. But the hard work paid off in the First Round against the Houston Roughnecks with Perez at the helm. He threw for 289 yards and three touchdowns as the Renegades pulled off the 26-11 upset. Dallas hopes to surprise the football world a second time against the D.C. Defenders. The likelihood of an upset is directly tied to how well Perez plays against a stout Defenders defense. "That's why they made the trade to come get me, right?" Perez said. "They brought me here to win a championship so hopefully we go out there and do that."
Perez opened the 2023 XFL season with the Vipers as the starting quarterback, ironically throwing for 249 yards and three touchdowns in the opening game against Dallas. But he spent weeks battling Brett Hundley for the full-time starting role. The 28-year-old quarterback, who has spent the last six years in the XFL, said he respects the Vipers coaching staff but felt a trade was for the best. Dallas couldn't be happier, either. "He's a true leader," Renegades head coach Bob Stoops said. "He's a guy that kind of galvanizes everybody together. He's had an impact in the locker room as well as out on the field."