Each week during the season, Parks’s Pulse will present a smattering of thoughts on the previous weekend’s games.
Ranking the games
1) Brahmas 24, Defenders 18: And the lord finally said, “let there be offense.” By record, this was the biggest upset of the year, though the teams were a lot more evenly matched than their win-loss numbers would indicate.
2) Stallions 23, Roughnecks 16: Jalan McClendon gave Houston a much-needed boost at the QB position. Birmingham, meanwhile, is down to its third quarterback.
3) Renegades 30, Battlehawks 15: Three defensive TDs in this one. Max Duggan did not appear ready to step in for Manny Wilkins at QB. St. Louis needs to get him ready.
4) Panthers 27, Showboats 9: An early special teams gaffe gave Memphis some brief hope. It doesn’t get any easier for them next week against the Stallions.
UFL goes live on social media
In an unadvertised surprise, UFL social channels aired about a half-hour of pre-game plus the first drive of Friday’s Michigan vs. Memphis interconference battle. Facebook and Instagram didn’t seem to have much traffic, never getting out of double-digits views from what I saw. On X, 2,300 were viewing live at 8pm, while it appeared to max out at just over 3,000. With Friday night ratings coming in low on FOX the first few weeks, giving fans on social media a sampling and hoping they seek out the rest of the game on TV isn’t a bad way to utilize the tools the UFL has at its disposal.
All-access moment of the week, part one
FOX uses 12 on-field player mics for its broadcast and on Saturday, Arlington Renegades LB Donald Payne carried the responsibility of one of them. When going live to those players, there’s a risk that either they’ll curse and a lot of the audio will be lost in covering it up, or they just won’t say anything interesting. As they went live to Payne, he expressed something mid-game that was relatable for all of us: “Damn, I bit my lip,” he said to himself. Sometimes, there’s interesting in the mundane, as there was here.
Oh-no-ber
Long snappers toil in anonymity, and that’s what they prefer. The only time they get noticed is when they make a mistake. Unfortunately for Michigan Panthers long snapper Jordan Ober, that’s exactly what happened on Friday night. When Michigan was set to punt after the first drive, an errant Ober snap gave Memphis great field position, and they were able to cash in with a score. This wasn’t just a snap that was too low or too high; Ober sent the ball way wide of punter Seth Vernon. There appeared to be a miscommunication about which way Vernon was going to step to receive the snap. There’s also the issue of an ankle injury that hampered Ober during the week, leading him to appear on the injury report. The Panthers ended up winning the game, and the rest of Ober’s snaps were perfect, so the damage was limited.
Did the UFL curse St. Louis with the championship location?
Last year, UFL management decided on St. Louis as the championship site. It was no surprise given the Battlehawks’ fervent fanbase, even if it didn’t translate to huge numbers for the finale. Ownership would’ve no doubt loved to have had St. Louis in the game, but they lost to San Antonio in the conference championship. This season, the Battlehawks get a bit of a do-over as St. Louis will once again play host to the championship. At the time the announcement was made, the team was 2-0 and looked like a contender to perhaps draw a sellout crowd to the dome were they to play for the title. Since then, though, the Battlehawks have gone 0-2 and have lost their starting QB to injury. Maybe it’s not a curse but a coincidence in the timing. Right now, St. Louis finds themselves out of the playoff picture with six games remaining – likely with a backup QB – to nudge their way back in.
Word of the week: Conflict
Joel Klatt is one of the best football color commentators in the business and UFL fans are lucky to have him call games. On Friday night, the success of Bryce Perkins within Michigan’s offense allowed Klatt to talk schematically about how Perkins was able to “put the defense in conflict.” That is, Perkins’s running ability forced defenders to choose to go after Perkins, or to drop into coverage to take a receiver. We saw Perkins exploit the Memphis defense time and time again with this conflict. The word permeated the rest of the week, used in numerous broadcast, including the Sunday nighter, when Jordan Ta’amu often did the same thing to San Antonio’s defense.
All-access moment of the week, part two
Brahmas interim head coach Payton Pardee was frustrated by Mike Pereira’s decision to allow D.C. to keep one of its challenges because Pereira altered a different part of the play. That frustration led Pardee to tell one of his coaches on the headset, “Mike Pereira’s in the process of f***** us.” He probably remembered in that moment that he was mic’d and certainly Pereira, also on the broadcast, could hear. “I shouldn’t have said that,” he quickly followed up. “I love Mike Pereira. Mike’s the man.” Of course, the announcers brought Pereira in to react to that. He took the comment in stride, as it’s certainly not the first time (and won’t be the last) a coach has been critical of his decisions.
