Highlights:
- Jordan Ta’amu completed 18 of 26 passes for 204 yards and one touchdown
- Deon Jackson rushed for 110 yards and two touchdowns on 21 carries
- DC Defenders defense forced five sacks and recovered one fumble
Game Recap:
The DC Defenders defeated the St. Louis Battlehawks 36-18 in a UFL playoff game at The Dome at America’s Center. Jordan Ta’amu threw for 204 yards while Deon Jackson powered the ground game with 110 rushing yards and two scores. The Defenders will take on the Michigan Panthers in the UFL Championship on June 14th.
Game Highlights Video:
DC Defenders Performance:
The Defenders controlled the game with a balanced offensive attack and pressure defense that sacked St. Louis quarterbacks five times.
Top Offensive Players:
Jordan Ta’amu: QB – 18/26, 204 yards, 1 TD, 89.3 rating
Deon Jackson: RB – 21 carries, 110 yards, 2 TDs, 5.2 average
Seth Williams: WR – 2 catches, 61 yards, 1 TD
Cornell Powell: WR – 4 catches, 57 yards
Abram Smith: RB – 13 carries, 64 yards, 1 TD
Top Defensive Players:
Malik Fisher: DE – 2 sacks, 19 sack yards, 1 forced fumble
Anthony Hines III: LB – 6 tackles, 1 fumble recovery
Trey Dean III: CB – 5 tackles, 1 interception, 1 pass defended
Andre Mintze: DE – 1 sack, 2 QB hits
Derick Roberson: DE – 1 sack, 1 forced fumble
St. Louis Battlehawks Performance:
The Battlehawks struggled with turnovers and could not establish consistent offensive rhythm against DC’s aggressive defense. Brandon Silvers gave the team a spark in the 2nd half but left the game due to injury.
Top Offensive Players:
Jacob Saylors: RB – 9 carries, 45 yards, 1 TD
Frank Darby: WR – 2 catches, 53 yards
Jahcour Pearson: WR – 2 catches, 50 yards
Max Duggan: QB – 7/14, 105 yards, 1 INT
Brandon Silvers: QB – 6/10, 81 yards, 1 TD
Top Defensive Players:
Willie Harvey: LB – 15 tackles, 1 sack
Nate Meadors: CB – 8 tackles
Qwynnterrio Cole: FS – 8 tackles, 1 tackle for loss
Mike Rose: MLB – 7 tackles
T.J. Pesefea Jr.: NT – 6 tackles
The DC Defenders advance in the UFL playoffs with this victory while St. Louis ends their season. The Defenders total offense of 388 yards outpaced the Battlehawks’ 240 yards in a game that showcased playoff-level intensity and execution.
Can the Defenders continue their playoff run with this balanced offensive attack? Will the Battlehawks make adjustments for next season after this 2nd straight playoff exit? What are your thoughts on this game? Share your comments below.
7 Comments
by Frank Dux
Pretty incredible that a team that had so many coaches depart made it to the Title Game. As for St Louis, it was only a matter of time that Air Attack that averaged 145 yards a game finally got exposed.
by Gary Winter
Congrats to the DC Defenders for a well deserved victory. The game was really never in doubt. Only one team showed up to play and it wasn’t my guys! DC proved they’re the better team (Unless it rains 5 inches while they’re playing each other’s backups, outside.) over the course of the season.
They have a quarterback, we were lacking one all year long. I’m not putting down Max Duggen’s effort, he’s just doesn’t look ready to play at this level. The Battlehawk’s added depth nearly everywhere except quarterback. They of course had a good quarterback in AJ McCarron and decided to go with his back-up and 2 rookies to start the season (Great coaching decision!). We all know how that turned out. Manny Wilkins got hurt and Max was forced to learn on the job. This loss was certainly not all on him though. We had a few penalties that hurt and a couple what seemed like “non-calls” that hurt as well. The referees had nothing to do with this loss. The team simply didn’t look ready to play and DC did. It was the same problem as last year but last year, we lost to a team that really wasn’t as good as us. The Defender’s are better and showed it twice in our house.
Congrats again to DC and good luck next week.
by Ken Granito
Yesterdays game were good for the UFL. You may not feel the scores were close or that the games came down to the last minute, but football was on display first and foremost. The Stallions vs Panthers game was still in question in the 4th quarter. Even though the Battlehawks/Defenders game was rather one-sided this was a good thing for the UFL.
The DC Defenders vs Battlehawks game was not very competitive, but I feel it was widely entertaining to see football restored. The UFL which has padded the Battlehawks all season and most notably games 5 through 8, simply let the Battlehawks fall. It was Anthony Becht’s folly to come into the season with a great weakness at quarterback. I feel he did this because in his battle with AJ McCarron, he realized that McCarron knew the game better than he did. McCarron did not help by consistently questioning Becht and offensive coordinator Bruce Gradkowski. This lead to McCarron’s release and instead of taking on a new veteran quarterback which St. Louis widely deserved as the largest and best locale in the UFL, Becht and Boller signed Manny Wilkins, Max Duggan & Chevan Cordeiro all in one day. Way to really work through and research this process. That might be unfair for me to say that when taken alone, however when you end up with the (by far) worse passing game in the UFL, at a time when passing is where most of the league’s yardage comes from. In most cases running the ball is to offset the pass rush and to help keep quarterbacks healthy. A balanced attack keeps quarterbacks upright and slows down the pass rush. In football today a balanced attack is not when you rush for 14 more yards than you pass for over the course of a season. That means you are a running team and not a passing team.
Remember that before Anthony Becht became head coach of the Battlehawks, he was tight ends coach for a season and not a NFL season where he was coach all year. He was coach for 4 months. That is it. That was his experience when the Rock & Russ Brandon (Russ Brandon is not the Russ in Friends that was played by David Schwimmer who dated Rachel.)named him head coach of the Battlehawks. Outside of Wade Phillips, Jim Haslett and Bob Stoops, his other coaches were Hines Ward, Rod Woodson, Terrell Buckley, Reggie Barlow. Of those first time head coaches only Becht remains. The other three went 6-24 and haven’t coached since. Becht has made mistakes, but he has learned to be a good game manager, but I think the reasons he has a combined 22-8 regular season record is due to having AJ McCarron and help from the UFL officiating. I am not saying he did not contribute, because I think he did, however I think he also stripped the Battlehawks of the things that made them the most talented team in the league. Becht has put the UFL is a bad place. Becht asked the league to release their most marketable and likely their most talented player in AJ McCarron. Being St. Louis is the best market, he could not go to another team that might keep St. Louis out of the playoffs. I am not defending McCarron, but McCarron was basically cut by the league. Becht did not replace him with a good quarterback. He replaced him with 3 unproven talents. With Manny Wilkins he just wasn’t unproven, but other than Becht, nobody let him QB a game since 2019 when he was cut from the Packers. Let me get this straight Anthony Becht believes he is such a good coach that EVERY other coach in all the football leagues passes on him for 5 years and other than him, he brings in 2 other quarterbacks who have not shown anything at the pro level. All this in the league’s best market. I wrote about this commenting on the UFL News Hub, UFL Board and Pro Football Newsroom. I get that he has to trust himself, but the league should never have trusted him. I wrote back then I would let him go and bring in Mike Riley even to be the offensive coordinator. How do you think Mike Riley would have faired with Hakeem Butler, Darrius Sheppard, Jacob Saylors. Even if Mike Riley brought in Dakota Prukop with this team, the Battlehawks would be a top team. So the Battlehawks were outgained for the season. They sat at 2-2 coming off losses to the Defenders and Renegades in a game the UFL desperately tried to give the Battlehawks. With games against the Panthers, Renegades and Stallions being 3 of the next 4 games the league knew it would have to help.
The Battlehawks won all four games moving to 6-2. In the games against the Stallions, Panthers & Renegades they won by a total of 12 points. In those 3 games they were called for 14 penalties, but their opponents were called for 30. The Panthers were called for 10 and only in one other game were they called for more than 5 in the whole season. In the Panthers game they were outgained 400 to 295 yards. 124 yards were on two Butler catches. One being a push off by Hakeem Butler to win the game. The other being questionable. I am not arguing against Hakeem Butler only that they could have been outgained 400 to 240. Not only were they outgained yardage on the season, but in 6 straight games they were outgained with them winning the four aforementioned games. The league was stuck in a tough place when Becht did not replace this good quarterback, yet St. Louis was their over-whelmingly strong best market so it made it so they would help the Battlehawks remain relevant and did whatever they could to help the Battlehawks host a playoff game. It is good for the St. Louis fanbase and the UFL’s pockets. That is why it was SO refreshing to see the Battlehawks have to swim or drown on their own yesterday. No pushing the offense and flopping on the ground hoping to call the other team for a penalty. Owe I saw them do it a couple of times, but to no avail, no drawn penalties. The league allowed them to be princesses all season, but stopped yesterday. When Anthony Becht challenged the pass interference call and although it was pass interference, those of us that watched the injustice done for the Battlehawks all season, laughed at Anthony Becht who made himself the villain for the whole season. I know that seems sad to say that and maybe you feel that is unjust, but he knows St. Louis deserved a better quarterback than he was afraid to deal with it. Coaching in the NFL is filled with a ton of players that you need to deal with because they make more than you do. If you could not take McCarron you could not take the NFL. Becht is smart enough to know that he was getting the benefit of all those calls for his shortcomings, but he was ok with it all, because he wanted to springboard this to get a better job. Anthony you want a better job, earn it. Become a real position coach. You might not get another head coaching job, but you will become a better coach, especially with your good in game management skills. If you did this you would have been worthy of the West Virginia job, but you aren’t today, because you haven’t done this. Don’t let the XFL give you a head coaching job when you DON’T deserve it, then go out and accept favors to get your team to playoffs. You should have met the UFL half way and in-season gotten a veteran quarterback who would have helped you win the Championship game on your own, without the calls. If you didn’t know you didn’t have it, you deserved to be fired. If you felt the UFL would let you continue to win this way you’re worse. What were you thinking? The UFL (your employer) is going to have its showcase next week. Did you really want to have your team disgrace the league by your team, without a passing game, in front of a quarter of a million new viewers performing as poorly as you did yesterday or were you expecting a bunch more new penalties thrown on the other team. You are not evil, but in this season you are the villain, yes “step on their throats” villain. Do yourself and St. Louis a favor. Step down from being head coach. You in no way were the worst head coach this league has seen. To be honest you are in the middle. You are the strong game manager with a poor sense of talent. Even worse is that you are the Emperor with his new clothes. Walking naked without a clue of what you don’t know, until of course the league left you exposed yesterday. If somehow you come back, please respect St. Louis. They all wanted to root for you, but they are stuck, because they know what you are doing at quarterback is not for the good of their city. Let them enjoy having a team. They deserve it. In all honesty, read Gary Winter’s comments. He roots for your team whole-heartedly and doesn’t understand what happened with McCarron only that he rooted for him. Why do you feel it is not in his and all the other Battlehawk’s fans to get the best possible players in town. Part of the reason the Stallions have been so successful is because when they were the toast of the USFL in 2022 they were able to sign players because players like Bo Scarbrough would sign with the Stallions. Why do you hold back? You have the best fan base. I don’t understand why you would hold this back from the fans and I don’t know why the league would have you and Boller lead their biggest and best franchise. Figure it out…….for the fans!
by Gary Winter
Ken,
Thanks but I don’t need you speaking for me. I understand fully that the whole incident with the release of AJ was the fault of the coaching staff not being able or willing to deal with McCarron’s personality. So they put themselves ahead of what was good for the team.
What I don’t understand is your BS about the league always fixing the games for the Battlehawk’s. Did we get a couple calls go our way? Yup. Did we have some go against us that were debatable? Of course. But claiming the league bent over for St. Louis is just simple BS. Did they want us to win? Yes, of course they did because if the Championship Game was in Birmingham or Arlington or wherever, there wouldn’t be more than a few thousand fans there, especially if their team wasn’t playing. I have no idea how many fans will show next week with the Battlehawk’s having been eliminated but it will likely still be at least the 8th largest crowd of the season.
St. Louis likes football and will support the league whenever possible. The crowd will probably be a bit smaller than usual but folks will show.
Your constant infatuation with the league cheating in our (St. Louis’) favor is about as detrimental to the league’s reputation as anything, anyone writes in these forums. The biggest problem is your faulty stats you use for evidence.
Yes, there are games where the Battlehawk’s have taken less penalties than the other team, I assume they’ve also been penalized more in some games. If not so be it. That doesn’t make the officials or league people corrupt. Hakeem Butler pushed off on the one play you always want to mention. Have you ever seen the d’backs hanging all over him while he’s running routes? It happens both ways, that doesn’t make it a conspiracy. In the STL/DC playoff game, when DC scored their last touchdown, their receiver pushed off before making the catch. At least it looked like it from my seat. It happens! Football isn’t always a clean game and is certainly not easily scripted like you seem to believe.
by Johnny the Angry Fuzzball
This may sound rash, but I’d say it’s time for the league to intervene and fire Anthony Becht. Why, when he’s had so much regular season success?
Well, St. Louis is the UFL’s strongest market by far. They’ve been given both championship hosting and Becht has failed to reach the title game in any of his three years. That has cost the UFL money. Lots of money. Every seat unsold under 30,000 in STL costs the UFL money. The spotlight has to be brighter in STL because of that. When you’re drawing 28,000 (and upward of 40,000 at its peak) while the nearest team is only at 16,000… and that’s where you’re putting the title game, the home team has to make it at least once. Now, the fans have lost confidence. It’s shown in the loss in attendance. Two years now, Becht has choked. He can’t do it. His fiasco with McCarron blew up and bit him. So why should the Land of Ka-Kaw believe? Why should they buy when they know the end result will be disappointment?
Russ Brandon and Daryl Johnston are from the Buffalo area. They have seen what that kind of demoralization can do to a fan base. (Johnston did that with his own hands as a Cowboy, lol) The UFL needs to step in and make a move to restore the fans’ confidence in this league. Becht has turned out to be a good coach–better than his lack of pedigree would have suggested–but while his success might have been OK for, for example, Memphis, it won’t cut it in the UFL’s premier market. Eventually, they’re going to need to at least make the championship.
by Ken Granito
Hi Gary, Please note that I wrote this article at the same time you did. It took me four hours to write this and another article, because I fact find. I fact find so much that since we were writing our comments at the same time I wrote this based on the conversation we had weeks ago, not the one you started and finished before I completed mine. I understand in life it is good to not believe in conspiracies. Believing in conspiracies holds people back from having a good, more enjoyable life. However, at the same time you need to learn to connect the dots. It is why as kids we are given a coloring book that has numbered dots to connect and when you have done so in the right order, you get a clear picture and then you can color that if you want to. There is a reason they want you to have that skill.
I love the underdog. In that way I inherently will pay attention to these players. Although I enjoy the NFL, I would rather root for the underdogs. The players who have been told they aren’t good enough, but still continue to play for the love of the game. With that I have been paying attention since 2022.
In 2023 Luis Perez of the Vipers was traded for Ryan Mueller of the Renegades. This trade did happen. There is no debate. Ryan had been previously been cut by the Renegades and was brought back by Renegades before the trade. After the trade was made Vegas did cut Ryan Mueller and later was re-signed by the Renegades, meaning Luis Perez was handed to the Renegades and the Renegades won the championship. Why would a team trade Luis Perez to the Arlington Renegades for no one? The Renegades had previously had trouble with the QB position. Kyle Sloter & Drew Plitt had not really been positive to the team. So Luis Perez went to the Renegades for an edge player that hadn’t really played since 2020 and didn’t play after the trade. Keep in mind that the league owned the teams and were the employers of both General Managers. This is not some weird stat. This is REAL. It really happened. I understand that you don’t want to research it and you don’t want to research the penalties. I am not lying. I am trying to save what I love. The fact they called a good game on Sunday tells me they can do it when they want to. I know you don’t want to believe it, but the officiating (UFL) tried to have the week 4 contest go to the Battlehawks and not the Renegades. Re-watch the game. Do the research. In the 3 games against the Panthers, Renegades and Stallions those are real stats. The Battlehawks really got outgained this year. These are real stats. Please, I implore you to do the research and if not don’t write about what you don’t know. You don’t want to face it so its easier to call me a conspiracy theorist. You ask yourself why your team in the biggest game of the year did not show up. Did it not show up or did it question itself when not aided by the calls they usually get? There are TOO many oddities. How bad would it have been for Max Duggan and the Battlehawks to perform this way in the championship game. Anthony Becht had plenty of time for a QB change. He just didn’t do it. If he had been losing those games, maybe he would have made the change. Now that you see it all come down it is VERY clear. Just wondering when Deandre Baker was called for the pass interference call against Hakeem Butler. There was handfighting by both players and I feel it could have gone either way. After the play Deandre Baker took his helmet off and yelled at the ref getting a 15 yard penalty. After the play Blake Williams was trying to calm down Baker. Williams told him, “You knew it was going to be like this.” It is clear they talked about this previously during practice. It was brought up during the week. Being that the only thing that happened directly before that was a penalty that could have been called in either direction was called on the Defenders. It kind of makes me feel that I am not alone in my belief the Battlehawks get more than their fair share of calls.
You can say you get some, I get some. Hell I was the one who said the league was fixing games too noticeably. I instructed them that they have thousands of touch points they can fix a game. I told them that they don’t need to insult our intelligence. All I know is that a friend and I went 15-1 betting on the Battlehawks and in a couple of instances betting against the a team that needed to lose. The 1 loss was Sunday when they really didn’t get help. Alone these the points I make could be considered coincidence, but the overwhelming amount of penalties against other teams including the 10 called on Michgan, when only one other time had they given up more than 5, the being 8-2 yet outgained in yardage the Renegades having a bomb taken off the board for a challenge by Becht where the wrong number was provided, while being a stickler on everyone else. Note it was not just a number being wrong. The defensive tackle came over crying it was me and he was not even touched. The holding was on another player and it wasn’t even holding as the ball was gone when the defender tried to change direction. The way that Blake Williams and Deandre Baker got so upset about the referee on a disputable call (saying “You knew it was going to be like this.”)and what Blake Williams said to bring him back. Just like I understand why the UFL felt they needed to do this, I understand why you feel the need to do what you are doing now. I am truly not mad at you. My research is true and real. Question, did you ever go back and look at the capacity of the dome and compare it to what percentage of people were at the dome the game we talked about. Did you know that the UFL has communication problems outside of the Dome? Did you read how many comments have been written by how many people that have said the league doesn’t really publish the real attendance of the game it is really tickets circulated. I am not saying you aren’t a good crowd base. You are the best in the league. I am saying you deserve a better situation so you don’t have to count on this stuff from the league next year. I know you don’t want special consideration from the league other than that you deserve the best team possible. I get all that. My only request of you is to do your research. Don’t say this isn’t so and question my stats when I am doing the research and you are not. Like Eric Taylor in Friday Night Lights I am not perfect and I have an opinion on football, but “I mean what I say.”
by Gary Winter
Wow, I guess you told me! I’m just going to stick to cowering over in Section 353 and hope the refs become better actors next year because you do your research and I don’t. Of course I don’t do research. I’m just a fan not looking for anything but for my team to win and to be entertained. I don’t look for statistics to try and prove any made up point I want to make. I just want the league to succeed and see my team do well.
Am I an Anthony Becht fan? NO! I feel he’s been given his chance and if the league continues with him in St. Louis, attendance will continue going down. He screwed up with not having a plan at quarterback and that’s unforgivable for a head coach. It hurt the team.
If the league is truly making things lean in the Battlehawk’s favor then shame on them, it’ll ruin the league. Things like that always catch up eventually. (No, I don’t have statistics to back that up. Just common sense. I can assure you if I believed that story, I would be somewhere other than the Dome on weekends. We’re very proud here and certainly don’t want any help nor do we believe we get it other than the occasional bad call against us like everyone else gets.
Again, I’m just a fan who wants to be entertained, I don’t have an agenda that I need to back up. I also am not mad, I just simply don’t believe in trying to tear things down when it isn’t warranted or necessary. If you get a quote from someone (Who actually knows) stating that the league is in the tank for St. Louis, send me the tape. (Lip reading a d’back during a game doesn’t count.) Until then I suggest you sit back, relax and watch a game without trying to always prove yourself right.