After two straight losses (bad losses), the DC Defenders hoped to regain a share of the XFL East with a victory at home against the St Louis Battlehawks this past weekend. The odds were stacked against them. Jordan Ta’amu, the Battlehawks QB, is a rising star in the league, coming into the game at 2nd in passing yards, five passing TDs, and led the league with 1,062 total yards. Their leading rusher, Matt Jones, also sat at 2nd in rushing yards prior to Sunday’s game. The St Louis offense has been rolling: led by Ta’amu and Jones, the team has scored 52 points in the last two games.
Compare those numbers to the DC Defender’s position. Cardale Jones has been underwhelming in the team’s last two losses, having thrown 6 interceptions for the season (SPOILER ALERT: He didn’t make it through the first quarter on Sunday). The DC rushing attack has struggled to find its rhythm despite a reluctance by Pep Hamilton to give it up. In their week 3 and 4 losses, DC was outscored 64-9. While 9 points of offense sounds bad, giving up 64 points of defense is far worse. DC didn’t have a single sack or turnover in weeks 3 and 4 and was last in the league for both sacks and QB hits through the season, not to mention their 7th place position in rushing defense (122.5 yard per game),
It’s tough to turn around an offense in a week, but marginal changes can provide an oversized impact. The key’s to DC competing on Sunday were aggression in pass defense to put pressure on Ta’amu, and executing in key spots on offense (DC was in 6th place for 3d down conversions and 8th for Red Zone TD percentage). These are changes that a coaching staff can make which don’t require massive personnel or scheme changes.
The Defender’s defense came out firing on Sunday in front of a packed home crowd. Defensive End Tavaris Barnes quickly got the team their first sack in weeks int he first quarter during a five man overload blitz, and the Defenders went back to this scheme multiple times. Combining four down lineman with a linebacker on the blitz and overloading one side of the offense created gaps in the St. Louis O-Line and resulted in four sacks on Sunday. The defensive unit was the star of the game and added seven QB hits and seven tackles-for-loss.
The same can’t be said for the offense. The teach relied heavily on the ground attack: running plays accounted for 75% of snaps in the first quarter and 78.6% in the second quarter. Tyree Jackson replaced Cardale Jones at the end of the 1st Quarter and provided a small spark to the offense which led to a RPO-pass to Tight End Khari Lee. Hamilton followed up the QB swap with some play-calling balance changes in the second half, opting to throw the ball on almost 50% of second-half plays. Jackson finished 9 for 14 but only 39 yards due to check-downs and lots of pressure from the Battlehawks.
The offense continued to struggle in the end zone and key conversions. Thankfully, Taylor Russolino hit three of four field goals to add some points and provide a small buffer for DC. After the win, DC still finishes week 5 at the bottom of the league in offense ranked 6th in yards per game and 7th in scoring.
The team still needs more improvement on offense, and the best way to improve that mid-season would be more aggression and more unpredictably in the play-calling. Coach Hamilton opted for the conservative option on multiple occasions, including opting for a field goal on 4th down prior to halftime (in fairness, the missed FG led to the best quote of the day: “God almighty, what a buzzkill”). The game on Sunday was the lowest scoring XFL game of the season so far. DC only accumulated 256 yards on offense and averaged a measly 1.2 yards per play. Even with some changes to play-calling in the second half, the Defenders opted to run on 14 of 16 first downs over the game.
The defense appears on the rise after a stellar performance and ranks now in the middle of XFL in terms of yardage and points against, but a mediocre defense and low-performing offense won’t be enough to keep DC on top of the eastern conference.
Keys to the Defenders continued success: more variety in play-calling (lean on Jackson’s RPO abilities), continue to utilize the zone-running scheme, and keep the aggression high on defense (more five and six man blitzes). Next Sunday, DC tries to remain undefeated at home when the 2-3 Dallas Renegades come to visit. Dallas has lost their last two games and struggles on both offense and defense, providing a good opportunity for DC to refine their performance half-way through the season.
