USFL Week 4: What Did We Learn?

Well, here we are everyone. Welcome to the mark Cast Live. Little Horse today was at the Krack in seven to win over the Dull Stars last night, Game three, this end the couple playoffs Round two. Very exciting times. I think this is going to be the true test of the XFL or of the USFL's drying power. I don't care TV ratings, attendance. Let's see what the mark Cast does on Monday morning. Just talking to USFL. I think that will be the true test. We have part Raffino here

and we have Evan Wilsmore. I thought was moving this week, Evan moving back home for the summer. I said, no, I want to come on and talk to usfls. We have Evan as well, always happy to have him. Pat, how are you doing? And then we can talk to Evan as well. I'm doing well. Thank you guys for having having me, you know, especially with Andy doing his Pitbull tour right now. Yeah, Andy, mister worldwide. Evan, how are you doing today, sir? Yeah? Doing good. Man, A bit tired, but I'm

excited to talk football, just like we dude last week. And you know, there's a lot to go over between the four games we had so looking forward to it. Yeah, So just a reminder here programming note, no normal Friday show this week. We will be live on Saturday from the Riverwalk in San Antonio. Andy will be flying in from Japan. We have Anthony Miller joining. I think Jason with the x Fans Show will be there.

They're doing the big Shin Dick Friday night. I do not no one corresponded with me about what like, Hey, I'm flying in about seven o'clock San Antonio time, so I will be party and I think after the show, but we will do our big show on Saturday to the four local I'm calling the Albamo today. I have about ten names on our list if you're going to be in San Antonio, if you want to be a part of the Alamo tour, We're doing that ten am Central and then the Big Show two

four before the kickoff game. But just USFL talk today, we will try to do our best. Evan or Pat any thoughts on the u XFL weekend before we get to just USFL today. I mean not so much with the game, because I think, in my opinion, I think this championship game can be one of the best games we've ever seen. Or one of the worst games we've ever seen. I have no idea, and I think if anyone was to tell you that that they knew that this was going to be

a good game, they'd be lying to you because the renegades. But I'm pretty excited to see the signings or the camp invites that will leave the signings in the future. Yeah, a lot of the contraction there, Evan, I know you've been tracking out as well. You surprise so many camp invites

coming out from the XFL season before we get to you. Uh, yes, and no. I mean a camp invite, you know, isn't the same as a contract, right, Really, everything on or after May fifteenth is what I'm looking forward to. It is a bit more than I expected, but I will say, you know, everyone's deserving that opportunity, and I've liked, you know, all the players that have gotten those camp invites

so far. There's a couple that I'm surprised, you know, haven't, but I'm assuming maybe you know something is in the works, so they're just gonna wait until May fifteenth at this point because we're only a week away from that. So I am tremendously excited as Pat and I know, a lot of USFL brass really grasp onto the USFL the NFL signing, and so I will be very curious to see how the XFL stacks up with that. This was an exciting weekend. I watched two of the games. Obviously, I

did not watch a lot of the Stallions game last night. I did have it on at the bar. I did my part after cracking bar heading to the game, but I obviously watched the Breakers and then we watched the Gamblers as well. Pat overall thoughts on the USFL weekend here week four and no, we finally know overlap You've got to worry about the dart in that XF out for a week. So I had the luxury of watching all the games.

I'd say about eighty percent of all the games. Um. The quarterback play is so weird to me right now because I do my weekly quarterback rankings right and I'm you know, I'm sticking with MBT at number one. But he had a good game, but even statistically lighted up as far as you know, four touchdowns like he always does and everything like that. Um, but overall, you know, we're starting and I was looking through the because

I tracked receiving stats as well. This has been my my next, my next phase of my tracking, and I'm going through all the rosters and I'm pretty impressed by a lot of the skill position players the USFL has found.

Slash has been building up because even I'm looking at the Muller's roster and I'm like, you know, Bailey Gaither definitely not a scrub, you know NFL experience, you know, it's a fringe practice squad guy, you know who kind of that Week seventeen when all your receivers are hurt, has an ad R game and you're like, oh, this guy, you know, Isaiah Henny has kind of taken the role as this punt return you know, the stud punt returner this year and the generals. You know, DeAndre Johnson isn't,

you know, the sexiest quarterback in the league. But when he he a couple of his incompletions were some of the best passes I've seen him throw in a while. And he's got a good, you know, stable of receivers right now, and the Lonzo Moore, Cam Eccles Looper, those tight ends, you know, Brandon Bowman and Woody Brandham aren't terrible tight ends at all, not the most athletics. So it's good to see these skill position players. It kind of seems like they're a little bit ahead than the defense.

And then Troy Williams, you know, he looks better and better each week, along with Kenji Bahar. And that's the thing is I've talked about them a lot in my rankings, is they could be the biggest risers because they just needed experience, you know. And I don't know if then like Williams's NFL game would translate, Well, he's putting together a good film and he's you know, having you know, he's entertaining, and he looks better than James Morgan out there. And that's I mean, if we're talking about

the entertainment product, not the NFL translation. You know, he's keeping me engaged when the Mallers have the football. It's funny. I just saw just comments and we were sharing a few of them. I think Sam and the chat where you know, oh, I'm so glad USFL this weekend. You can't handle the you know, the gimmicky XFL and you know XFL has the

same rollbook. You know, we've COMPI It's weird to me how this narrative just seems to be right now, like okay, well now like I can enjoy or this is different kind of football, it feels very similar to me. I mean, USFL feels like the XFL was in Week four and we are trying to get there some of these teams. Evan, do you feel like teams are are further ahead than they should be or less ahead than they should be here week four and now of USL. I mean, I liked

what I saw this weekend. You know, it's it's hard to say. I mean, like Pat said, I do like the talent level personally, I think that there is a bit more talent this year than there was last year. And I kind of like, you know, it's been interesting to see the development of certain players that I didn't expect, you know, to do as well. Take Troy Williams, for example, is a really good

one. But I think, you know, they're doing all right. You know, there's I think they set out on the USFL broadcast yesterday on one of the games, I forget which one, but they were kind of saying, you know, week four, week five is the point of the season

where you sort of see the cream of the crop. I guess the term you like to use where that the good teams rise and then the bad teams kind of follow, and you start to get a bit of separation in terms of, you know, who might be in playoff contention and who might not be. So right now, you've got you know, New Orleans and New Jersey and then let's see else this Birmingham, I guess too. Those teams are all kind of on the rise, and then you've got you know,

a couple others that are still like, we'll get to Memphis. I like their performance, but there's down there. Michigan's got a couple of things to figure out. I know, paddle talk about that um. And then you know, Houston's kind of a wild card day came out and you know, scored like forty one points or something against Philly, which was a big deal. And then I mean, yeah, the Stars are the other team that's just kind of like, well, you know, they definitely got some stuff

to work out. Bit of regression there. Yeah, So I made the lead Tiger. So I made the wager I had was turning on the game first thing on Saturday morning, I said, oh, it's Anthony Miller's Gamblers against my stars. We'll have a big bet. You know, Anthony had his Kenji Bahar jersey on. I said, whoever whoever loses this game is gonna have to chug a shinerback beer and san Antonio our live show because either way we're gonna win. Uh, stars look horrendous. I look like you

could not protect. You know, case cook is here with a paper bag. Why have these stars regressed so much? Here? Pat Well, they lost two key players and um Sam, Sam and I talked about this offline. Alex, I can't alex a King Bulo went to the Washington Commanders. He was one of their tackles. In addition to Gunner Vogel who's now in the XFL. So those are two high quality guys. Vogels had some NFL

looks. Akin Bulow was active towards the end of the season. So you have two of these guys who are who are lost, and it seems like the game planning, in my opinion, is a little bit more linear. I think when I watch case cookus play, he's getting a little bit of happy feet because of the offensive mind having more holes in it than Swiss cheese,

and it's really disappointing. Because I thought we all thought that case Cookus would take this next step, and we want to pooh pooh him a little bit because you know, his numbers aren't there, but when you watch the games, he's not having any time to actually run around and you know, sit in the pocket and and actually make his reads and whatnot. It's a

little disappointing. The running. The rushing attack, I think they had like what read like twenty not twenty I want to say it was like forty yards. I know you have it on the screen right now, but Cookis has you know, been a part of their rushing Yeah, forty four yards and

the running the ball eleven times. You have two quality NFL level running backs back there with Dexter Williams and Matt Colburn, and obviously they might not be you know, elite running backs in the NFL, but they're serviceable to you know, back in roster slashing. It should be pretty good in the USFL, and it just seems like they've become very one dimensional with mart Um not in the passing attack, because they do have a stable of weapons with Corny

Coleman, Chris Roland and Devin Gray. Devin Gray back there, but I'm just kind of you can't really It all starts in the trenches, and right now they're getting dominated up there, and it's disappointing because they did lose two quality offensive lineman last year and the center, even even the center they I think his name is Perez, it seems like he's slow off the snap a

little bit. So I'd like to do more background than to him on my end for you know, future shows and whatnot to see if that's his natural position, because it just seems like he's not really popping up and engaging and whatnot. And there were a couple plays where they didn't identify the linebackers.

It look like and the guard is just going straight to the nose or that three that one technique and the linebackers just coming in and then you're asking, you know, we wanted Dexter Williams, who's not a great pass protector, to take on a linebacker who's running in with a full head of steam. So it's disappointing because we know who case Cooks is. He has that fringe level NFL potential and we're not seeing him take that next step the show, like, hey, I could be an actual like I can go into an

NFL game and actually make a player too. It feels very much like and I was just at the Cracking game last night, you know, zero zero through the first period, right goose eggs, and then we errupt, we go five one in the second period. It really felt like we were never kind of felt like this game like I'm watching this game, Philly felt in it for you. We we go, we have the Drive score at seven to seven, and then it felt like once, you know, once Houston

started to go and they never looked back. It never felt close at all. Harrison has a question here in the chat. One of the things we're seeing midway through is that a lot of the new coaches are approvements over the guys he replaced. That may be, but it feels like Bart has like stagnated now and kind of everyone else's running circles around him. Evan, are

you just surprises that like Bart has been found out. I think Mike was talking about that in the group chat as well, like they're just not trying to do anything at all to to deviate from the from the plan. Yeah. Well, I mean, you know, Pat talked about sort of the one dimensional factor in a way and you know, you could definitely say that Philadelphia is getting exposed to an extent. To me, I think the biggest problem is the run game. You know, you can't win a game really

in any pro league if you have forty four yards rushing um. And that's just from the Star's perspective, you know. I again, they have good They have a lot of good talent, like Corey Coleman. I remember writing about, you know, almost two years ago, saying, hey, you know, look down a line like this could be a guy that comes to the USFL. And here he is on what is supposed to be a premier

team with one of the premier quarterbacks in case Kocas. And so far they only won one game in Week one and they barely squeezed by Memphis, who just won their first game against Michigan this weekend. So I don't really know what to think of him. You know, it's it's a real shame, you know. I kind of thought they'd be quick risers because if you look at, you know, the rest of the league. I just feel like last year they made the championship game and that was really close with Birmingham,

and I like Bart a lot. I think he's a great coach. I think he's great for these leagues, like he did the Spring League obviously, and that's where you know, he did some great things with Brian Scott, who was with the Stars last year obviously got hurt and then the whole case Kocas era started. But um, yeah, definitely been a surprise. I can't say the Stars won't turn it around, but they've definitely been the most shocking team so far. And I don't mean that in a good way.

Yeah, I just I feel like Case is gonna get hurt out there again. It is really crazy to me, Pat here, here's my think and this might be the homer in me, but you know, is are the worst teams worse in the XFL or the USFL because it feels like some of these teams in the USFL, like I just it just feels like more of a divide. I know last year it felt like that in the USFL that come like week six, we kind of knew it. It didn't matter XFL. You know, we talked for you at nauseam for weeks like the games

near the end, you know, mattering more because of more parody. Do you what do you make of that, do you think that there's worst teams in the l or the USFL. Well, when I think of the bad teams of the XFL, I think of the Brahmas and I think of the Guardians. And the Guardians were fun to watch because they were extremely competitive and even though the Brahmas had some and the Brahmas had some bad games, their

defense was extremely extremely competitive and they were making plays. So they might be down fifteen points, but then you might see Delante want A Scott or Tory Williams make a play and then their offense stalls. So it's it's kind of nice to watch, um, if you look at the Stars defense, because right now it appears to me that the Stars are the most the least competitive team to watch, And maybe you know that's incorrect, but regardless, that's

how I feel. Um, you know, teams are kind of shining away from even throwing the ball around Channing Stribbling And I'd actually have to rewatch the old twenty two of the film, but it kind of looks like like and I've talked with a couple of Michigan like U of m guys, because that's where Stribbling went. Um, you know, strip strip's got some weaknesses. You know, sometimes he's a little too aggressive. He gets to beat a

decent amount. He's a very good zone cover corner um. But the thing was is like he was, you know, able to make those those reads and kind of you know, get some cheap interceptions and whatnot. He's a big guy too, so he's physical. But it seems like we're not even seeing that, and they're kind of just shying away from him. And because their defensive like their front seven isn't that isn't that dynamic? You're seeing a lot of you know, Mark Thompson averaging ten yards a carry, and the

Evan to go back on your rushing totals. When I do rushing statistics and like evaluate those, unless it's a design quarterback run, I don't really include that. So case Cook has had two carries for sixteen yards, you take away that because they're off script plays. Now we're looking at nine carries for twenty eight yards. You're not gonna win football games averaging you know, a tick over three yards a carry. You know, this isn't the Vince Lombardi

age anymore. Evan thoughts on you know, Mark Thompson looked great for the Gamblers, I thought he was tremendous that you know, a lot of a lot of good positions. That are the eighty more thoughts on the Gamblers before I move on to some of the other matchups. Yeah, I mean the Gamblers were fantastic. You know. On the other end, I kind of expect that to be a pretty close game where maybe Philly would have the advantage.

But you know, the Houston's really got it together. It seems like they're finally, you know, getting in their groove after last year where they had a really good defense, but the offense would sputter and they you know, blew a lot of late games and it was just kind of a rough year all around. I'm sure if Anthony were here, he could tell you all about that. But yeah, no, I mean you look at uh, you know, Kenji Bahar. He's come a long way and I'm very

I've been very surprised in his development too. Again, another one of these guys that I didn't really view two highly, but you know, he had a near perfect game yesterday. I mean he had quarterback rating and says they're of one hundred and thirty nine and then yeah, Mark Thompson you know, was fantastic. Um, he's really been helpful for them. And yeah,

I mean I just you know, the Gamblers look great. If they keep that up, I don't think they'll have a problem against you know, even some of the top talent in the USFL and some of the better teams take like a Birmingham or a New Orleans. I know, they had that close game with New Orleans that they weren't able to win because of the turnovers,

but that's the main thing. You know, without Bab throwing interceptions this time, you know, his performance with two hundred thirty yards and two touchdowns actually looked a lot better and the team was able to I mean that game, you know, was over before it even really began in some ways. Yeah, I mean, really the only life that Philadelphia ever had was it was like the miss yeah handoff and they fumbled and Philadelphia was able to get the

ball back, you know, like the thirty five or something. I mean, it just didn't seem like Philadelphia could do anything. Really disappointing. I mean, obviously that's the team that like I root for, but it just you just want teams to be competitive, but it just didn't feel like you know, for the for the sparse fans that were at Michigan, it didn't seem like that good of a show. A pat any other thoughts we could

move on. Yeah, I think the most impressive thing about Houston is, and we talked about it in the pregame show or pre preseason show, was they lost Micah Abernethy at the time, they lost Isaiah Zuber, who's playing defensive back for them right now. By the way, he was a wide receiver last year. Um Joey Ivy a good thing. Chris Odom, Donald Payne, like they lost. I think Ike Brown was on that team as

well. Who's with the Raiders and their defense is I don't know if they're better statistically, but you know, you're you're judged by your win loss record than you know they they're They're at two wins they had three lash year, so I think that says a lot of Curtis Johnson. It's also a big deal to me that, like, I think we all can agree that case focus is not healthy. He was definitely favoring his right right hand slash arm

yesterday, and I'm very curious to see what happens moving forward. They put in Kevin Thompson for that fourth and twelve on side kickplay, so it was good to see and he completed his past for eleven yards. It was obviously short, but I think it was good to see their both backups play. Yesterday, Bihar was out. They said he could play, They just took him out for precautionary reasons. But I think it was good to see Terry Wilson and Kevin Thompson playing a little bit, just you know, get that

first actual real game snap. So overall, I mean, excuse me, the m the Gamblers our team team to watch. They were competitive last year. It seems like they're kind of put piecing it together a little bit more in Bahar only this is his seventh pro start, so he should only get better. Yeah, Harrison, youre gotta remember you sell early season that week ends Week four s Week four? I mean, was Arlington is unwatchable as

the Stars were Week four? I don't. I mean, we're going off recency bias, so obviously we'll say, you know, we'll say no, but we're also USFL haters, so we have to sing oh right. But um, I mean Arlington had a lot more fluidity because of you know, Drew Plitt and then Kyle Sloter and then you know Sloughter did give them that spark right nine points, ten points, eleven points, So yeah, I think he went two and one as a starter. So, I mean,

I don't know. The thing was I loved watching at Arlington defense, like Darnell say. That was when Darnell Sanky, Uh, Darnell Sanky came from the CFL to the running gage and he was immediate impact and whatnot, and they had some stunts. Uh. Former I think he was a gambler. Tomassi Lolli, you know, was playing pretty well. So I just felt like their defense was way more watchable, Like you kind of tune out when the running gage offense was on on the TV, but that defense was fun

to watch. We had a yeah Lewis here starting about fifteen minutes late. Viy that catch out there, Lewis ketch out there. This was the game. Next game on here. This is when the prompted my release the attendance reports meme that I posted online. We had the Memphis show Boats here. Michigan Panthers twenty ninety ten. At Michigan Panthers seemed to be the Edmonton Elex of the CFL cannot win at home, we cannot perform while at home.

Evan any pounds for me, and then we'll go to the pack because obviously this is a team that's nearer dear to him. But the continuing sparse attendance at De Trait Field, Yeah fourd Field and De Trait whatever, right, you know, right? Yeah, I mean, look, you know, the marketing thing is is not something I'll go into, you know, deeply here because you know, the USFL again is not in all their home markets

and it is a bit of a small turnout. But again, like you know, for me, it's hard to track, you know, where these teams are playing on a week to week basis between the four hubs, you know, and considering the Canton hub doesn't technically have an Ohio team, I think it's it's Pittsburgh in New Jersey or the home teams they are, right, I'm not mistaken anyway, I don't know, it's kind of yeah, it's it's kind of hard to uh to you know, track where the games

are. And I think it's probably you know, again, the team is already in year two, but because they weren't you know, in Detroit last year, there's you don't have that you know, continuity, um, So I don't know what We'll see how it is. You know, maybe next year once the word has gotten out they're like, hey, you know there's this pro team um playing at Ford Field. But right now, I mean, I don't know. It doesn't it doesn't surprise me. The attendance is

somewhat low. Again, we don't even know what the number is unfortunately, so I can't sit here and you know, go off or base anything around a certain number, which is difficult. But again just kind of you know, eyeing it from the TV. I mean, I would like to see a bit more people there, but I don't know. It wasn't it wasn't terrible, Like I'll give them that. Like it's it's a step up again from what they had last year with only the Birmingham hub. So that's the

way I look at it. You know, if you want to have a positive takeaway is like, hey, you know we're still building right like again this you know, that's sort of the the USFL doesn't have the advantage over the XFL is the XFL was already in their home markets year one, and they brought back a lot of the franchises from three years ago, so you sort of have that fan base establishment. Again, I've talked about this before, so I want to talk about it for too long. But you know,

in the USFL they're still working out. They went from one hub to four hubs and then hopefully next year you have all eight teams, and who knows next year if they're going to change you know, some of the city around like if you know, who knows if like Pittsburgh lasts or you know, like we'll have to see that. There's, in my opinion, a

couple of things that aren't necessarily permanent. Just going into your two we already had the Tampa Bay Bandits become the Memphis Showboats, who were about to talk about here in a minute. Um, so yeah, that's kind of where

I'm at with that. Like it's not it's not bad. But when you know, when you haven't necessarily marketed yourself and um, you know, when you're I guess still again trying to figure out all these things and people still don't know a lot about what's going on, you can't expect, you know, to fill up an entire well, I mean, they weren't going to fill up Ford field obviously, but even just filling up in a couple of sections, I will say, you know, you can talk about attendance being

important, not being important, YouTube subscribers being important, not being important. You know I wouldn't. I wouldn't run the banner on the thing. I wouldn't talk about liking and subscribing, if you know, if subscribers weren't important, don't think the USFL will be running ads at NAZI come to the games. It's great for kids. Did they really cheap face painting? We've got the mascot. Like I think attendance is important. I think they can see

whatever they want. It's a TV product. We don't care about that. You wouldn't be running ads all the time on Fox trying to get people out to the games if it wasn't pat football time. Thoughts here show boats, Todd Haley didn't kill anyone on the sidelines this time. That was exciting, you know, finally getting their first win over the Panthers. Like I said, we get home. What did you make of this matchup? Well, first off, I don't know if you knew this, but did you know

Brady White went to Memphis? I might have heard about so and we talked about a little bit last week. But praisebe that Cole Kelly has gotten full reign of this offense. I didn't think he'd be air quote this good, but I was pretty vocal about him being, you know, this big six seven guy. It's hard to sack them. Breedland speaks is a massive human being, and he had trouble getting Kelly down. It looked like to me, because of Kelly's size, he avoided two or three sacks um when I

was watching the game. So that's your guy, man, Rather die with him. Like I'm a little bit of a show from for Ryan Willis and I've been I've been on record talking about that a decent amount. But you know, it's there's been two good weeks from Cole Kelly. The offense is moving, he's athletic as the Dickens. It's been. It's been great to see. Um. It kind of seemed like Michigan. Michigan, you know,

didn't play their best game. I think, if you go on record about it, um, I think Michigan is better than the show Boats. But you know, it's any given Sunday and whatnot. I'd like to see Carson Strong Carson Strong get the nod um. You know, Josh loved his arm like to the outside just doesn't look strong enough, and it seems like he really only has a lot of success when they're throwing to the seams,

but now it seems like it's been taken away. They went real run heavy this week, the Panthers did, because the show Boats have won the worst run defenses in the USFL. And I think that the Panthers still broke over a hundred yards, you know, But it did seem like Reggie Corbyn was making a lot of plays in the backfield. So you know, he did his Garrett Brochek thing where he makes one or two guys miss in the backfield and then he gets a six yard gain. Obviously, usually Groschek only gets

a three yard gain from it, but man like it. We saw some good stuff from Carson Strong. He was moving the ball down the field and then when he threw that one ball up, you know, I think it was right before half. He threw it short where on that play you want to throw it more to the pylon. So even if the defender does make a play on the ball, he's not going to be able to get his two feet in bounds and whatnot cool thing I saw about Carson Strong is that

he was moving around in the pocket a little bit more. So that's really good for being as far as watching his knee look like he's a little bit more mobile. Strong did run a four to eight during his pro day, so he's a lot faster than we probably think. I know a lot of

people are shilling for Eric Barrier because of Troy Williams's success. Barrier only ran a four seven, And you know, I talked to another guy about this, um you know, panther shadow and he was like, well, you know it's not straight line speed, and yeah, he's right, but like that's you know, Troy Williams runs a four to five five, probably a four, you know, a little bit quicker. So it kind of gets to me, like, I don't think Eric Barrier is the answer right now.

You know, if they're two and six, yeah, if they're Barrier in there in the last couple of games, whatever, But this team is still competitive and they have a lot of good pieces on defense to where they can go on a run by then if you're going off numbers and like statistics and analytics, as long as they don't play in Michigan. They're good allegedly, but we'll see what's going on. I think they have the Muellers this

week, so that could be a get right name and whatnot. But we'll see what the injury port leads as well, because I think Noah Dawkins, their linebacker, is out for a little bit, so we could see a little bit more Terry Myrick, who's who's at excuse me, who's a lot more athletic and you know, kind of put that spy on on Williams so he doesn't get as elusive and as many of these off script runs. So I'm happy for the show boats. You know, it's more about the guys.

Once again. They have a good receiving corps. Both these teams do, so it's good. It's good to see Cole Kelly have some success because he definitely has that Taysom Hill ye for me to where he could go translate to an NFL camp and all he needs is the reps. I think the Panthers need to a start winning at home. It's it's challenging. I think Detroit is a way different market than the other three hubs for the USFL.

Right where Birmingham and it's you know, I know they love football, but it's a little bit more like shocks from Birmingham and like I've had roy On and the guys from Birmingham, like you know, but it's just not it's not a major whatever. Right You're in Detroit. You've got the Tony's Scotts of the world right out there. You know, you've got Bill Shay that's

been on my show. You know, coming out, you're you're looking at the games, You're you know, you're comparing them to the Lions, You're comparing them to you know, what was there in the eighties, You're comparing to all these things. I just think it's a tougher market there. Canton's way different, Memphis is way different. It just you know, it's it's the biggest market of the four. I think you got the hardest kind of you got to impress the most people there. Evan, Does that make sense

kind of what I'm saying, Oh, definitely. I mean, yeah, if you look at the four hubs right now, it's Birmingham, Memphis,

Canton in Detroit. Like you said, Detroit is by far the biggest hub there, and you know, it's a it's a lot let's just say this, like a Showboats game, you know, at that Memphis stadium, even if they don't get a lot of people in there, probably looks a lot better than if they don't get a lot of people in the Ford field, because Ford fields in the NFL stadi him and then the stadium they're using in Memphis is for the University of Memphis where Bretty White played. If you didn't

know, Um, look a joke about that. But I'll just talk about the game quickly for a minute. Um. So, like Pat said, Cole Kelly, Um, I went on the show last week and I said I think Cole Kelly should start for the rest of the season. And that was only after one game, and um, he proved me right. Again. It wasn't anything, you know, didn't blow your socks off or anything like that in terms of the way he played. But he did a good job, you know, and he kind of got things done, got things

moving. He had two rushing touchdowns. Um yeah. And he's just got that big frame, right, That's what makes him different. That's why I think NFL scouts really liked him, even though he came from a smaller school at Southeastern Louisiana. But yeah, I mean, I mean I think, you know, at this point, just given how things started, like you know, you're in week four and you finally found some consistency. Like I think Cole Kelly's the guy personally, and maybe I've got a bit of bias,

but again, he looked pretty good. Um, just going down the list here and talk about the Panthers for a minute. Yeah, like Pat said too, you know, with Carson Strong, it was it was good to see him and you know, he didn't throw a touchdown this game, but he was doing some stuff. And yeah, again with the mobility, that's the major concern with him. You know, one wrong step, one wrong twist, and that could be the end of his season with you know,

given how fragile that knee is and how concerning it was. During the NFL draft process, that was the thing that turned a lot of teams away. That was pretty much the difference between him being a third round pick and him being undrafted was that knee. That's all it really was, you know, at least to a lot of people and a lot of teams. But to see him now kind of getting in his groove, Yeah, I think he deserves a start, like, you know, a full kind of game

over Josh Love. And that's not to discredit Josh Love. I don't forget what he did in week one that was great, But um yeah, Josh Love, I think maybe he's kind of hit his ceiling in a way. And I don't know if Carson Strung's hit that yet. But then the rushing attack for the Panthers, I really liked between Stevie Scott and Reggie Corbyn. I thought they did some nice stuff. Corbyn didn't necessarily average a ton of

yards this game, but that's okay. They were kind of just you know, shuggling along and you know, getting what they needed when the pass game wasn't there. And then Joe Walker of the Panthers in the receiving corps, someone I've really liked to watch this season. I think he's come a long way. And um, he had another great game. Another Panthers play yesterday. How'm already forgetting this weekend? Yeah? Saturday? Right? Right? Um yeah, it was Saturday night. I think, Yeah, now I

remember. Um No, So I like Joe Walker. He had seven catches seventy six yards in a touchdown. He kind of seems to be the number one option on that team from the looks of it, and then I don't know, hoping to get a couple of big games from Isheimen this year too, because I like him a lot. I would enjoy seeing that down the line. Um, I think that's about it, you know. I I was definitely surprised that Memphis won the game by nineteen points, but I knew

they had the chance to win with Kellyott quarterback. And I'm not saying that was the difference maker in this game, because Kelly only threw for like one hundred and fifty yards. But you kind of looked at the Panthers and like, as good as the Panthers are and as much talent they have, like they're still kind of ironing these things out, and it is kind of weird. They've got the you know, can't win at homebug right now. So if they can get over that, you know, maybe things will start looking

better for them. But we'll see, you know, there's a lot of I mean again, Week four, like I said earlier, is kind of where you start to see teams separate, you know, the good teams kind of you know, getting above the bad teams, getting ahead you know, getting ready for I mean obviously six weeks out from the playoffs still, but you know, getting into position for that. And the Panthers I don't really know yet, Like they're kind of that one team where it's like, okay,

I can say, you know, the Stars aren't great. You know, unless they change some soon, things aren't going to be good for them. Pittsburgh I didn't talk about earlier, but they you know, they've got some things to work out. I like what they have, Like they look better. There's still one and three Memphis still a lot of work to do. But then Panthers at two and two, they're kind of just like right

in the middle. You know, it's like, I don't know, there's a couple of different directions where this could go, depending on who steps up for them. Interesting, here's this a couple of comments. Sorry about you, Lucy. I think he's still catching up on the show. Watching this time. We're like watching us, like watch through the show in real time. Here today we had a question here and this is the only game we

have the the prelimb for John watch another prelimb. NBC always does well coming and especially coming off to Derby one point five I believe was the first hour drop to eight hundred and sixty thousand, so it'll probably average around I think absolutely above a million, probably one one, one, one two in that range for the NBC, which for whatever reason has always done more than Fox, even though obviously Fox with the USL pat any thoughts on that that prelimb

rating and then we'll get to New Orleans. I mean yeah, I mean they got to be happy with that. It's a week four game, and granted there was the benefit of without um XFL and the Kentucky Derby leading. But just like playing a football schedule, you play, you know, you play who's on the schedule type thing, so you know, we can talk. It's no different than talking about the team who has an air quote played anyone in the seven to zero. But that was a card that was dealt

this weekend, and the USFL did a good job. And you know, people who want to poopoo the ratings could be like, well, it's only because of the derby and no XFL. That's not the USFL's fault. You know, if anything, they took advantage of it. You know, we I would rather have that conversation than if they were at like six hundred thousand. Then you know, and it's like it's like you can't win with people. You know, it's it's not a big deal. This is the game.

Interesting So New Orleans we had the you know, the breakers to add the generals here in Canton. This was my two cents, just real quick read subbox before world lost their minds back and I think it was like week five. XFL we have the job maca row. We had the Pickaball game on ESPN to the pickleball term which spoiler alert, drew more viewers, and the XFLD that day, and the and the XFL had to push the start of the you know, the the or ESPN and the push and strive the

XFL games like ESPN Plus or whatever. People lost their minds. Oh my god. This shows absolutely how ESPN views the LADD. Yesterday I turned on the game at noon. Here I'm watching Orioles Braves going into extra Indians. Nobody said the damn were Oh see, because it's baseball, that's different. Obviously, No, it's it's the same difference. It's a live sporting event. We're pushing this off. It says nothing that NBC or whoever cares about

anything more than anything else. Pather Evan any thoughts on that, because I was just I was incense that nobody thought and they're like, oh, it's a totally different situation. I'm biased in baseball. I'll be one. I care way more about baseball than I knew. Do you pick a ball? And I think you know? No, I on like taking emotion out of it. Read you are absolutely correct, But you know I didn't grow up throwing the pickleball around. You know. My fondest memories with my father are

throwing the baseball around. You know what I mean. I don't care about pickleball, you know, I you know. And I'm not even the Braves fan. I'm a Mets fan, despite what this cardinal cardinal had on. But I mean, I I it's I don't know. It doesn't bother me either. Either one doesn't bother me because here's the thing. Pickleball and the

whole Pickaball League has been around for a while. Baseball has been around for nine hundred and a half years, like spring football is now the priority to these networks as much as we want them to be in my opinion, So that's that's my take on it. I don't really care either way, you know, because here's the thing. I'm gonna I'm gonna win and watch the games. I'm curious to see how the ratings um the ratings feel about that in the casual viewer, who's like, oh, I wanted to watch USFL

or XFL, but I'm watching pickaball. I'm gonna go get a sandwich and then you know, you talk to the guy at the Delhi for a little bit and then you don't watch the game. You know, the whole world. Yeah, the whole world is that point? Yeah, but I mean, I mean it's to me, it's I think it's going to hit the ratings a little bit personally, but I need I need to go back to the U the XFL ratings as well. On that, I just thought it

was funny. I just thought like, oh, well, this is fine because it's baseball, and it's not behind because it's it's Twitter too, so like who who Who's Who's more you know vocal about things on Twitter than you know when we go down the fan bases, Evan, any facts on that before we talk football? I no, you don't really don't want to get into I mean, look, I'll just say this, You're you're definitely right read like you know, I mean, there's well, I'll say this much

pickleball makes for a better story. Okay, baseball doesn't seem as bad because a lot of Americans are watching baseball, and that's gonna take priority over spring football. That's just known. Like again, like Pat said, maybe we want, you know, them to just hut to the USFL game, but the rest of America doesn't want that. The rest of America wants to see the Braves beat the Orioles and the extra innings. So I was there because

I remember that that whole pickleball thing was Week seven. It was Saint Louis at Houston. I was there. We were sitting in the press box and we're like, oh, you know, time for the game. What's going on, Like the players aren't coming out, you know, we haven't kicked off yet. And then you know there's some chatter going around the press box and they're like, oh, yeah, you know, John Mcarel pickleball.

You know, we had it up on ESPN and we were looking at that and we were just like, yeah, like, I guess this is what's causing the delay. So I don't know that was I was there for that. It was fun. It was fun to experience. But I don't know, I didn't think the one yesterday was terrible. It ended pretty quickly. That's the difference. I mean, I don't know obviously, I don't know like how many minutes each delay was. But like the pickleball one was pretty

significant. That one was like, you know, a good ten minutes, you know, after the kickoff time. But anyway, yeah, yeah, as you said, Reid, I don't really I don't really get involved on

that side of it, so I'll leave that to be fair. This was a regional baseball game of the Atlanta Braves in the Baltimore Orioles, right, I mean pickleball is said, that's a nation wide I mean that's a nation wide the people John McEnroe is a historic figure and that it has anyway going to in speaking of baseball here, I will say, could the USFL could we implement the pitch clock here somehow? Because the first half of this game, by god, like I came up, I took a shower, came

up, change, made a sandwich, sat down to eat. Like we're still in the two minute warning here for the first half, Pat this. We got to speed up these games a little bit. I know the USFL is working with their clocks, but by god, this first half of this game took about three hours. Yeah, to caveat on some John. First

off, Evan loved the no pho there. I was war story with the week seven and of fun fact, John mcinroll actually went on a date with my aunt in nineteen twenty seven or whenever that was, so you know, he's a queen's guy, you know. So John McEnroe's got a soft place in my heart. Um, I to keep this girlish figure that I have. I do like push ups during the breaks and whatnot, and you know, sometimes it's real quick, right, Sometimes it's like, you know,

I'm getting a good pump in and whatnot. You know, That's why I was probably in better shape during the XFL season. But this one, like I tuned out, man like towards towards that last and then and then the second half comes and I'm like fully engaged, you know, like got a good pump all and going and everything like that. It was weird because I was just like, man like, you know, obviously there was a time delay, but I was like, dude, what's what's going on? Like,

I'm tuning out right now. And then that second half, you know, everything started clicking a little bit. West Hills put the team on his back, you know, NBT hit. You know, Sage sat for a couple of nice passes and whatnot. But I mean, I don't I don't know what this time clock situation is going to be. It's I haven't felt that way a football game a while, except that Arlington Orlando game, the ten nine one that kind of tuned me out. But that first half was

pretty tough to get through. But the second half made up for you know, became a lot more engaging and whatnot. And it was good for me on the football side to see DeAndre Johnson like actually looked like a pocket quarterback. And I love his rushing ability. I think that's great and whatnot. But even on his incompletions, he was sitting in the pocket and he was

throwing some of the best footballs I've seen him throw up. There were two drops that I saw him throw that like from the receiver's Randy Sadderfield was one of them, and the ball just zipped out of his hand and I'm so glad and this is a big thing. And I don't want to poo poo the CFL right now because you know, very sensitive group of people. But when everyone talked about this two quarterback system went Dakota pru Cup, I was

like, he's a slower version of DeAndre Johnson. Like, if you're going to do a two quarterback system, used Kyle Lalletta, And I don't think Lalletta's got enough of an upside with his arm to take DeAndre Johnson out of the game. Luiz Perez last year a very limited guy, especially in the outside the outside um like throwing to the outside parts of the field and whatnot. But you know, Perez has way more experience than Johnson did at that

time. Johnson only played in the Spring League where him and Ben Holmes, you know, battled, battled for the starting job. I think they were with the Sea Lions. You know, Reid's cousin, brother in law over there. Um, great Cup champion, Ben Holmes, you know he's watching by the way, he's weird. Um. But the c Johnson kind of get full reign of this offense and actually implement uh, you know, his skill set and the development he's taking. Mike Riley's one of the better coaches

in this league. I don't want to put, you know, put him on that high pedestill saying he's the best, because there are a lot of great coaches in this in this league. But to see him take that step forward, even if he went you know, the stat line changed to like five or fourteen, when you actually look at the film, he does look a lot better. Big shout out, by the way to Trey Williams. For whatever reason, this tweet you know is getting a lot of impressions.

But Trey Williams totaled over a thousand career rushing yards between the after XFL and the USFL, So that's pretty cool because he does also have NFL experience. And then Darius Victor as well, pinballing his way and doing that consistent like give me the rock, you know, three yards, three yards, three yards, and then he breaks off of a couple of rushes of fifteen and thirty yards and it's such a well balanced attack because look at the numbers,

they're all with it. You know, Williams had eight carries. Johnson I think had four carries. A couple of those were actually you know, read option plays and then Victor had nine. The Generals are starting to hit stride.

They're going to become a little bit difficult to deal with, especially if Johnson finds consistency and is able to make those play as they have a great receiving corps, you know, cam eCos, Alonzo Moore, an Alt League veteran coming up on a thousand yards career in the Old League and whatnot. And then those tight ends aren't aren't anyone the scoff at as well. Toby Johnson looks a lot better this year than he did last year, and he's

creating a decent amount of push up and push up front. So this General seems a lot better than I think people give him credit for. I don't think they get over the hump um, you know, going to winning the championship because you know, this league to me runs through the breakers and the stallions. But overall, you know, they're proving that they could be a you know, a playoff team once more, which is great for Mike Ridley

and his grandson who's an assistant coach apparently. Yeah, it's this was tough. This was like the m rob game and I'm a I'm a big Michael Robinson fan with the Seahawks. I do think this is like the weakest broadcasting team out there. And talking about McCleod, the oh you gotta extra down, like it's gotta be easier for him here than the Sea off like this, some weird takes that way. But this was good, I say, certainly turned up in the second half. Evan thoughts on that thoughts, I'm

a cloud anything General's breakers. Yeah, I mean, you know, it wasn't a perfect day for MBT, but still got the job done. Still had two hundred and seven nine passing yards. Looked like a veteran um. This was a bit of a difficult game for New Orleans, and I'm not gonna say it wasn't difficult for New Jersey either, but it really it was twenty to seventeen. It was a really close game, a really good game. Definitely lived up to my expectation. West Hills was a bit slower too,

but he still had two touchdowns. I mean, my god, man like west Hills is uh, he's looking that breaks some pretty you know, serious stats. I'm I think at least with touchdowns, if if he keeps up this pace, you know, Pat would have a better grasp on that than I do. But um, in terms of other things, like Sage, Sarat has been great. Um. He I knew he was gonna be good this season. I had a feeling, you know, definitely kept my eye on him, but he has, you know, really exceeded my expectations.

He nearly had one hundred yards yesterday. And then we haven't really talked anything defense yet on the show, but um, you know, Vante digs for the Breakers looked great ye yesterday. I've had my eye on him since last year too. I think he flashed a lot of potential last year. Again, I'll have his numbers from twenty twenty two in front of me, but you know, he was with the Breakers then too, and you know I look at him now and he had a phenomenal game yesterday. So that

was one. And then from the general's perspective, I talked about DeAndre Johnson on the show last week, so I won't get too much into him here. But this was another game where didn't have amazing numbers, at least in the passing game. But as Pat said, there were a couple of passes that were dropped and I really liked what he was doing with his arm.

I think, um, you know, he's come a long way, like he's DeAndre Johnson is a perfect example of why spring football is important for development, especially the quarterback position, because a guy like DeAndre Johnson, you know, came out in twenty twenty, was undrafted, then in twenty twenty one, you know, went to the Spring League with the Sea Lions, and then you know, last year, obviously he was in the USFL with the Generals, but Perez was there, and Perez obviously as the upper hand with

his experience and his abilities, so this wasn't really an opportunity for him. Now, I think DeAndre Johnson is still finished year with like seven hundred passing yards or something. Last season, like he had a role, you know, he had a couple of touchdowns, and again they really used that sort of run element. And I think I said it in the last week's show too, but I'll repeat it again. Reminds me a lot of what Houston

did in the XFL with Brandon Silvers and Cole McDonald. That was what the Gens kind of did last year, where you have, you know, a guy who can just you know, stand in the pocket like Perez and just you know, throw downfield and then you kind of bring in a guy behind that on package plays as adding a run element. But now DeAndre has full control over the offense, and I think it's been really cool to just see

him kind of find his groove. And then the Generals have a couple of guys too in the receiving department that have come a long way, like a Cam eccles Looper would be a great example of that. And then yeah, I mean just all around at Darius Victor. You know, we've talked about him, you know, plenty of times. I mean, at this point, he's a veteran. You know, he's I don't know how old he is now, but he's probably up there twenty eight, twenty nine. You

know, he can still run extremely well. And Mike has said it before because he covers the Generals. But Darius is having a great USFL. He's

having a really fun time and that's really important. You know, a guy at his age, you know, finally finding his groove that late after you know, bouncing around um the NFL for a bit and being in the XFL in twenty twenty with the Guardians. You know, just happy for guys like him, you know, it's all again we can talk about you know, these games, right and how they play out and you know how sort of the flow of things is and the broadcast people. Again I'm a Mike Robinson

fan. Two. But what's really important to me again in all these leagues, not just the USFL, but like, you know, just seeing certain players again, like the DeAndre Johnson's and like the Camael's Loopers and all that, and even like an MBT even though he's been around for a while, to see him kind of again have this uh like revival and I mean he's been good for a while, but just to see him, you know, do this on a different stage with a different set of people. It's just

all cool that the storylines will never not be cool to me. It's funny here. Lewis asked the question in the chat, Uh, I wonder the USFL would allowed groups of fans to own the franchise? Could you send that Green Bay from that people pulled their money with only take a few moment fans uh fang and show football man can't hagshom football? Get on it? Get on it. You can own one of the guys he used to were for me. Matt Yeah, he's part of the owner of the wild Aces.

That's now the what was it should have been starved or whatever? Paths roll in his eyes. Uh Andy Murray checking in from from from far East. The Professor improves of the wicked beer and energy on the stream. Welcome to the show. Uh yeah, we just had a lot of chat chatter here in the in the in the chat about only in a USFL franchise movie that anything else we've We've talked so much we had to get to the last game before we get out of here for an hour? Who knew we had to

whom? Who knew these haters had so much to say about the US Well, I actually have to go because I have to go help Ducky drive his walls real quick. But no, I'm here from the Long hall Um. The cool thing that that we saw as well as West Hills obviously taking like another facet of the impact is him in the receiving game. You know, he had some tough runs and then towards the end kind of broke broke off

a couple more. They inflate the stat line a little bit, but you know, West Hills putting over I think one hundred and forty all purpose yards between that, So I think that's a great facet of the game. Something about breakers tight ends, man, like you know, you put that breakers uniform on and save Sharratt. He had a couple of bad drops. I think he had three, so that took his game from like a minus one

hundred yard game to he'd obviously be over a hundred. Someone who's not they talk about him a little bit, but I had him as my number four or five player coming into the USFL in twenty twenty three is Jared Fernandez, and I think he's one of the better linebackers in the league. Pass coverage is okay, but definitely a top tackler in the league as well. And

I don't think he gets talked about enough. A little bit of MBT shade, I feel like, and you know, people, I don't know if you do this, but his wife is also an executive at Disney in Atlanta, and that's why he came back to it, came back to America to play football. But m MBT was an All Star in Canada, Like this dude was a top two, top three passer there not according to the CFL fans, which is wild to me. I mean, it's wild to me that I still see comments like, oh, he wasn't even that good in

the CFL. Yeah, um here, all right, I have some copium for you. Um as people would say, I mean, the guy also played in the NFL for like seven years, Like yeah, it was a practice squad guy. But like it's hard, that's that's not an easy thing to do to be like, oh, our quarterback Scurt, Yeah, let's bring him the twenty seven year old MBT, like because obviously he's just a

scrub. No, when when your quarterback gets hurt, that means you're putting in your back up who's also more prone to get hurt because he's not practicing as much. And now his you know these random yeah, no, like they're salty john Like that's one percent true. So like you know, give those guys like these Josh Johnson's and whatnot, like the sign the guy because

you're not you're signing him because your quarterback's hurt. You're like, Okay, if we have to put another human being in, we have to play this dude. So I just laughed here in the chat. Sorry, I just Lewis is we're still on the owning the us franchise, and I think this is my favorite comment stage ever. No, no, let me let me die on this hill real quick. Okay, okay, okay. I do

not want anyone who watches this show to buy a USFL franchise. And the reason being is because, and I'm not trying to pour shame people here, it is expensive to have this and there's probably some guys who are making three hundred brands that follow us or whatever. Bro, if I'm buying the franchise, are gonna be selling a couple helicopters first off, And I'm paying each one of my guys a minimum of one hundred and fifty K. And I'm saying, you do not go to the NFL. You work for me.

This is what you're doing. I do not care, because we are going to run circles through this league. I would bring back herschel Walker. I've seen the guy. I've seen the guy in person recently. Guy is yoked. Still, Okay, I'm bringing back people. I don't want anyone that in this in the price range of what the USFL team is Bro ten million dollars right now, cash, like dude, man, come on, like stop, no, no, let's stop do you even run a business if

Dad's high ends in right now, we'll get over here. This is my favorite jage. You guys still would like to know the price range to a Fox and value these teams that and then J J K K, who I think is the US Examel fancies probably at least negative four million. It's my favorite one million dollars ten dollars. Last game here, Mawlers get the law All Stallions game in Mallers. You, though I have not looked great,

this season looks better than they have in the past. Evan, any actual conversation on the Pats had Pat's got too of these impacts in right now? Yeah, no, I'll keep the football conversation up. I mean, I study sports business, so everything else around the game is important. But no, I mean, I'm happy to talk football. Let's see. I'm just I'm pulling up the stats. So, um, you know this game. This game was interesting again, another one that didn't exactly go the way I

thought it would. I thought the Stallions would have taken this one, um a bit more commanding lee. Um you know, but uh, Pittsburgh again, like Pittsburgh has shown some flashes and they haven't necessarily won a lot of games. Yet they have one win. But like, again, Troy Williams looked good. They had you know, less than a hundred rushing yards, still barely, but like, um, what's the guy's name? Uh, yeah, Troy Williams on the on the Maulers, the quarterback. You know,

he had a decent day rushing too. And then Garrett Groshek didn't do a lot, but I think he kind of offers like a unique element to their run game. And then yeah, I think Pat talked about it earlier. M Bailey Gaither and Isaiah Heney for the Mallers. I both really like

Isaiah Henny in particular because I've seen him work out in person before. I was with him, like right before he signed with the Mallers, and he showed a lot of flashes at that time, and um, you know, I thought, oh, you know, here's a guy that can maybe do something. And he signed late last year with Pittsburgh I think, and you know, again showed a couple of things but nothing serious. And then this year he's just you know, he looks really good this year. I mean,

he looks like he's found his stride. And him and Bailey Gaither are definitely sort of like a dynamic duo. And Trey Walker too. Didn't even mention him, but he's all right. I think he was there last year as well. And then you want to look at the defense again, because we haven't talked about defense a lot other than me having my bit about Vante Diggs and how much I liked him with the breakers. Kiava Tazino, I think his name is he. He's been all right this year again, led

the team in tackles last night. Another maller from the Kirby Wilson era in twenty twenty two. And then let's see what else here. I want to talk about a Stallions for a bit. I mean Pittsburgh, I don't know, like they had a good game. They gave the Stallions a run for their money, but at the end of the day, this game, once again to me, was about Birmingham and yeah, McGoo had a very slow

start, you know, through two interceptions early didn't look that great. And then I think it was at the two minute warning before the second half it kind of just seemed like there was a momentum shift and suddenly the Stallions kind of wrote it out for the rest of the game, especially with that Dion Kane returned touchdown. That was a fantastic play. I think it was ninety

one yards or something. Good for Dion Kane. And then the other guy too is Davion Davis, who you know, I know personally, you know, met him because he used to play for the Roughnecks. He was there for I want to say, two games and you know, really nice guy, you know, just fantastic. I mean, he's really come a long way just in these couple of weeks in the USFL and I knew when he

signed with the Stallions it was a good sign. I figured he was going to have a big role there and especially now that Marlon Williams is out, you know, he's really starting to get in his groove and this was a great day for him. Um. I think he had a he had a touchdown earlier in the season probably, I think it was a week one um,

but quick shout out to Davion Man. I love that guy. And then yeah, on defense with the Stallions, you know, Scooby Wright coming back was a big talking point because obviously he last year, you know, was a key piece to their defense. And I don't think he's played this year, but he came back. Um, you know yesterday led the team

in tackles, had a tackle for lost, nothing outstanding. You know, some of these defensive players, they haven't necessarily had like ridiculous stats, Like so far in the USFL, we haven't had like a Trent Harris or anything that comes out with a force that game. And that's totally okay. As Pat said, there's a lot of guys to fly under the radar, like Grod Fernandez on the breakers. I'm glad you brought that up earlier, by the way, but yeah, I mean, you know a Scooby Wright coming

back was a really good look. And you know, overall, like yeah, the game just going back to the overall sort of flow of things. You know, Birmingham hims down a couple of guys right now, so like a bo Scarborough they don't have and you know, obviously Marlin Williams, Jamar Smith, those guys are out for the year. Alex McGoo kind of came back down to earth a bit after he's had a couple of really good performances, but they still got the job done. You know. It's one of

those things. It was the same with the Breakers, right, like they had a close game with New Jersey, who again I figured the Generals would give the Breakers a run for their money, and they did. But in this case, you know, the Stallton's just kind of you know, veteran

like complete roster really showed and again Dion Kane I loved. I was so happy to see that play because I've been pulling for Deon Kane for a while and you know, he's I want to say it's his second return touchdown to the year, but that one in particular at that time in the game, you know, really helped him out because I think that was after de Troy Williams touchdown. He had a run decently long rushing touchdown and you know,

just great to see. It was all around, you know, a really nice win for Birmingham and you know, now at three and one, they're right behind the Breakers there in the in the playoff running. And it would be really interesting. I mean, you know, again fast forward however many weeks um, but it would be really interesting to see a Stallion's Breakers playoff game. I'm already looking forward to that because I already think it's going to

happen. But that's definitely one to have circled on the on the schedule. Excuse me, Pat, any thoughts on this. The XFL just tweeted out they're all x all xfls. We'll talk about that and any other thoughts on the game. Light tweet this out. Um. I mean, as far as I've been vocal about this, with Birmingham as they were, I think they brought back sixty five or seventy almost almost seventy percent of their roster came

back. So when the chips are down and you are met with adversity, the experience kind of you know, it comes to the comes to fruition. And the only thing negative out on the sidelines I really saw was you did see McGoo get a little bit more flustered than what I would like. And

maybe that goes to some an experience whatever, that's another conversation. But he did regardless, is he knew he wasn't playing his best football to yesterday and he was still able to leave the team and do what they needed to do. The defense didn't panic. And something they brought up on the broadcast a lot is even though the Maulers are doing a great job running up and down the field, is when they got inside the ten, they could not finish.

And that's something that bothers me a little bit because a couple times on first down they were within i think the five yard bod and they didn't even try the power you know, run the power player or anything like that. I'm not saying that Groschek with a guy in the end zone or anything, but he's a stocky dude. They had this guy, ironically, his name is Mason stock Either pullback, you know, they're throwing the ball off to

him. He's a big dude. Like I'd like to see them go under center and just trying to power it in and you know, if you don't get on first down and get cute, that's fine. But Birmingham was able to kind of, you know, not the best game they played, not Goo's best game through some bad He missed two or three touchdowns I saw. And then when they were within the like they were on the seventeen, he missed Davey on Davis, he missed Jays Sternberger. With Sternberger could have caught

that ball. It was a difficult catch, but he did get two hands on it. And then there was that interception that Dion came what Kane beat his the defensive back. So it was a little frustrating to see Magoo missed those throws. If he could make those throws, he'd probably be in the NFL. But just kind of putting the team on his back, and you know, a collective effort from the rushing attack without most Scarborough was a quandrary White, CJ. Marrable doing you know all collectively, I think they all

had within about forty to fifty yards each. So you put up one hundred and forty rushing yards, you're usually going to have a good game. The Mueller's you know, we're it comes down the experience for me man like Muller's gonna Mueller. We know who they are. You know, they're two wins and what fourteen games at this point. It's it's a little bit frustrating, but they are overall as a product, way more competitive to watch. Um. You know, Evan touched on it with Damien Davis. You know,

this guy's been a major upgrade, especially with Marlon Williams out. You know, we I think we all thought Williams would take that next step and then he you know, got hurt, especially with the team not having it Cyrus Mitchell and Victor Bolden Bold Victor Bolden this year. But you know, guys are stepping up and you know, Magoo, like you saw, I said, didn't play his best game but still got it done with his legs.

And you know that that touch both his touchdowns were awesome and the awareness he had by the way it was kind of ticking down to, you know, make sure he had appropriate ball placement and tap the end zone, not trying to dive or anything. All you have to do is tap that pylon to get a touchdown. That says a lot about you know, his football IQ. And you know, Magoo's easily a top three, top four pat quarterback

in this league. And you're the win football games with that, and it comes it's gonna come down to the Breakers and uh Birmingham in the South. On the flip side, we're seeing a lot more competitiveness from the Maulers. You know, they're not as air quote meimable, So it's you know, I'm pretty I'm pretty okay with the product. I'd like to see, you know, Pittsburgh punching in the end zone get a little bit more aggressive.

But in the end, if we talked about this last year that the Stallions, who obviously won the championship, we're gonna win by four point points against the Bullers probably be like, Okay, that's that's that's a good football game. It was ugly at times, but overall it was way more engaging than than that first half of the Breakers game. Uh, the last thing here, We'll get out of here soon. We're over an hour. I appreciate Patton Evans time today. Uh. Actually, USVEL did all that. XVEL

just tweeted that we could probably do a whole episode about this. I'm sure we'll talk more about it on the live show coming up this weekend for the kick out. But the XFL did send out they're all XFL team xbl's division champions led the league and all XFL team honorrees with seven well all eight teams

had it was at least one player on there. We have Talmu here for quarterback, Abraham Smith, running back Deontay Burnette, Key Butler over there, Lucky Jackson, Decor Pearson, Cody Latimer, a lot of good names on here. Evan any just again, we could do a whole thing about this. Maybe any initial thoughts on kind of this All XFL team list is coming up. Yeah, I'm just taking a look at it right now because I haven't seen it. I see Deontay Burnette made it on there from the Roughnecks,

so congratulations. Um, I guess, well they say anything about mccaron on there, or is that or are we just assuming that that's interesting? Maybe I don't know, maybe that means there's better things to come, or I don't know, maybe maybe that just means, you know, they favored Talmu. But either way, good, good for him. I guess, jeez, you really really put me on the spot here, man. I'm just like, no, no, you're good. I'm just like, I've

not seen anything from this. I see Deonta Anderson on their two's someone I talked to on a pretty regular basis. I shout out to him as well. Um Pete tom a Panu, you have no question there a lot of these again, I'm just looking over very m Jack Halflin too. That's a good one. Glad they got him on there from the Roughnecks. Again, I don't know, just like graze over this. I'll have a deeper look into it later and I'll probably put some thoughts up on Twitter. But yeah.

I mean Mike already put out his you know kind of all XFL team and some of this seems to be aligning up with that. So the bottom line here is, look, if I can't you know, to stay away from the or the players for a minute, even though that's what this is about. It's great to see them get some recognition. I mean I won't go to you know, deeply in the specific players because like like I said,

I'm just looking at this for the first time. But um, the bottom line is, you know, it's good to see the XFL kind of do this, you know, offense, defense, um, special teams, you know, because the guy the players deserve this. You know, it's not We've talked about it before, but it's um, you know, as much as this league is a showcase to get film and yeah, the kind of all spring football leagues are. You know, guys want to get to

the NFL. You know, there was a lot of time and effort and money put into this season and you know, people really had to buy in if you wanted to win. So this is kind of the fruits of labor, you know, being shown in the form of you know, these awards

and honors and whatever. It's really good to see the league doing that and not just saying like, oh, you know, here were a couple of good players from our season, you know, and these teams it's like, well, you know, they've really put some some thought into this, as people like might have with their UM all XFL teams really, any one of us who's covering a specific team, UM, it's a lot of time and money and effort. Um. So again, just good to see this in

general. Yeah, they think that's on this before we get out of here. I mean, I mean we could talk about we could talk about the snub at cornerback when it came to the thrower of So this goes into my high horse about who is an MVP, right and when you know, everyone

kind of throws it to the best player on in the league. And I've always been very vocal of I think Andrew Luck should have been the MVP for his you know, when he actually played, because at that time the Colts were very bad, offensive line was bad, and he is he brought the most value to his team of any league. While I do think that Jordan Tayamo and you got a factor earned, his rushing ability was very valuable to

the team. Abram Smith a lot of times kind of you know, shilled the rock, and Taamu had some pretty terrible passing games for his for the first three games of the year. That all quarterback, all XFL quarterback, in my opinion, should have came down to de Nucci or or McCarron and

then you know, flip a coin. You know, I'm biased towards McCarron obviously with the Saint Louis thing, but in the end, like I think ninety percent of people would agree that the quarterback position should have down to McCarron and McCarron and Denucci. M good to see Jakim Butler on there. You know, I feel like Darius Shephard kind of got a snub at receiver. When you look at his numbers, they were a lot better, and you know, I think he was top seven in yards, in top four in

receptions, and his touchdowns. I think he had six or seven touchdowns as well. Burnett obviously had to drop off, just like a lot of the Houston receivers, but in the end, nothing too crazy about that tight end looks good to me. A little bit surprised at Stephen Gonzalez he was a good, solid player. I think he's gonna give an NFL look, but you know, he wasn't, you know, one of the staples of the XFL. But you know, he's definitely a solid player and he definitely deserves

recognition. I'm glad I got he got him. Jared Jones Smith was suspended for two games, but when he played, he ranked pretty high. Obviously, when I watched him, there's only really one game where I thought, man, this guy, you know, change it up a little bit, But he ranked PFF wise. I think he was their top player two or three times. Lavert Hill statistically had a good season, but I feel like Lucas Dennis was a lot better than he was. The best defensive back he

raided the highest. Would a like to see him get that recognition, but ultimately, you know, I don't make that decision. A big snub for me on the BattleHawks was Carson Wells, and while Carson Wells didn't have the sexiest stats, they lined him up inside on the defensive line as an interior defensive lineman. He played the mic, he played the will, he played the sam, he played the edge. They played multiple facets of special teams, so his versatility. To me, the lack of recognition kind of hurts

a little bit. I don't think there's much debate with the return specialist. Shepherd had almost a grand in returning yards overall. I think he had fifteen hundred yards. And there were so many games where they were down and you know, or the offense wasn't moving and he, you know, puts them on the other side of the fifty. I know there's a couple of games

he had seventy yard returns. But even you know, the short kickoffs, you know, getting them to the midfield, even if you're getting a field goal, you know, when you're down ten nothing, and they turned that into a ten three. Okay, all of a sudden, there's a ball game going on right now. So as far as the BattleHawks, Carson Wells and Carson Wells and Lucas Dennis are my big snubs. I mean, I don't I don't feel like bothering people with talking about how great Aj is,

you know, because I think everyone knows knows that. And according to some people, he was the MVP of the XFL and given by the official XFL, even though it was given by US at an XFL and news Hub and I'm pretty sure a lot of people think von Hutchins is white as well based off the awards. Well that's good. Today we got a little XFL talking there, and you didn't have to charge ourselves too much with the whole USFL show. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Like I said, reminder,

we will be live San Antonio Saturday No Friday show this week. Working on an interview though that might be kind of cool and we'll put it in probably when we get back from Santonio. Evan, any final thoughts from you today, we'll toss to Pat. I will be posting all the live show information here coming up this week. Anything else from you, M definitely gonna have to take a closer look at those, um, you know, the all XFL team. But again, glad we could talk about that, and

I'm looking forward to the XFL Championship um next weekend. I mean, you know, we did this entire show about USFL, and keep in mind, I watched all the USFL games this weekend too, Just like Pat, I had a lot of a lot of time on my hands just kind of hanging around, so um, yeah, I was able to do that that was

that was good. Enjoy the games, enjoy talking about him, and yeah, I'm looking forward to you know again, we'll have a bit of USFL XFL crossover next weekend again because we'll have one XFL game and you know, the four USFL games, But looking forward to it again. After that it'll be you know, full USFL and then the CFL will eventually start too. For again that crowd, you know, people who are interested in that, which might include myself. So I'm excited. I saw Culti fitzar The tweeted

this morning he's landed in Montreal. He's tweeting that bonesera Montreal. Very excited for that and watching the the travels of Clety fitzar the there and then you land Pat. Anything else for me, not much. Um, it's gonna be a busy week for me as far as articles, doing a bunch of battle Hawks follow up from the season USFL quarterback rankings, I'll be doing as well, um, so check me out for that. Just do a shameless plug, you know, follow me on Twitter by Pat Raffino and on YouTube,

Analyze and educate. Shout out to Mike glass Um, quarterback of the Alouettes, who has just got engaged and he'll be reporting the camp former e m you guys, So you know, Fajardo looks like to be taking the obviously QB one staffs. But you know, Mike Lass, you know Saint Louis Native bounced around IFL guy should have a good opportunity to make that team as well. So once again, thank you, you know read for having

me on. You know um and you know, full full force. We got twenty weeks of football right now, so you know, a little bit a little bit fatigued, but you know, I'm here for it because once the NFL shuts off comes on, I can shut off my brain and just Washington games as a fan. Yeah, I've we would between the Stanley Cup and the USFL, XFL everything else a lot of a lot that we're in the sports world right now. And I am glad that we basically pressured Pat

last week on the show and that changes us with our handles. So I'm glad that we were able to like because we did that, right, we kind of like bullied you into changing that. So I appreciate that. Evan. Good luck with your move home from college for the summer. Pat, good luck with everything in your travels. Thank you everyone. Like I said, like and subscribe. We will see you Saturday and hopefully sandy. Birmingham looked like there might be some rain, but hopefully sandy or at that burming

unless San Antonio. Where will I be, Sana Antonio. We'll see you guys Saturday. Thanks again, I'm n