Turnaround in Tampa Bay
After losing their first three games, Tampa Bay finally secured a victory in a dominant performance against DC. They had pushed a good Houston team close in their 34-27 loss in Week 3 but few saw their 25-0 performance this weekend coming.
So far this season Marc Trestman has experimented with quarterback rotation but with Quinton Flowers taking time away from the team for “personal reasons”, Taylor Cornelius was given the reigns against DC and it paid off. Coming into the game he was averaging a completion percentage of 55 per cent and a passer rating of just 56.3. He finished this week with 247 total yards, a 77 per cent completion rate, two touchdowns and a passer rating of 92.3.
Yes, they were up against a DC team that are clearly in crisis mode, but they had shown in Week 3 that they are finally getting things moving on offense. Their problem all season had been their inability to move the ball in the redzone but this seems to be disappearing. To put their dominance into perspective, they didn’t have to punt the ball until garbage time in the fourth quarter. Their defense was helped by the lacklustre opposition but still held DC to a paltry 107 total yards and 1.9 yards per play. They look like a team on the rise and will be hopeful of building on this performance when they face the LA Wildcats in Week 5.
Landry Jones’ failure to deliver continues
Dallas have been one of the more up and down teams in the XFL and nobody epitomises their pitfalls more than their quarterback. Despite entering the league with a huge amount of hype, Jones has underwhelmed so far this season. He has managed to put up decent yardage but has thrown multiple interceptions in every game he has played this season, leading the league with seven picks.
This game was close and Houston were there for the taking, but in the end Dallas had only their quarterback to blame for their loss. Jones threw three picks on the Renegades’ opening three drives and added a fumble that was returned for a touchdown in the fourth quarter. 21 of Houston’s 27 points came from drives that began with a Landry Jones turnover and they benefited consistently from a short field. This has been an issue for Dallas far too often this season and if they are going to challenge for the championship then they will need to sort out this turnover-happy offense.
Jones went down with what looked to be a bad knee injury in the fourth quarter and it remains to be seen if he will be back for Week 5. If not Dallas fans will be hoping that Philip Nelson can provide the calmness at quarterback that they desperately need.
The week of the backups
There has been some questionable quarterbacking across the opening weeks of the XFL and Week 4 saw two backups stake their claims for starting jobs in New York and Seattle. Luis Perez came in for an injured Matt McGloin in the Guardian’s 17-14 win over the Wildcats and he should have done enough to secure the starting job.
The win was not pretty, with New York averaging just 2.7 yards per play and relying on their running game rather than Perez to secure the victory, but it stopped a worrying slide after the Guardians had managed just nine points in their past two games. Perez isn’t exactly going to set the league on fire with his passing talent but he will be a safe pair of hands and that is exactly what New York need right now.
Unlike the Guardians, Seattle weren’t able to secure the win in their 23-16 loss to St. Louis, but they too benefited from a good performance from backup quarterback B.J. Daniels, keeping the game much closer than many had expected and covering the spread. After Brandon Silvers was benched at halftime, Daniels came in and put up 100 yards passing with a further 84 gained on the ground. St. Louis clearly struggled to deal with the dual threat he posed and he too looks likely to start in Week 5. Given that they outscored a strong BattleHawks side 13-6 after Daniels came in, it will be interesting to see if they can carry this form into a difficult game against Houston next weekend.
DC disaster continues
I said last week that I was concerned that this DC side weren’t all they were cracked up to be, but I certainly didn’t see a result this bad coming. Facing a Tampa Bay side that were winless across their first three games and whose defense had been allowing almost 25 points per game, I was expecting Cardale Jones and the Defenders to at least improve on their terrible performance against the Wildcats.
It’s safe to say they fell short in that regard. In fact they were worse. DC managed just 107 total yards on offense all game, failing to score a single point in the process. There were three Vipers players who had more yards individually than the Defenders managed all game. When they were chasing the game in the second half, they managed just 28 yards from 17 plays.
The drop off in Cardale Jones’ game is perhaps the most alarming thing here. Across their first two games he threw for 499 yards, 4 touchdowns and one interception, averaging a passer rating of 103.5. At this point he was an early candidate for MVP and the team were regarded as the most well-rounded in the XFL. Since then the Defenders have scored just nine points, with Jones throwing for 175 yards, no touchdowns and five interceptions, averaging a passer rating of 25.8. I don’t think Jones will be benched for next weekend’s game against St. Louis, but if he performs like this again it won’t be long until Tyree Jackson is given his chance under center.
