Menu
Battlehawks loss sets up high stakes home finale
A pair of Week 9 upsets have set the stage for a high stakes regular season finale.
The St. Louis Battlehawks fell on a road contest to the Arlington Renegades, 36-22, and the San Antonio Brahmas dropped the previously undefeated Birmingham Stallions 18-9 on Saturday, May 25.
Both the Battlehawks and Brahams will play at the Dome at America’s Center on June 1 as a glorified dress rehearsal for the XFL Conference Championship Game next week.
Whoever wins will host the playoff game. St. Louis (6-3) previously defeated San Antonio (7-2) and a win will give them the tiebreaker.
Whether or not the Battlehawks can maintain a perfect home record and advance to the UFL Championship Game lies in the health of star quarterback AJ McCarron, who missed the past two games with an ankle injury.
“He wanted to play last week; he wanted to play this week,” St. Louis coach Anthony Becht said after the game about McCarron. “We just got to be strategic on what we do. He’s a big part of why we’re here. He’s the guy we chose to lead this football team to where we need to be. He came back (for the 2024 season) for a reason: To get to the playoffs and win a championship. Well, we clinched. We got into the playoffs, so now we’re trying to give as much rest as possible so that he’s ready to go and he can make the push.”
I’m his place, Manny Wilkins ran for 51 yards and two touchdowns on 10 carries. and completed 18-of-32 passes for 179 yards with one touchdown and three interceptions, which ended the Battlehawks' final three drives.
The offense looks vastly different when McCarron is not on the field. For starters, no receiver had 50 receiving yards last week and the only player to catch a touchdown was running back Jacob Saylors, who also ran for 104 yards.
Prior to the injury, McCarron was making stars out of every one of his wide receivers. His eagerness to return provides optimism toward a comeback in the regular season finale.
“We’ll talk about it this week. We’ll see how it goes and what it looks like,” Becht said. “And for us, we have to make sure we have all players on deck for next week and the conference championship game. I don’t want to lose anybody next week. That would be catastrophic. We’ll talk about those decisions, but, yeah, he’s progressing well. He’s doing everything he can to be out on the field as quickly as possible. And, obviously, for me, just holding him back these last two weeks and making sure he can be as good as he can be.”
McCarron will be needed when the Battlehawks take on the best-scoring defense in the UFL. The Brahmas became the first team this season to hold the UFL’s top offense to single-digit scoring. Jordan Mosley is the league leader in tackles (75) with Tavante Beckett not too far away with 70. They are the only two defenders ahead of Battlehawks linebacker Willie Harvey in that category.
Former Akron linebacker Zach Morton made his Brahmas debut by recording his first sack. The Brahmas registered a total of three sacks during the game. Wyatt Ray leads the team in that category with 5.5 sacks.
The winner between San Antonio and St. Louis on Sunday, June 9, will play the USFL Conference Championship (Birmingham vs. Michigan) in the UFL Championship Game on June 16.