With an average per game attendance of more than 35,000, the St. Louis Battlehawks clearly have the United Football League’s best fan base.
But the best football team?
That conversation still begins and ends with the Birmingham Stallions.
St. Louis (5-2) landed plenty of punches but Birmingham (7-0) absorbed them all, taking a 30-26 decision in front of 14,056 fans at Protective Stadium on Saturday. It was the fourteenth consecutive victory for Skip Holtz’s crew.
Leading 30-26 with :46 remaining, the Stallions suffered a blocked punt that gave the Battlehawks the ball at the home team’s 47.
The defense needed to hold on one final time and it did, stopping St. Louis on a fourth-and-2 play at the 39 with linebacker Kyahva Tezino breaking up A.J. McCarron’s pass with 11 ticks left on the clock.
“I thought it was a great game,” Holtz said. “It certainly wasn’t the cleanest game. We had a punt blocked and dropped a punt. And I could sit here and go through the little mistakes that drive you crazy.
“I don’t think we’ve got to play perfect, but we’ve got to play better than we did today.”
After falling behind briefly, Birmingham used a hurry-up drill late in the second quarter that ended in a touchdown – and a 17-11 lead.
The Battlehawks answered with Andre Szmyt’s 61-yard field goal to usher in halftime, and ultimately moved back in front, 20-17, in the third frame after the Stallions’ Isaiah Zuber muffed a punt to give the visitors the ball at the 11.
But with his side trailing by three, quarterback Adrian Martinez engineered another go-ahead march in the third, connecting with Marlon Williams to put the home team on top 23-20 with 12:23 to go in the fourth.
Back came the ‘Hawks, with Jacob Saylors scoring on a 7-yard scamper with half a quarter to play and putting Anthony Becht’s charges on the high side of a 26-23 score.
A Martinez-to-Kevin Austin Jr. pass covered 40 yards and ended up in the end zone, and the conversion had the Stallions in front 30-26 with 5:23 to play.
It was yet another clutch play involving Martinez, who certainly looks like QB1 right now.
He finished 21-33-0 for 230 yards and three touchdowns, and led all rushers with 60 yards on seven carries.
“I give a lot of credit to Skip and the culture that he’s built here,” Martinez said. “It was said that there’s been 50 percent turnover year in and year out from year one to year two to year three. There’s been a couple of things stay the same and one of those things is Skip, and I think he’s done a great job of building the culture and making sure that there’s a standard.
“I think a lot of guys bought into that, and that’s part of why you see the success on the field.”
Martinez hit 10 different receivers, with Williams racking up the most yards (59) on just three catches.
Tezino had four tackles and seven in all; A.J. Thomas picked off a pass; Dondrea Tillman and Jordan Thompson each had a sack; and the defense limited St. Louis to just 214 yards in total offense despite being plagued by injuries.
“I want to say there’s about seven or eight starters that are not on this football team right now, and we’re seven games into it,” Holtz said. “So, there’s a lot of new faces and every one of those (injured) guys we’ve talked about like DeMarquis Gates, JoJo (Tillery), Lorenzo (Burns) and Scooby (Wright) … those are leaders that have been on this team for two or three years.
“And so, to have (Tezino) out there with his level of play and his competitive nature and his attitude and the intangibles that he carries, he’s a leader.”
McCarron’s return to Alabama was spotty, as the former Crimson Tide standout was 19-32-1 for 161 yards and a touchdown.
Hakeem Butler managed seven catches for 89 yards and Saylors turned his 38 ground yards into a pair of TDs.
Qwynnterrio Cole led the Battlehawks’ defense with 12 total tackles, while Willie Harvey and Lakiem Williams added 10 and nine, respectively.
Chris Garrett blocked the final Birmingham punt.
Despite the setback, Becht was upbeat.
“We had a lead going into the fourth quarter, and we just ran out of time,” he said. “I give credit to their defense for stopping us on four plays. We’ve got a lot of weapons and you know they’ve gotta stop us, too, and they did.
“We’ll see them again down the road and I’m excited about that. But you know, we’ve got to correct our mistakes and get better from it. We didn’t sign up for seven, eight wins a season, we signed up to get to the playoffs and do something.”
Scoring plays: Birmingham, C.J. Marable, 1-yard run, 6:32 first quarter, 2-point conversion failed, Stallions 6, Battlehawks 0; St. Louis, Andre Szmyt, 38-yard field goal, 13:43 second quarter, Stallions 6, Battlehawks 3; Birmingham, Ramiz Ahmed, 27-yard field goal, 5:08 second quarter, Stallions 9, Battlehawks 3; St. Louis, Jacob Saylors, 1-yard run, 2:06 second quarter, 2-point conversion (Saylors run), Battlehawks 11, Stallions 9; Birmingham, Deon Cain, 5-yard reception from Adrian Martinez, :11 second quarter, 2-point conversion (Marlon Williams run), Stallions 17, Battlehawks 11; St. Louis, Szmyt, 61-yard field goal, :00 second quarter, Stallions 17, Battlehawks 14; St. Louis, Saylors 8-yard reception from A.J. McCarron, 6:17 third quarter, 2-point conversion failed, Battlehawks 20, Stallions 17; Birmingham, Williams 4-yard reception from Martinez, 12:20 fourth quarter, 2-point conversion failed, Stallions 23, Battlehawks 20; St. Louis, Saylors, 7-yard run, 7:34 fourth quarter, 2-point conversion failed, Battlehawks 26, Stallions 23; Birmingham, Kevin Austin Jr. 40-yard reception from Martinez, 5:23 fourth quarter, 1-point conversion (Martinez to Jace Sternberger), Stallions 30, Battlehawks 26.
Standout stat: 214 … that’s the number of total yards amassed by St. Louis. The Battlehawks came into the game with the UFL’s top-rated scoring offense.
Up next: Birmingham continues its homestand with a rematch against the Houston Roughnecks next Saturday. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. and the game will be televised on ESPN2.
The Stallions won the first meeting in Houston, 32-9.
OTD in 1975: The Birmingham Vulcans of the World Football League signed four members of the WFL champion Birmingham Americans – linebackers Mike Truax and Gary Champagne, defensive back Chris Arnold, and defensive end Jesse Wolf.
The WFL reorganized in 1975 and the Vulcans were a new and separate franchise from the Americans, which folded following the 1974 season.
OTD in 1982: The formation of the United States Football League was announced at the 21 Club in New York City. Birmingham was named one of the league’s original 12 franchises.
OTD in 1984: The Birmingham Stallions of the USFL defeated the Jacksonville Bulls, 43-20, in front of 29,500 fans at Legion Field.
Earl Gant scored two touchdowns and Cliff Stoudt went 14-22-1 through the air for 237 yards. The QB also ran for another score.
The win improved the Stallions to 10-2 and was the first game of the season the team played without Joe Cribbs, who was involved in a contract dispute with the Stallions. In the first 11 games of the season, Cribbs had amassed a USFL-best 1,105 yards.
OTD in 1985: The Stallions improved to 8-4 by defeating the Portland Breakers, 14-0, with 28,500 fans looking on at Legion Field.
There were 16 punts in the game and it was scoreless until four seconds left in the third quarter when Stoudt hit Ken Toler on a 15-yard TD pass.
Stoudt threw for another TD in the fourth quarter as the Birmingham defense registered the franchise’s first-ever shutout.
Great stuff as usual Scott.