With two United States Football League championships on their resume, the Birmingham Stallions have already collected more hardware than any pro football team in the history of the Magic City.
Now they also own the longest winning streak.
Following Saturday’s weather-delayed, 20-18 victory over the DC Defenders (2-2) at Protective Stadium, Skip Holtz’s charges notched their 11th consecutive victory dating back to 2023. That tops the 1974 Birmingham Americans of the World Football League, a team that won its first 10 games before ultimately finishing 17-5 and claiming the WFL crown.
Birmingham was victorious in its final seven USFL contests and improves to 4-0 in the inaugural campaign of the United Football League, holding a two-game lead over Michigan in the USFL Conference.
They also showed their mettle, overcoming a sluggish first half and turnovers to remain the league’s only unbeaten team.
This time the man of the hour (or several hours, thanks to the weather) was kicker Ramiz Ahmed, who signed earlier in the week to take the place of injured Chris Blewitt.
All he did was nail four field goals in subpar conditions – the last coming from 46 yards away and with just four ticks on the clock, securing the “W.”
“We’ve got rent-a-kicker for a week,” joked Holtz. “And he came out and what he did was unbelievable. I told him I’m gonna have to learn his name now. He was money … he was money. Just really proud of what he was able to do and the way that he handled pressure.”
Ahmed’s work was the biggest difference in a contest that saw the Stallions rack up 356 total yards but manage only one touchdown against a tough Defenders D.
Matt Corral went most of the way behind center, hitting 19 of 29 passes for 240 yards and throwing a TD pass to Amari Rodgers, who led Birmingham receivers with 82 yards on four catches.
“I know everybody thinks I’m crazy because I took a quarterback off the plate as well as (co-starter Adrian Martinez) did a week ago and played Matt,” Holtz said. “I’ve taken a lot of criticism for it, but I have confidence in both those quarterbacks that they’re good enough to play. And I have to answer in my quarterback room more than I need to answer in this room.”
Ricky Person Jr. and Corral were a solid 1-2 punch on the ground, with Person racking up 57 yards and Corral accounting for 51.
Kyahva Tezino has six solo tackles and 20 in all, while JoJo Tillery finished with six individual takedowns for the winners.
“It was a game that, defensively, I thought we played staunch,” Holtz said. “We gave up a couple of big play touchdowns that obviously I didn’t like but overall, I thought our defense competed its tail off and played against a really explosive team that’s been putting up a lot of points.”
Jordan Ta’amu was 12-22-0 for 161 yards and two touchdowns for Reggie Barlow’s team, and Kelvin Harmon had five catches for 93 yards and a TD.
Chris Rowland caught Ta’amu’s other touchdown pass.
Linebacker Anthony Hines was a monster for the DC defense, with 11 tackles (10 solo) and two tackles for loss.
Derick Roberson was in on six tackles and had two sacks.
Scoring plays: DC, Chris Rowland, 9-yard reception from Jordan Ta’amu, 3:29 first quarter, 2-point conversion failed, Defenders 6, Stallions 0; Birmingham, Amari Rodgers 50-yard reception from Matt Corral, 2:58 second quarter, 1-point conversion failed, Stallions 6, Defenders 6; Birmingham, team safety on muffed punt snap (Jace Sternberger tackles Paxton Brooks), 1:50 second quarter, Stallions 8, Defenders 6; Birmingham, Ramiz Ahmed, 48-yard field goal, :00 second quarter, Stallions 11, Defenders 6; Birmingham, Ahmed, 32-yard field goal, 9:37 third quarter, Stallions 14, Defenders 6; DC, Kelvin Harmon, 45-yard reception from Ta’amu, :53 third quarter, 2-point conversion failed, Stallions 14, Defenders 12; DC, Matthew McCrane, 23-yard field goal, 7:41 fourth quarter, Defenders 15, Stallions 14; Birmingham, Ahmed, 27-yard field goal, 3:26 fourth quarter, Stallions 17, Defenders 15; DC, McCrane, 39-yard field goal, 1:04 fourth quarter, Defenders 18, Stallions 17; Birmingham, Ahmed, 46-yard field goal, :04 fourth quarter, Stallions 20, Defenders 18.
Standout stat: Four. Number of field goals kicked by Ahmed, the last keeping Birmingham perfect on the 2024 season.
Next up: Birmingham faces the Houston Roughnecks Saturday, April 27, at Rice Stadium.
Kickoff is 6 p.m. CDT on FOX.
Football Capital of the South?: Last week in their home opener against Memphis, the Stallions had a modest crowd of 12,265 on a beautiful spring evening. Tonight, there were only 7,262 fans in the stands before lightning forced everyone to make a mandatory exit from the facility.
Hard to believe a team that has known nothing but success doesn’t draw at least 20,000 for their contests at Protective.
Throwback night: There was a throwback theme for Saturday’s game, with fans encouraged to dress in their old school gear repping the Stallions of the original United States Football League (1983-85). While the team’s modern jerseys and pants are close to the originals, the helmets are much different.
The vintage USFL logo was a full body red horse silhouette with a white outline on the side of a gold helmet that featured a thin red stripe down the middle.
The current logo is a white horse head with flowing red mane on a more creme-colored hat. The red stripe is also much thicker.
While I prefer the new logo (the current horse head is actually larger than the logo used in 2022-23), it would’ve been cool to see the team donning 1980s shells. Alas, the throwback look didn’t make it to the playing field – this time .
Homecoming: The Defenders coach is no stranger to Birmingham, and his Alabama football roots run deep. Barlow was born in Montgomery, played high school ball at Sidney Lanier in the capital city, and was a standout receiver and kick returner while playing collegiately at Alabama State University.
During his time with the Hornets the team made a trip to Birmingham each season to participate in the annual Magic City Classic at Legion Field, facing Alabama A&M. It’s considered one of the premiere HBCU football events in the nation.
Barlow went on to have an eight-year NFL career (with the Jacksonville Jaguars, Oakland Raiders and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, earning a Super Bowl ring with the Bucs) and returned to coaching at ASU, first as a QB coach and then the head man from 2007-14.
After six years at Virginia State, he was hired by the Defenders during their XFL 3.0 season of 2023 and made his return trip to Birmingham as a pro coach on April 20.