Back in February – before he’d even assembled his new team – Birmingham Stallions coach Skip Holtz figured the inaugural United Football League season might be a mixed bag for his crew.
Week two of the 2024 season didn’t change that opinion.
On Sunday at Ford Field, Holtz’s team earned a hard-fought 20-13 victory over the Michigan Panthers. While the Stallions’ offensive engine spat and sputtered against Mike Nolan’s defensive-minded 11 in the Motor City, it never completely ran out of gas.
“It’s great to win, you know?” Holtz said. “I mean, we came up here and we had one objective, and that was win the game. You don’t know how it’s always going to play out, you don’t know how it’s going to happen. You don’t know if you’re going to try and win a 7-3 football game or if you’re gonna try and win a 43-42 football game.
“But as we’ve talked about as a team, everything we try and do is that our offense and defense complement each other. If it’s winning football, it’s a winning formula. I was really proud of what our players were able to do today.”
So, what made the biggest difference in this afternoon’s clash?
Take your pick … this one was all over the road.
Stallions kicker Chris Blewitt, who had five field goals for the Pittsburgh Maulers during his USFL days, nailed four against the Panthers today to salvage some spells of inconsistency by the offense.
“Offensively, proud of the way we moved the ball, but I thought our red zone offense was pitiful,” Holtz said.
Blewitt outscored Michigan’s Jake Bates 12-6; the Panthers legend-in-the-making kicker had field goals of 62 and 53 yards, following up on last week’s 64-yard, game-winning boomer.
And the winners’ defense was outstanding, forcing two turnovers (A.J. Thomas had an interception and Dondrea Tillman forced a fumble), registering seven tackles for loss and closing the day with six sacks.
“I thought defensively we created some turnovers and I thought we were stout,” Holtz said. “I mean, we gave up one big play that resulted in points but other than that, I thought defensively we played an excellent football game and kept the ball in front of us. There were some guys that were all over the field.”
One was cornerback Lorenzo Burns, who was in on seven tackles with six of them solo to lead the team.
“I think first of all, Coach Holtz does a good job,” Burns said. “I wouldn’t be back if it wasn’t for him and my teammates. You know, we just feed off each other out there, making each other better each time we go out there and play. So, I’ll just play my role and whatever happens, happens.
“If you stay ready, you ain’t gotta get ready.”
In the Stallions’ dual QB system Adrian Martinez got more bang for his buck than Matt Corral, going 8-15-0 for 88 passing yards and rushing for a team-high 66 yards on eight totes.
Corral finished 5-12-1 through the skies with 53 yards.
“They’re both really solid quarterbacks and maybe I’m taking stats away from one by getting two quarterbacks ready, but as I’ve told both of them, it’s what we’re trying to build as a football team,” Holtz said. “They both came here to get film and we’ve got a lot of guys on this roster that came to get film.”
C.J. Marable was once again double-trouble in service of the Ham, rushing for 54 yards on 14 carries and catching three balls for 29 yards. The ground game amassed 162 yards.
Ricky Person Jr. was the only Stallion to hit paydirt, scoring on a one-yard dive late in the second quarter.
In the end, though, it came down to a defensive stand – one that Birmingham made harder than it had to be.
Linebacker Scooby Wright was flagged for a late hit on Michigan signal caller E.J. Perry on the game’s final drive, and then defensive end Taco Charlton gave up 15 more yards for roughing the passer.
But with time running down and the ball on the Stallions 14, Perry suffered a fourth down courtesy of Charlton, effectively ending the game and extending Birmingham’s win streak to nine games dating back to the 2023 season.
Was it pretty?
Not always.
Was it exciting?
You bet.
Birmingham (2-0) stands alone as the only unbeaten club in the USFL Conference, while Michigan drops to 1-1.
The Stallions wound up with 302 yards to just 205 for the hosts, and limited Nolan’s crew to 47 ground yards.
Perry was 20-33-1 for 203 yards and a touchdown, but it wasn’t enough against a team that finds a way to win even if that way might not be what it’s used to.
Scoring plays: Birmingham, Chris Blewitt, 34-yard field goal, 5:42 first quarter, Stallions 3, Panthers 0; Birmingham, Blewitt, 30-yard field goal, 10:11 second quarter, Stallions 6, Panthers 0; Birmingham, Blewitt, 38-yard field goal, 4:35 second quarter, Stallions 9, Panthers 0; Michigan, Marcus Simms 76-yard pass from E.J. Perry, 3:16 second quarter, Cole Hikutini one-point conversion catch, Stallions 9, Panthers 7; Birmingham, Ricky Person Jr., two-yard run, :26 second quarter, Kevin Austin Jr. two-point conversion catch, Stallions 17, Panthers 7; Michigan, Jake Bates, 62-yard field goal, :00 second quarter, Stallions 17, Panthers 10; Birmingham, Blewitt, 20-yard field goal, 7:16 third quarter, Stallions 20, Panthers 10; Michigan, Bates, 52-yard field goal, 4:16 third quarter, Stallions 20, Panthers 13.
Standout stat: 330. That’s the number of days since the Stallions last lost a football game. That came in a 27-20 setback to the Houston Gamblers on May 13, 2023, in the second season of the USFL.
Next up: Birmingham hosts its first UFL home game next Saturday when the Memphis Showboats come to Protective Stadium.
Kickoff is set for 6 p.m. CDT on FOX.
OTD in 1984: The Birmingham Stallions of the original United States Football League improved to 6-1 on the season with a 24-17 victory over the Jacksonville Bulls in front of 43,654 fans at the Gator Bowl.
Joe Cribbs scored on a 11-yard TD run late in the game to break the tie. He finished with 135 rushing yards.
Stallions quarterback Cliff Stoudt was 14-28-1 for 221 yards.
OTD in 1985: The Stallions slipped to 5-2 on the season with a 15-14 loss to the San Antonio Gunslingers at Alamo Stadium with just 8,873 fans looking on. The winners got three field goals from Nick Mike-Mayer while Birmingham’s chance to win with under a minute to play died when Danny Miller missed a 37-yard field goal try.