Battlehawks QB A.J. McCarron looks for WR Jahcour Pearson during Saturday’s UFL game at The Dome at America’s Center against the Houston Renegades. (Photo: Thomas Grove)
| United Football League | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | Final |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Houston (1-5) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 8 |
| St. Louis (5-1) | 0 | 14 | 0 | 8 | 22 |
Cedric Williams
Senior Editor
ST. LOUIS, MO — Throughout the first half of the 2024 United Football League season, the St. Louis Battlehawks were recognized as having the most explosive offense in the entire league. Quarterback A.J. McCarron leads the league in passing yards, passer rating, and touchdown passes. And he’d only thrown one interception in the team’s first five games.
St. Louis also has several players that rank among the top receivers in the league. And depending on the day of the week, the Battlehawks also ranked as one of the highest scoring teams in the league.
But on Saturday, it was the St. Louis defense that shined the brightest in a home game at the Dome at America’s Center against the Houston Renegades. The Battlehawks D controlled the action all day and held the Renegades to just one score in what ended as a 22-8 win for the home team.
“The defense played really well. They had our backs in a lot of situations,” Battlehawks head coach Anthony Becht said. “After the fourth down when they stopped us, the defense picked it up and got the ball back. That’s where the trust comes in and why we’re so aggressive.”
Those aggressive play calls on offense are what led directly to St. Louis’ scoring. The Battlehawks got three touchdown passes from McCarron — all on plays where other teams may have been more conservative and run a less risky play.
The first one came midway through the second quarter, when St. Louis had just converted a key third down into a first down with a pass from McCarron to Steven Mitchell for 16 yards. Many teams may have run the ball on the next play, but McCarron dropped back, looked deep, and fired a back-shoulder pass to Hakeem Butler for a 17-yard touchdown that put the Battlehawks on the board.
That play brought the entire home crowd of 32,969 raucous Battlehawk fans to their feet. But the most aggressive play call of the day came just before halftime.
The St. Louis defense had forced a turnover to get its offense the ball back with 50 seconds left in the second quarter. The Battlehawks drove to the Houston 1-yard line with 4 seconds left on the clock.
Football logic suggested the best move would be to kick a field goal and make sure the team gets some points of its final drive of the half. But Becht and the Battlehawks wanted to go for it all, so they called a play, hoping for a touchdown.
And that’s exactly what they got, as McCarron hit Mitchell on a brilliantly run fade route that gave St. Louis six more points. Then for good measure, McCarron found tight end Jake Sutherland for a two-point conversion that sent the Battlehawks into halftime up 14-0.
“We had a good play, we thought,” Becht said. “We needed it to come out of the quarterback’s hand pretty quick. At 9-0, we would have got exactly what we wanted, but I trust what we have. We’re going to play aggressive.”
Houston got back into the game when it scored a touchdown early in the fourth quarter to make the score 14-6. And neither team could do much with the ball following that, which made the home crowd start to get a little antsy, as it felt like their team should be winning by more, but were still only ahead by 8 points.
That is until the Battlehawks got ultra-aggressive again late in the fourth, and McCarron found Butler for a pair of huge passes that helped put the game away.
The St. Louis D stopped Houston on a fourth-down play with 4:59 left in the game. That gave the Battlehawks the ball back, with a chance to chew up some clock using run plays and short passes.
St. Louis did that on its first two plays and got a first down. But on the third play of the drive, McCarron looked deep again and hit Butler for a 21-yard completion to the Houston 36.
The Battlehawks probably only needed a few more yards to put themselves in field goal range, which could’ve put them ahead by 11 with less than three minutes left. But McCarron got ultra-aggressive again and hit Butler for a 36-yard touchdown that along with another two-point conversion put St. Louis ahead 22-6.
“Houston’s record is not a reflection of their team,” Butler said. “It was going to be a good game regardless. I think everyone expects us to go out and put up a lot of points, and we expect that from ourselves. But it’s a chess game. It just took us a little longer to figure them out.”
The victory was St. Louis’ fifth in a row and allowed the club to remain atop the XFL Conference standings at 5-1. The second place San Antonio Brahmas are 4-1 and play on Sunday against the third place D.C. Defenders, who are 2-3.
The Battlehawks will take on the undefeated Birmingham Stallions (6-0) next Saturday, May 11, in what may be the biggest regular season game of the inaugural UFL season. Kickoff is set for 3 p.m. and the game will be televised on FOX.
St. Louis’ next home game is in two weeks, on May 19, when the Battlehawks will host D.C., at 11 a.m.
Scoring Summary
| Team | Qtr | Clock | Score | Type | Play | Drive | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| STL | 2 | 6:12 | TD | PASS | Butler, Hakeem 17 yd reception thrown by McCarron, AJ (2PT ATT PASS to Jacob Saylors FAILED) | 13/80/8:41 | 6-0 |
| STL | 2 | 00:00 | TD | PASS | Mitchell Jr., Steven 1 yd reception thrown by McCarron, AJ (2PT ATT PASS caught by Jake Sutherland GOOD) | 8/62/00:50 | 14-0 |
| HOU | 4 | 13:05 | TD | RUSH | Thompson, Mark 16 yd rush (2PT ATT PASS to FAILED) | 12/80/7:53 | 14-6 |
| STL | 4 | 3:06 | TD | PASS | Butler, Hakeem 36 yd reception thrown by McCarron, AJ (2PT ATT PASS caught by Jacob Saylors GOOD) | 4/67/1:53 | 22-6 |
| HOU | 4 | 00:00 | SAFETY | Bingham, Ronheen Safety | 22-8 |