Just caught the 3rd and 4th quarter of last week's game.
1st It's not the coaches fault your WRs can't catch the ball. 2nd It's not their fault th O-line commits a false start penalty at a crucial point in the game. 3rd Maybe they should take a bit of blame for an average to bad defense, but is it the scheme or the talent?
Best I can figure is your comment was based on clock management on their final possession. But the Stallions had all 3 timeouts. Again, hard to make 1st downs when your recievers are dropping balls and the O-line is committing bad penalties. Don't really see what the coaches could have done to run off much more clock.
Maybe I'm missing something. Wouldn't be the 1st time.
I'm probably going to miss some details now that it's Tuesday, but Reggie's challenge on a clear non-penalty, in an almost meaningless spot in the 2nd half of a close game was pretty terrible. Then he wastes a 2nd TO on a 4th and 22...
Then there was a sequence with ~8 min left in the 4th. DC driving down 12-14, the weather has cleared up a bit. DC drives down to the OPP 11, calls a pass play on 2nd down for a yard. Cool, whatever. Inexplicably, on 3rd & 9, they call a handoff up the middle that gains 4 yards and they quickly kick the FG.
It wasn't a draw, or jet sweep or anything, it was as close to a designed surrender play on 3rd as you'll find. It was near-zero chance to score a TD and improved from a 36 yard FG to a 32 yarder...oh yay!
Lastly, on their final drive, now down to 1 TO, and with KO rules and clock rules that favor the offense massively (so you know you can't give the ball back), they get the ball to the OPP 30, under 2 min 1st and 10.
A FD->FG here gives you a very good chance to end the game, while just kicking a FG is going to hand them the ball back with over a minute, 1 TO, and every rule benefiting them needing just to get into FG range. DC goes run-run-run to try and lose by as little as possible (which they do).
It's constant cowardice. It's actually one of the bigger issues with the UFL in general and it's highlighted by some of the cool stuff like heating team radios: a lot of HCs are just unaware of the rules/how to manage the clock.
DC is by far the worst, but some other teams have been pretty egregious too.
Birmingham way too good for HOU and Arling was just a little bit too incompetent to stop SA. Probably a playoff-determining game in DC today as the XFL division might have 3 decent teams competing for 2 spots.
Reggie Barlow just wasted a 2nd half TO and his only challenge with 8 min left in the 3rd quarter on a potential hold. The result of the play was an STL 3rd and 8. Had he won, it would've been 2nd and 12.