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USFL Week 6 Recap: Birmingham Stallions pulling away, New Orleans Breakers keeping pace

Jordan Meneo

By Jordan Meneo

The USFL’s week 6 action showed some promise for the league’s future.

The league continues to provide fans with late-game dramatics and crazy plays. However, one of the biggest parts of a successful league may have just come to light this week. That is the prominence of star players.

This week we saw an underdog story in New Orleans corner, Ike Brown, a former college stud in Bo Scarbrough standing out for the Birmingham Stallions, and an unlikely hero for the Breakers in Anthony Jones.

Below check out recaps from every game from this past week and take a look at its best moments.

Philadelphia Stars (3-3) 35 – Tampa Bay Bandits (3-3) 28

Stars RB Daniel Holland #6 looking for running room

The USFL kicked off week 6 by retelling a football classic, that is the story of winning the turnover battle.

The Stars forced three turnovers in Saturday’s victory over the Tampa Bay Bandits, two fumbles, and one interception. The first of these was an interception by Amani Dennis that left Philly just 10 yards from the endzone. The second turnover was caused by a muffed punt which the Stars recovered on the 17-yard line. Philadelphia cashed in on both of these opportunities.

Stars QB Case Cookus #10 looking downfield to throw

While giving up 14 points off turnovers is not exactly a winning formula, Tampa Bay still had a chance to win the game in the final seconds. The Bandits had a second goal on the Philadelphia 5-yard line. However, three straight incompletions forced a turnover on downs with 22 seconds left in the game.

The Stars improve to 3-3 while the Bandits fall to 3-3.

Birmingham Stallions (6-0) 33, Michigan Panthers (1-5) 17

Stallions WR Osirus Mitchell #4 waltzes into end zone

Saturday night the Birmingham Stallions showed the world why they’re the best team in the USFL.

Birmingham was carried by a tremendous ground attack. Newly signed Alabama running back Bo Scarbrough rushed for 105 yards and a touchdown. Scarborough was signed on May 5 by the team. While he didn’t see a lot of playing time in week 5, Scarborough certainly balled out this time around averaging 6.6 yards a carry. The only lead of the game for the Panthers was after an opening drive field goal. From then on Michigan was playing catchup for the rest of the night. It was a valiant effort from Jeff Fisher’s team as they were only down one at the end of the third quarter. However, thanks to two fourth-quarter touchdowns from the Stallions, the game was out of reach.

Birmingham remains undefeated at 6-0 while Michigan falls to 1-5, a tough look for the former NFL coach.

New Orleans Breakers (4-2) 26, Pittsburgh Maulers (1-5) 16

New Orleans RB Anthony Jones #6 had a career day running with the football

Sunday afternoon saw a dominating performance by the New Orleans Breakers.

New Orleans held the lead all game as they were up 20 points at the start of the fourth quarter. The Maulers finally found the endzone twice in the fourth quarter, but it would prove too late. The Breaker offense was carried by Anthony Jones who rushed for 102 yards and one touchdown. However, the biggest story is the dominance of unlikely hero New Orleans corner Ike Brown. Brown had two interceptions including a 97-yard fourth-quarter pick-six. Being an 11th-round pick, it seems Jones is definitely an underdog story for the Breakers.

New Orleans moves to 4-2 as they stay within striking distance of Birmingham in the South Division. Pittsburgh slips to 1-5 as they’re unable to build off their first win last week.

 New Jersey Generals (5-1) 26, Houston Gamblers (1-5) 25

To cap off week 6, we were left with a tragedy as tear-jerking as Romeo and Juliet.

That tragedy was the Gamblers’ third loss in a row, again, like the other two, on the last play of the game. With two seconds on the clock, Generals quarterback Luis Perez took the snap on the one-yard line and reached over the goalline for the touchdown as the clock hit zero.

Perhaps one of the wildest plays of this week’s games occurred in the third quarter. A New Jersey field goal was blocked and recovered by Houston. However, on the runback, Donald Payne fumbled the ball which the Generals recovered with a new set of downs. With these do over, the Generals were able to score a touchdown, turning a botched blocked field goal into a touchdown. Despite the loss, it’s hard to ignore the accuracy of Clayton Thorson. Thorson was 15/19 for 171 yards and three touchdowns producing a quarterback rating of 121.8. Thorson leads the league in passing and has proved to be a top QB in the league.

New Jersey pushes their win streak to five as they move to 5-1. Meanwhile, Houston watches their losing streak extend to five as they move to 1-5.

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