Birmingham Stallions vs Tampa Bay Bandits Preview and Prediction (USFL Football) – AthlonSports.com
The Northern Division Champion Stallions look to find their way back to victory against a team of bandits who are aiming for a .500 finish
A few teams looking to atone for a rough weekend meet Saturday in the last week of the regular season for the USFL. The Birmingham Stallions (8-1) and Tampa Bay Bandits (4-5) are set for their second and final meeting of the season after Birmingham won the first meeting 16-10 in Week 4.
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The Stallions suffered a shocking 17-15 loss as they had no answers for Houston last week. Despite the stat sheet indicating another dominating performance from the Stallions, they were unable to capitalize early and trailed 9-6 at halftime. One of the main culprits was their inability to finish records; Birmingham have come out empty in the red zone on all three trips. The good news is the defense did a good job pulling the rush off keeping the Gamblers 29 yards rushing on 24 attempts. That kind of run defense in the upcoming playoffs will give the Stallions a chance to win it all.
Tampa Bay rocked the football well against New Orleans in a 17-6 loss last Sunday. The Bandits had 352 yards and held the ball for over 33 minutes. However, the nemesis in attack came back to bite them again as they turned the ball over four times. It’s a recipe for a loss and once again illustrates how a bit deceiving the footage alone can be. Defensively, Tampa Bay limited New Orleans to 215 total yards and averaging 3.8 yards per play. Unfortunately, they couldn’t slow down the Breakers’ running game, which gained 130 yards, and that was enough to push New Orleans over the finish line and into the playoffs.
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Birmingham (8-1) at Tampa Bay (4-5)
To start up: Saturday, June 18 at 4 p.m. ET
Where: Legion Field (Birmingham, Alabama)
TV: FOX
Spread: Stallions -3.5
Three things to watch out for
1. Birmingham offense heading to next playoffs
Head coach Skip Holtz is likely going to have a vanilla game plan on offense this week. The Stallions are locked in another game against New Orleans, so there’s not much to gain this week by emptying the playbook. Thus, look for a little more football management focus for allowing the offensive line to dominate the line of scrimmage after a tough week chasing the ball against Houston. J’Mar Smith completed 28 of 41 passes for 260 yards, a touchdown and an interception. Smith’s 68.3% completion rate is encouraging heading into the playoffs.
2. Will the Tampa Bay offense end the season strong?
The Bandits offense has a great opportunity this week to end the season at .500 if they can just run their business and play clean football. In the first meeting against the Stallions, Tampa Bay struggled to generate much of anything on offense. The Bandits gained 158 total yards in a 16-10 loss. The key this week for Jordan Ta’amu and the offense is to play free and have fun. Plus, head coach Todd Haley needs to find a way to drop Ta’amu on the edge with quarterback runs designed to slow DeMarquis Gates and Co. As for the offensive line, we’ll see what kind of professional pride they have as they must respond with their best performance of the season on Saturday.
3. Can Birmingham’s defense build more playoff momentum?
There will be no lack of confidence in this group as they did a terrific job in the first meeting with Tampa Bay. The defensive front must set a strong physical tone for the Bandits offensive line. Creating negative plays will also be important as the Stallions had three sacks and six tackles for loss, which made up for causing no turnovers. This week, it would be a huge boost for the offense if Scooby Wright III, Gates and the rest of the defense could force a few turnovers to help their offense with great field position.
Final analysis
The motivation to play in front of the local Birmingham community should give the Stallions a bit more juice ahead of the regular season finale. Both teams will go through a bit of a feeling process in the first two series before settling down towards the second quarter. Gates and the Birmingham defense are going to be the difference maker in this game as they keep Ta’amu and Tampa Bay under control on offense. Birmingham ends the regular season at 9-1 with a solid all-three win over the Bandits.
Prediction: Stallions 19, Bandits 10
– Written by Scott Whittum, part of the Contributor Network.
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