Defenders Shutdown The Vipers In the 2nd Half Grabbing Win #2
By: Darrell Owens
Headline Photo Credit: Candice Ward-USA Today
LAS VEGAS-The second week of the 2023 XFL went down this past week. The first game of the week was last Thursday. The St. Louis Battlehawks defeated the Seattle Sea Dragons 20-18 to open the weekend. The San Antonio Brahmas took down the Orlando Guardians 30-12 on the road. The Houston Roughnecks defeated the Arlington Renegades 23-14. Lastly, the DC Defenders took on the Las Vegas Vipers in Las Vegas.
The Defenders were coming off a Week 1 win at home vs. Seattle 22-18 and were looking to start the XFL season 2-0. The start of this game would be a little rough for DC. On their first possession inside their own 20, Defenders QB Jordan Ta’amu would get stripped and sacked and Vegas would recover. On the first play after the fumble, Vegas RB DeAndre Torrey would punch it in for a touchdown giving Vegas an early 6-0 lead.
In the second quarter with 5:26 left, DC was sitting at the 1-yard when RB Abram Smith would bobble the football in the air after a handoff and Las Vegas would recover. After the Vipers failed to take advantage of the fumble, DC would have the ball at their 46-yard line and Vegas would once again strip sack Ta’amu once and former Pro Bowler Vic Beasley recover the football with two seconds left. Once again Vegas would not capitalize on the fumble as they miss a 39-yard field goal at the end of the half.
Early in the 3rd Quarter, the Defenders’ kicker Matthew McCrane would knock down a 47-yard field goal to get on the board 6-3. In the 4th quarter, after a great drive, last week’s hero D’Eriq King would find the end zone again and a 12-yard touchdown run to give the Defenders the lead. DC would convert a 1-pt conversion and the Defenders lead 10-6.
With 10:56 left in the fourth, it would be Vegas QB Brett Hundley’s turn to get strip-sacked and Defender LB Jamal Brooks would recover. The Defenders took advantage and RB Abram Smith scored a 9-yard touchdown on that possession. The score would be 18-6 after Ethan Wood catch the 2-pt conversion to extend the lead. That would be all the Defenders need to grab win number two of the season.
The DC Defenders will head home to take on the undefeated and come back kids the St. Louis Battlehawks (2-0) on Sunday, March 5th at 1 pm from Audi Field.
