Two teams remained unbeaten and a once-unheralded kicker continued to impress from long range as the UFL returned for a second week of play.
The Birmingham Stallions and San Antonio Brahmas prevailed in matchups of teams that were victorious in Week 1. Meanwhile, the Houston Roughnecks and Arlington Renegades still are searching for their first wins of 2024.
Michigan Panthers kicker Jake Bates continued to impress, making another 60-yarder. It sure seems as if Bates, who only served as a kickoff specialist during his college career, will get an invite to an NFL training camp this summer.
Here are the winners and losers from Week 2 of the 2024 UFL season:
WINNERS
Jake Bates
All Bates does is make 60-plus yard field goal attempts. A week after connecting on a 64-yard game-winning field goal for the Panthers, Bates made a 62-yarder in a 20-13 loss to the Birmingham Stallions. He later made a 52-yarder, too. Per ESPN Stats and Info, only once in NFL history has a kicker made 60-plus yard field goals in consecutive weeks (Brett Maher for the Dallas Cowboys in 2019).
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His proficiency at making long field goals has to have caught the eye of NFL teams, right? The Detroit Lions reportedly were among the teams that have inquired about the kicker who did not attempt a single field goal while playing in college. He was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Houston Texans in late July 2023, but was released less than two weeks later.
Fourth-and-12 play vs. onside kick
The San Antonio Brahmas pulled off an improbable late-game comeback to defeat the Memphis Showboats. Trailing 16-8 with less than a minute left, Brahmas quarterback Chase Garber connected with Jontre Kirklin for a touchdown. After the Brahmas’ two-point conversion attempt from the 5-yard line failed, the team attempted a fourth-and-12 play from their own 28-yard line rather than do an onside kick. The play was successful and moments later the Brahmas scored the winning touchdown on a Garbers-to-Cody Latimer play.
St. Louis football fans
More than 40,000 fans showed up at The Dome at America’s Center to watch the local UFL team, the St. Louis Battlehawks, prevail 27-24 over the visiting Arlington Renegades. The 40,317 fans at the game set a modern-day spring football league record, according to the UFL.
The Dome at America’s Center was the previous home of the St. Louis Rams, who played in the venue from 1995 until 2015, the team’s last season in the city before returning to Los Angeles. The Battlehawks aren’t exactly the ‘Greatest Show on Turf’ Rams of 1999-2001, but do feature AJ McCarron at quarterback. A national championship-winning QB at Alabama and runner-up for the 2013 Heisman Trophy, McCarron brings years of NFL experience (mostly as a backup) to the fledgling league.
LOSERS
Attendance concerns
If we’re going to celebrate what’s going on in St. Louis, we also have to point out the meager attendance situation for the Memphis Showboats.
‘It’s not what we want it to be,’ Daryl Johnston, the UFL’s executive vice president of football operations, told the Commercial Appeal, part of the USA TODAY Network.
‘We had a schedule that came out late. We had TV slots that were not preferred TV slots every weekend,’ Johnston continued. ‘We had to do the best we could with a really, really late structure created in the process. And we’ll be better next year. We’re already working on 2025 right now.’
An annouced 8,791 fans at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium watched what turned out to be a thrilling finish (though, not so much for the Showboats fans in attendance), as the San Antonio Brahmas prevailed in the final seconds.
Sunday’s Houston Roughnecks vs. D.C. Defenders game went up against the women’s NCAA Tournament final. And, if you haven’t noticed, the women’s games have been posting seminal viewership numbers.
On Saturday night, the Arlington Renegades vs. St. Louis Battlehawks game went up against the men’s NCAA Tournament Final Four.
Next weekend is the Masters. Two weeks later will be the NFL draft.
The UFL needs to take a serious look at how it can successfully fit into the spring sports schedule.