







The re-birth of the XFL came with anticipation yet hesitation on its opening weekend. The XFLbegan on Saturday with the Seattle Dragons taking on the DC Defenders. Both teams, just likeevery other team in the league, is filled with former NFL players and players looking for achance. So, while the talent may not be on the same level as the NFL, it still offers a competitiveformat that the AAF couldn’t really give.The first game on Saturday was the definition of a tale of two halves. The Seattle Dragons tookadvantage early in the first half as they jumped out to an early lead. Austin Proehl was the go-toguy for the Dragons as he scored two of the three total touchdowns on the day.While the Dragons seemed to be taking the early advantage, a blocked punt by Elijah Campbellwas recovered in the end zone for a touchdown and a 54-yard field goal by Ty Rausa kept thescore close for the Defenders going into halftime.The second half became a completely different story for both teams. Cardale Jones, formernational champion and high NFL prospect out of Ohio State, got off to a sluggish start butquickly found his feet in the second half. Cardale Jones and the Defenders quickly got on boardafter running a double reverse trick play for the touchdown. While the Dragons answered quicklywith Silvers finding Proehl for his second touchdown on the day, the Defenders took over thegame and never looked back.A 31-yard touchdown pass from Jones to Ross and a pick six by Sylve lead the Defenders to a31-19 victory over the Dragons in first game of the XFL.The second game of the day had the Los Angeles Wildcats taking on the Houston Roughnecks ina high-powered offensive showcase. The Houston roughnecks struck quickly when on the thirdplay of the drive quarterback P.J. Walker found Cam Phillips for a 50-yard bomb to start thescoring. LA was quick to respond when on the following drive quarterback Charles Kanoffscrambled for a 5-yard rushing touchdown.Both teams continued to trade points until the wheels seemed to fall off for the Wildcats. Severaltimes quarterback Charles Kanoff was visibly and vocally upset with the coaching staff and otherplayers on the team. From that point on it seemed like the Wildcats were out of sync and quicklystarted to fall behind the Houston Roughnecks.While Charles Kanoff had a difficult day for the Wildcats, P.J. Walker for the Roughnecks had agreat game. He threw for 272-yards and 4 touchdowns and rushed for 26-yards in a 37-17winning effort against the Wildcats.So, what we learned from the first day of the XFL is that it is leaning towards the offense and thefans. Plenty of opportunities for high scoring and high intensity offense. While it will take sometime to get used to the different rules and game play of the XFL, overall the first day of the XFLwas a massive success.