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XFL Play of the Week: Week 7

April 5, 2023 - XFL (XFL) News Release


D.C. Defenders tight end Briley Moore felt a lot of emotions when he dragged his toe just inside the back of the end zone Saturday to complete a wild touchdown completion from quarterback D'Eriq King.

It was his first score of the season, and the months of anticipation spilled over into euphoric excitement that was amplified by making a great catch.

But even amidst all the hullabaloo, Moore didn't realize how crazy - how eye-popping, how incredible - the touchdown was until he got a chance after the game to really assess what had happened.

"That's one of those ones that you dream of as a kid when you're watching SportsCenter and you're like, 'Oh man, I want to be on there. I want to make one of those plays one day when I get older,'" Moore said.

The allure of the touchdown is obvious. King makes a quick decision to escape the pocket and fires an otherworldly throw across his body while sprinting towards the sideline. Moore snags an underratedly difficult catch to finish the job.

But it wasn't just two playmakers turning seemingly nothing into something great. It was two players - who spent the previous few months developing a real connection - understanding the situation and showcasing the talents they can bring to any roster.

"It was two guys trusting each other and we both made a great play," King said. "We made it work."

After entering the redzone on a King run early in the second quarter, D.C. faced a 3rd-and-9 from the 12-yard line. D.C. lined up in a 12-personnel shotgun set with running back Abram Smith to King's TKTK. There was one tight end on each side of the line and one wide receiver to King's left and right.

The Guardians brought the house with seven-man blitz leaving its four defensive backs to play man-to-man coverage.

Orlando linebacker Terrance Smith blitzed right up the A gap untouched, leaving King no time to sit in the pocket. About a second after the ball was snapped, King turned and started running towards the left sideline.

"At least once a week in practice, we always work drills where at some point in time, a guy may come free up the middle or a guy may come free off the edge, whether it's from the backside or the frontside," D.C. quarterbacks coach Shannon Harris said. "We always want to have a plan. Guy came free up the middle and D'Eriq did something that we work in practice all the time."

Moore, who lined up on the left side of the line on the play, had a 10-yard choice route. He opted to cut in on the play.

He turned his head and saw King breaking contain. In situations like that, Moore said, there are certain areas of the field pass catchers should go to help out their quarterbacks. The only one of those areas Moore could get to in his position for King to potentially see him was the back of the end zone.

That was a good thing because King was not looking to throw the ball away. He was looking for someone to help him make a play.

"In that situation, I don't think you have time to think - you just got to react," King said. "I just tried to make a play. I knew it was third down so I didn't want to just run out of bounds, throw the ball away. I was looking for one guy to get a chance to."

His escape out of the pocket had been successful. Smith had stumbled trying to keep up with King when he made his shifty half-spin out of the pocket. But linebacker Lakia Henry, who was rushing off the edge, saw King running out to the left and began his pursuit.

Moore saw King running and put his hand up - as Harris described it, like a mailbox. But even though he put his hand up, Moore didn't think King was going to even try to pass him the ball.

But King had kept his hips and shoulders around, allowing him to jump into the air and make an athletic and powerful crossbody throw. Before he could land either of his feet on the ground after releasing the ball, Henry pushed him out of bounds to the Camping World Stadium turf.

"I kind of locked eyes with him for a second," Moore said. "It kind of went in slow motion because at first I was like, 'Holy crap, he just actually threw that.' And I was like, Oh, crap, I gotta make a play on it."

You don't see many crossbody throws in football. Let alone crossbody throws back across the field in the red zone on third down. To many that combination sounds like a Molotov cocktail destined to end a scoring drive in a turnover.

King admits that the throw "goes against everything that you're taught as a quarterback" and that some coaches told him to not make that throw again when he arrived back on the sidelines.

Harris preaches to his quarterbacks to be careful in the red zone because they have three points in their back pockets.

But being careful doesn't mean not to be aggressive. It means to keep the ball out of harm's way. King made a throw that could only be caught by one person on the field. If Moore didn't snag it, it would have been just an incomplete pass. No one else had a chance to even to get a hand on it.

Because King was operating with that mindset and also made a throw accurate enough to only be catchable to Moore, Harris said he was fine with the decision.

"That throw by D'Eriq was absolutely insane," Moore said. "To be sprinting out to left, jump, flip his hips the way he did and put that ball where it was either I'm gonna catch it or nobody is was one of the more incredible things I've ever seen."

The rest of the play was up to Moore but it wasn't going to be easy. Orlando defensive back Marcus Murphy was right in step with Moore for most of the play. But with his head turned away from King and focusing on Moore, he slowed up ever so slightly when Moore started easing up and looking towards the left sideline.

As King made his throw, Moore exploded into action, catching Murphy off-guard. Murphy recovered to be within a half-step of Moore when he made the catch. But the half step of separation was all Moore needed.

Moore had gained solid inside position, allowing him to extend his arms out as far as he needed to make the catch and tap his right toe like a ballet dancer.

"He does it every day at practice," King said. "I'm just happy for him that it finally came to game where everybody else can see it. He's a great player. I trust him with everything and he made me look good."

The connection between Moore and King is a strong one, which has been built through on-field reps throughout training camp and practice as well as off-field time playing the card game spades at the team hotel.

Moore, King, starting quarterback Jordan Ta'amu and third-string quarterback Eric Dungey play spades almost every day. It's a way for them to get decompress from football and have fun.

Spades requires a good connection with your partner. Since you aren't able to talk with your partner during gameplay, the best partners know each other well enough to understand what the other is thinking and what someone would mean by how they are playing.

While King and Moore aren't always partners - the go-to pairings are King and Ta'amu and Moore and Dungey - the hours they've spent together has clearly manifested itself on the field.

"One of the benefits of that that we didn't even realize was just building that connection," Moore said. "Having that connection off the field, even if it is through something like spades, you can definitely see that connection overlap. Because at the end of the day, that's not anything we ever practiced. It's nothing we've ever talked about as far as what I was going to do on that play and for him to know the same situation. That was just a connection play."

While King has not started a game for the Defenders this season, he has carved out a critical role in the offense. His role doesn't have a name, he said, but to define him as a Wildcat quarterback is incorrect. He is the backup but that also sells short his influence on the team.

D.C.'s system thrives because of its two quarterbacks in Ta'amu and King. At the start of the season, King - despite running the entire playbook during practice - was mostly running zone read plays. The success of those plays has allowed the team to open more of the in-game playbook for King.

But King is not a rushing quarterback who can throw. He is a quarterback, and King said the opportunity to throw the ball more excites him because he wants to show people that can do that. He feels like it has been something he has to prove to people his entire career.

Two people he hasn't had to prove it to are Harris and Moore. Moore called his teammate "a baller" who emphasized Saturday's touchdown pass illustrates the type of player King is at the quarterback position.

Harris agreed. King, he said, can do it all. The touchdown pass exemplified that.

"It shows that he can be an every down quarterback," Harris said. "He's not just got to come in and do Wildcat stuff for us. He can be an every down quarterback. He can run the ball. He can throw the ball. He can do whatever he needs to do that's within the offense."

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