XFL Play of Week: Week 1
February 23, 2023 - XFL (XFL)
St. Louis Battlehawks News Release
Sunday's comeback by the St. Louis Battlehawks against the San Antonio Brahmas has already etched itself in the XFL history books as a sequence to remember for years to come.
Receiving the ball down 15-3 with three minutes to go, the Battlehawks offense woke up after a slow first 57 minutes of action. Quarterback A.J. McCarron and St. Louis drove down the field for a touchdown, converted a three-point PAT, successfully converted the 4th-and-15 onside kick alternative and then scored the game-winning touchdown.
In total, St. Louis scored 15 points in a span of just about one minute as it left the Alamodome with an 18-15 Week 1 victory.
It all was like a thunderstorm running rapid through the Great Plains. Nobody knew when it was going to end but the lightning strikes kept on pounding.
"The way the game is set up in the XFL with the new rules, there's no lead that is safe," San Antonio Brahmas head coach Hines Ward said with a chuckle after the game.
There are many plays from the two drives that could have deserved their own write-up. But no play is as memorable as the Battlehawks converting the first-ever 4th-and-15 alternative to the onside kick in football history.
After their nine-point drive gave the Brahmas just a 15-12 lead with 1:25 left, the Battlehawks lined up on the left hash at the 25-yard line in a four-wide receiver set. McCarron had three wide receivers to his right and one receiver to his left. He also had a single running back to his left.
The Brahmas lined up with four down linemen, five cornerbacks and linebackers lined up between seven and 10 yards off the line of scrimmage and two safeties just over the conversation marker.
San Antonio's two edge rushers got good jumps off the line and narrowed the pocket. In fact, a key block from the running back off the left edge keeps McCarron untouched, allowing the NFL veteran to step up and then scramble out and over to his right.
While on the run and looking towards the sideline, McCarron sees wide receiver Austin Proehl. Proehl who found an open spot in the San Antonio zone defense on the right sideline at the St. Louis 47. McCarron would up and threw a beautiful pass right into Proehl's breadbasket for the historic completion.
"Austin was able to find a little spot in between the corner and the safety and quite frankly, it was a very tight windowed area," St. Louis head coach Anthony Becht said. "AJ was on the move and had to make a great throw. A lot of things have to be perfect when you do that."
McCarron's escapability on the play was particularly impressive, especially for someone who hadn't played a snap of football since tearing his ACL in August 2021.
Watching from the opposing sideline, Ward thought back to someone he knows very well who was excellent at extending plays and giving receivers time to get open.
"I played with a great quarterback in Ben Roethlisberger and that's what he did best," Ward said. "I don't know what the percentages are but I'm sure they're pretty slim. But they did what they had to do. They executed. Quarterback made a hell of a throw. The receiver got in bounds."
The Battlehawks play call was a levels concept with multiple players running out routes towards that right sideline.
Proehl, who lined up in the middle of the three wide receivers split out to the left, was running the medium-yardage route. When he saw McCarron on the run and nobody between him and the sideline, he stuck out his hand, found a sweet spot on the sideline and hauled in the catch.
"We executed it," Proehl said. "AJ put a great ball on me and I just made an easy play."
The connection between McCarron and Proehl is one of the strongest quarterback-wide receiver bonds in the XFL. The two first teamed up in the summer of 2018 when McCarron was on the Buffalo Bills and Proehl was the team's seventh round pick. The two worked together a lot during camp and kept in touch over the years.
Those early roots are proving decisive nearly a half-decade later. When McCarron was assigned to the Battlehawks during the QB Draft, he reached out to Proehl and expressed his desire to play together again. The two were roommates during training camp and completed many reps over the last few weeks together.
"I think everybody in that locker room wouldn't choose anybody else but AJ to be at the helm of our offense, at the helm of our team," Proehl said. "We're thankful for him. We're thankful that we got him."
While that practice time didn't lead to an otherworldly stat line for Proehl - he had four catches for 49 yards and one score - the former University of North Carolina wideout had Week 1's most clutch performance.
In addition to his 4th-and-15 conversion catch, Proehl caught the pass on the three-point conversation and snagged the game-winning touchdown with 16 seconds remaining.
That touchdown catch was an impressive pitch-and-catch, too. Proehl was running a go route from the middle of another three-wide receiver grouping - this time from the left side of the field from 14 yards away from the goal line. He stutter stepped a few yards into his route, giving him inside position on the nearest defensive back. McCarron then fired another perfectly placed ball this time in between three oncoming defenders.
Proehl made the catch and gave St. Louis the 18-15 lead.
"I can't be more proud than I am of my guys out wide," McCarron said. "It took a while but once we found the rhythm, it was unbelievable."
Becht said the playbook on 4th-and-15 plays like that is fairly limited. Throw in the fact that there are multiple approaches a defense can take and he said, "normally those scenarios are just impossible to convert."
But the Battlehawks spent time in practice working on the impossible, including each day during the week leading up to Sunday. Proehl credited offensive coordinator Bruce Gradkowski for drawing up the play and Becht praised him for running it during the game.
Now that they have a successful conversion under their belt, Becht said the coaching staff is excited about how that could potentially open up opportunities for them. With one conversion now on record, St. Louis might be able to use that to their advantage. Becht said they already practiced two new 4th-and-15 plays at Tuesday's practice. They had practiced five in the preseason.
"Those aren't going to get converted too much," Becht said. "But in that scenario, we were able to draw one up that was good. Bruce did a great job calling it but those players executed it."
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