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The 2023 XFL season is officially upon us, and we are finally getting XFL and USFL action together for our viewing pleasure this Spring football season. Sportsbooks are now available on that device in your pocket all over the world, and so this is going to be a Spring Football season like no other. I'll be here every week providing sports betting advice for XFL action, so join me here and let's get Xtreme. Be sure to also read all our other weekly XFL fantasy football articles.
Also, don't fret...I'll be back, right here, to talk about gambling on the USFL in April; and if we ever start expanding into the realms of the European League of Football, Indoor Football League, Fan Controlled Football, and/or (I can only hope) the CPBL of Taiwan come baseball season–I'll be right here to discuss the full happenings across the board. Speaking of which: the USFL season kicks off on April 15th, so look out for my USFL Week 1 & Futures article in early April.
They might not be the #1...or #2 leagues...but damn it, we've congregated here because we love sports. So, when the powers to be in professional sports decide to supply our hungry demand for more year-round action, it would be fundamentally and morally wrong of us to not take a head-first dive into Spring Football education so that we can continue to enter DFS contests and place anxiety-inducing bets on games that most of our friends and family probably won't even know are being played--and if you're still reading this paragraph, I am fully confident that you share my sentiment on that point. Anyway, let's get to talking about the Spring Football league that could've only been originally brought to us by the minds behind the WWE. XFL 2023: let's rock.
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Week 10 Power Rankings
- D.C. Defenders
- Seattle Sea Dragons
- St. Louis Battlehawks
- Arlington Renegades
- Houston Roughnecks
- San Antonio Brahmas
- Vegas Vipers
- Orlando Guardians
Week 10 MVP Ladder
- Abram Smith (RB, Defenders)
- Jordan Ta'amu (QB, Defenders)
- Ben DiNucci (QB, Sea Dragons)
- A.J. McCarron (QB, Battlehawks)
- Jahcour Pearson (WR, Sea Dragons)
Orlando Guardians at St. Louis Battlehawks (Saturday, April 22nd, 12 PM)
STL (-8.5), O/U 47
Best Bet: Guardians (+8.5) & Under 47
A.J. McCarron might be back from his shoulder injury, but the Battlehawks continue to limp through to the finish line of the 2023 XFL season. After getting dismantled by the Seattle Sea Dragons last week, both St. Louis and Seattle find themselves in must-win Week 10 games against teams that have been far more competitive over the latter-half of 2023, and St. Louis has looked the far more vulnerable team entering the homestretch. To reiterate, the Guardians looked like one of the best teams in the XFL after their victory over D.C. a few weeks ago, but since then Quinten Dormady has come back down to earth and made plenty more mistakes, but the likes of Devin Darrington and Cody Latimer have ranged from dependable to fantastic all year, while the Guardians receiving core has risen to the occasion as well.
With the vulnerability of McCarron and Brian Hill over the last couple of weeks, I would love to think that the Guardians can win this and help propel the Sea Dragons into the postseason, but hilariously, I don't think it is to be. I think the Battlehawks struggle to reach their offensive output from the majority of the season and that, though they may try to give it away, Orlando will give it right back, but easily cover in a final score range of 18-18 to 21-17. Why this O/U is so high, I do not know. The football and Sea Dragons fan in me has to ask: wouldn't it be vintage Terrell Buckley to grab this win in the final week and keep St. Louis from the playoffs?
D.C. Defenders at San Antonio Brahmas (Saturday, April 22nd, 3 PM)
D.C. (-3), O/U 41.5
Best Bet: Defenders (-3) & Under 41.5
This game makes me a bit nervous--the D.C. Defenders have already clinched the top seed in the North Division, and the San Antonio Brahmas can still make the playoffs with a win and an Arlington loss. Between Jack Coan having himself quite a game last week, Jacques Patrick's consistently solid play, and the continued stout play on defense, the Brahmas looked like a somewhat dangerous team last week against the Orlando Guardians, and the fact that they have remained in the South Division race until this point says a lot about them, the Renegades, and the entire division.
This game is all about motivation. San Antonio has all of the motivation in the world--D.C. has some of the least Week 10 motivation in the XFL. I mean, we're now in a world where the Brahmas scored 25 points in the previous week, and D.C. is coming off of a two-point overtime victory over a highly-incentivized Renegades squad. I think that they still don't have enough to beat the Defenders--but I also think that they'll have a decent scoring output and hold D.C. below their usual production. I'd say a score range of 21-18 to 24-16 is most likely, so I'm heavily in favor of the under.
Houston Roughnecks at Arlington Renegades (Sunday, April 23rd, 3 PM)
ARL (-1), O/U 42.5
Best Bet: Renegades (-1) & Over 42.5
This is a brutal game to have as the last on your regular season schedule--if Arlington survives and makes the postseason, they'll turn around and play this exact game again next week, and historically, back-to-back series haven't gone well for the Renegades, granted, in a very limited sample size. Half-point cover last week aside, the Houston Roughnecks looked extremely vulnerable against a revitalized Viper squad in Week 9 while the Renegades took the D.C. Defenders to overtime, finally producing a solid offensive output resulting in 26 points. Arlington got solid outings out of seven to eight players overall on offense last week while Max Borghi and Brycen Alleyne had to carry the Roughnecks to victory in spite of the damage that Brandon Silvers was doing in throwing the ball.
Really--the guy that at one point led the XFL MVP race now looks to be one of the worst starting QBs in the league, with the Cole McDonald option not looking any better. I think that the Arlington Renegades are now a better team than the Houston Roughnecks, and they might need to prove that to see a birth in the South Division Championship. Not only that, but one must ask: what is Houston even playing for in Week 10? At home, the Renegades take this by a final score of anywhere from 21-18 to 26-20, with 24-21 being my most probable tally, so I lean slightly towards the over.
Vegas Vipers at Seattle Sea Dragons (Sunday, April 23rd, 9 PM)
SEA (-8), O/U 47.5
Best Bet: Sea Dragons (-8) & Over 47.5
This is it--we all seem to believe that at this point, the Seattle Sea Dragons are the second-best team in the XFL, but they are going to have to win in order to even make the playoffs. For a full range of postseason scenarios between Seattle and St. Louis, see the link below.
Seattle-St. Louis Postseason Scenarios
The Sea Dragons finally got around to pairing their peak defensive and offensive performances together last week in a divisional tide-turning, 30-12 win in Seattle over the St. Louis Battlehawks. On the other side, with Jalan McClendon at quarterback and John Lovett doing it all out of the backfield and as a pass-catcher, the Vegas Vipers have been putting teams in danger over the last handful of weeks and enjoying the role of spoiler for others' playoff hopes, giving the Houston Roughnecks a real run for their money (that would be a great pun if I was discussing the Gamblers) in a more-competitive-than-it-appeared loss of 28-21 in Week 9.
The points scored in this game will matter for the purpose of tie-breakers, and I think the Seattle crowd is going to be 100% behind the effort. In past weeks, that need to score points might've forced the Sea Dragons into silly mistakes, but Ben DiNucci has been slinging at a high level and with a getting-going safety net of Phillip Lindsay in the backfield, I think the Sea Dragons end up taking this by a score in the range of 28-16 to 32-21, but with a most probable final tally of 30-18. With points mattering in a Sea Dragons game, I'll have to opt for the over. The drama continues to the final week--I still can't believe one of Seattle and St. Louis won't have a shot at the XFL title.
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