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The 2023 USFL 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 USFL action, so join me here and pay homage to the original "fun" league. Be sure to also read all our other weekly USFL Fantasy Football articles.
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.
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 started it all with the likes of Steve Young, Jim Kelly, Reggie White, Doug Flutie, and near-Congressman Herschel Walker.
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Week 7 USFL Power Rankings
- Houston Gamblers
- New Orleans Breakers
- Birmingham Stallions
- Memphis Showboats
- Pittsburgh Maulers
- Philadelphia Stars
- New Jersey Generals
- Michigan Panthers
Week 7 USFL MVP Ladder
- Mark Thompson (RB, Houston Gamblers)
- McLeod Bethel-Thompson (QB, New Orleans Breakers)
- Alex McGough (QB, Birmingham Stallions)
- Wes Hills (RB, New Orleans Breakers)/Justin Hall (WR, Houston Gamblers)
- Luis Aguilar (K, Philadelphia Stars)/Olive Sagapolu (DL, Pittsburgh Maulers)/Reggie Walker (DE, Houston Gamblers)/Greg Reaves (LB, Memphis Showboats)
Week 7
Birmingham Stallions at New Orleans Breakers (Saturday, May 27th, 4 PM)
BHAM (-1.5), O/U 45.5
Best Bet: Breakers (+1.5), ***ML (+105)***, & Over 45.5
After an undefeated start, the New Orleans Breakers find themselves with the Houston Gamblers and Birmingham Stallions at 4-2 after rattling off two straight losses. Wes Hills has actually looked human over the past couple of weeks and McLeod Bethel-Thompson has started to make several key mistakes as opposed to purely lighting up the scoreboard. Even with the improved play of the Memphis Showboats and the unbelievable fact that the Philadelphia Stars sit atop the North Division, a 16-10 loss to Philly in Week 6 was a bad look, and even worse when NOLA dropped said games by a combined score of 33-20 against two contrastingly one-dimensional squads.
The Birmingham Stallions on the other hand have been up and down despite being short-handed, and Alex McGough and C.J. Marable were clicking on all cylinders last week in a 27-13 victory over the Michigan Panthers. Not to take too much credit away from the Stallions in that one--but it's very hard to not see every other team in the USFL beating the Michigan Panthers by a score of at least 27-13 at this point. This is the last week where I will stand strong with the Breakers and give John DeFilippo one last week to show that he can adjust this offense to start rolling again after having a two-week sample size of struggles to prepare accordingly for a big matchup with Birmingham. I think in a firefight, New Orleans gets right and starts scoring 20+ again. I think this matchup is too close to not favor the points with the Breakers and a straight-up ML victory, but regardless of who takes it, I still think it goes over 45.5 with a final score range of 24-21 to 30-27.
Philadelphia Stars at Pittsburgh Maulers (Saturday, May 27th, 9 PM)
PIT (-1), O/U 39.5
Best Bet: Maulers (-1) & Under 39.5
We have all officially migrated to Crazy Spring Football Land, because the Philadelphia Stars are in first place in the North Division following two straight victories over the New Jersey Generals and New Orleans Breakers, riding capitalization of turnovers and legendary special teams performances to a 3-3 record. While the offense has hardly been putting up the championship-level numbers that we expected entering the 2023 USFL season and Case Cookus and the offensive line have at times appeared to be actively working against the concept of success, the recent uptick in Matt Colburn II's rushing activity and efficiency has been putting Philly in position for Luis Aguilar to drive home wins three points at a time. Elsewhere in Pennsylvania, just when we thought that the intimidating Pittsburgh Maulers looked destined to take over the top spot in the North--BAM--they get embarrassed in a 22-0 shutout loss to the surging Showboats.
Memphis's offense looked far from par, and Troy Williams was alright in his passing (while he was in) despite an interception, Pittsburgh's top two gainers on the ground, WR Bailey Gaither and RB Madre London, totaled just 30 yards between them while Williams struggled to find footing in his scrambles and James Morgan put the cherry on top of the sundae of disappointment with two picks next to only nine completions. Despite these differing directions, this simply remains a terrible matchup for the Stars. Between Olive Sagapolu, Reuben Foster, Terry Beckner Jr., Boogie Roberts, and Kyahva Tezino, Cookus and Colburn are going to be in for a crunching day. If Troy Williams can find Gaither and Isiah Hennie through the air and yardage on his feet--which I don't think the Stars can stop--I think the Maulers come out on top in what could end up being a special teams-decided contest, in a final score range of 13-10 to 21-17, so lay one with Pittsburgh and go under all the way.
Houston Gamblers at Memphis Showboats (Sunday, May 28th, 2:30 PM)
HOU (-3.5), O/U 43.5
Best Bet: Showboats (+3.5), ***ML (+140)***, & Under 43.5
I mean, between the two of these teams, I am just bummed that one has to lose this week, because these are definitely the two h0ttest teams in the USFL as they ride a combined seven straight wins entering their Week 7 matchup. The Houston Gamblers have started to look like a three-headed offensive monster in their own right. While Kenji Bahar's passing volume has been up and down, his increasing ability to limit turnovers has been essential, and WR Justin Hall has made Bahar's job a lot easier over the course of the season with 355 yards and four touchdowns. But obviously, the real key has been the week-by-week running of Mark Thompson, whose 374 yards and nine touchdowns over the course of four games have allowed Houston to control the pace of the game and take four in a row despite a wide range of final scores.
Behind the play of guys like Greg Reaves, Jordan Williams, Jeff McCulloch, and Troy Warner, the Memphis Showboats defense has evolved to juggernaut status, holding the Breakers and Maulers to a combined ten points over the last two weeks. While the Memphis offense was in a desperate state up until last week with Cole Kelley being the only saving grace, last week while Kelley only managed 14/24 passing for 135 yards and a TD (yet no INT), finally (FINALLY) they got a solid output out of the backfield in the hands of Juwan Washington in Week 6 with 71 yards on 20 carries. Lacking in efficiency, sure, but the commitment of putting the ball in the RB's hands 20 times in a game is a big step for the Showboats coaching staff to make in taking advantage of their greatest strengths. I have confidence that Memphis can win this game outright, but I have great confidence that they keep this game within three points, hitting the under hard with a final score range of 13-10 to 24-21 at the absolute max.
Michigan Panthers at New Jersey Generals (Sunday, May 28th, 5:30 PM)
NJ (-6.5), O/U 40.5
Best Bet: Panthers (+6.5) & Under 39.5
You want a case study of how things have changed since the end of Week 2--take a hard gander at the final matchup of Week 7. After Michigan started off 2-0 and the Generals got out to 2-1, they both now sit at 2-4, yet amazingly, one game out of first place in the North Division behind Philadelphia. How did things get this bad? It doesn't add up that all of their combined struggles come from Josh Love at QB, fumbles by Darius Victor, and a disastrous transition to Kyle Lauletta at quarterback over De'Andre Johnson. Between De'Andre, Victor, Trey Williams, Reggie Corbin (the USFL leader in all-purpose yards with 820), and Stevie Scott III--these two squads boast some of the best ground games in the league, and between Chris Orr, D'Juan Hines, Frank Ginda, Breeland Speaks, Tyshun Render, and Toby Johnson--this game has more than its share of defensive playmakers.
At a certain point, you have to take a look at the consistent results as opposed to how each team ends up at their final score. The Panthers have only mustered a combined 43 points over the last four weeks (10.75 per game) while giving up a combined 107 points (26.75 per week) over that same stretch, including 28 to the New Jersey Generals back in Week 3. Unfortunately, Lauletta (for some god-forsaken reason) will be getting the start again for New Jersey this week, and they would be very wise to not lean on him. The difference between Lauletta and Johnson is the difference between the Generals being able to cover by a wide margin this week and cutting it way too close to losing near-insurmountable ground in the postseason hunt. We can't trust the Panthers to score more than 13 points until they prove otherwise, but we can't expect much more of New Jersey while they're making a tremendous mistake on their QB depth chart. Michigan keeps it close in a final score ranging from 13-10 to 19-16, so ride one last under into Week 8.
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