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It has beeThe 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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XFL Championship: Arlington Renegades vs. D.C. Defenders (Saturday, May 13th, 8 PM)
D.C. (-6), O/U 46.5
Best Bet: Renegades (+6) & Over 46.5
Here we go folks--we have reached the XFL Championship game for the 2023 season. There were many points historically and this year where we thought this might not be possible, and yet in a season where the ratings tanked in the middle of the campaign, they beat the odds and actually made a comeback in viewership, while the USFL is currently struggling with their channel placement and timing. Despite the obvious drawbacks of a system that takes two teams into the postseason from each division and one into the championship game, I am at least very confident that we are getting the matchup between the best teams from the North and South Divisions--and if it has to be this way--I'm glad that we will be watching Arlington vs. D.C. because that final Defenders vs. Sea Dragons matchup was very disappointing from a competitive aspect.
The injury reports for both teams had several key players on watch this week, including D.J. Swearinger and De'Veon Smith, but as of now they both appear to be good to go for Saturday night. This is a game where both teams are coming off of arguably their best games of 2023 and where they truly signaled that they will be at their peaks with a week of rest going into this final contest. But before last week, the D.C. Defenders were either cutting it close every week due to the ten-game grind or due to their coasting in the postseason, but either they were hanging on by a thread each week down the stretch, including that 28-26 OT victory over Arlington.
For an article on some statistics that demonstrate how the Renegades can win, check out friend of the "Tap That" podcast Anthony Miller's piece on XFL News Hub at the link below:
I tend to agree with Anthony in many areas. The Renegades strong suit all year has been their defense, and it is only over the last few weeks that the combinations of Luis Perez at QB, De'Veon Smith and Leddie Brown in the backfield, Sal Cannella at TE, and the emergent receiver core have yielded upper-echelon statistical production and have actually looked like an offense capable of an XFL title.
However, XFL Offensive Player of the Year Jordan Ta'amu and RB Abram Smith have been doing this from start to finish, with Ta'amu's numbers actually picking up by a considerable pace past the midway point (and Abram's trending downward), while the Defenders WRs also became a much bigger factor in their success over the latter-half of the season. Now--this game is going to be in San Antonio, in the Alamodome to be exact, and so maybe that favors the higher passing volume of Luis Perez based on the recent sample size, but for as much as the Renegades have improved, I still believe that the Defenders already beat the second-best team in the XFL in the North Division Championship, and that Arlington has not bridged the gap that existed between them and D.C. in Week 9 when they took the overtime loss, and the mere fact that this game is in the state of Texas doesn't mean that the Renegades will have any sort of homefield advantage to merit more than maybe half a point.
I think that this game is competitive and close as it was in Week 9, with the strengths and weaknesses of these two teams neutralizing much of each other but with the D.C. Defenders greater advantages making the difference. I think this game ends in a final score range of anywhere from 21-18 to 28-26 once again, so based on the possibility-distribution, I favor the over, but I don't love it at all. The magic here lies in the fact that if the Arlington Renegades play a near-perfect game--force a turnover or two, click on offense, and limit the production of Abram Smith on the ground--and Bob Stoops can definitely collect another championship, and that definitely was not the case in the month of March.
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