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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 all over the world on that device in your pocket, and 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. 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 15, 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 9 Power Rankings
- D.C. Defenders
- St. Louis Battlehawks
- Seattle Sea Dragons
- Houston Roughnecks
- Arlington Renegades
- Orlando Guardians
- Vegas Vipers
- San Antonio Brahmas
Week 9 MVP Ladder
- Abram Smith (RB, Defenders)
- Jordan Ta'amu (QB, Defenders)
- Brian Hill (RB, Battlehawks)
- A.J. McCarron (QB, Battlehawks)
- Ben DiNucci (QB, Sea Dragons)
Vegas Vipers at Houston Roughnecks (Saturday, April 15, 12:30 PM)
HOU (-6.5), O/U 43
Best Bet: Vipers (+6.5) & Under 43
The Houston Roughnecks got completely exposed once they started playing the three best teams in the XFL instead of the three worst at home. Last week against the Brahmas, they looked way closer in quality to the worst teams in the league than they did to the teams that handed them their three losses, limping to a 17-15 overtime victory.
To sum it up: Jacques Patrick tore the Roughnecks up, Houston's ground game accomplished nothing, and for just a moment, I was wondering who was playing the better game between Brandon Silvers and Jack Coan.
The Vipers have come from left field playing inspired football despite their personnel limitations, putting a tremendous Week 8 scare into the playoff-hunting Battlehawks in an OT loss in the dome.
How do you neutralize your disadvantaged roster strength, particularly on offense? A hungry, conservative, accurate-passing QB by the name of Jalan McClendon, who is a threat on the ground and doesn't foolishly throw the ball away. He torched the Brahmas in Week 7 and took his team to the brink in St. Louis.
I don't know how I think these teams match up, but Vegas was able to stymie Patrick while Houston got toasted. If Coan was able to find success, imagine how they'll struggle once a guy who passes better than Coan takes off on his feet.
I still don't know if Vegas has the firepower to get the win, but I'm confident that this game will be quite close with both teams scoring in the teens. I see the range within 15-13 and 19-17. Smack the one-two punch of the points with the Vipers and under 43.
Orlando Guardians at San Antonio Brahmas (Saturday, April 15, 7 PM)
SA (-1.5), O/U 39
Best Bet: Guardians (+1.5, **HIT THAT ML**) & Under 39
I understand that the South is a far weaker division. With the Guardians officially eliminated from the postseason, I don't want to live in a world where the San Antonio Brahmas are a playoff team. I can easily get behind multi-faceted Jacques Patrick having to shoulder 100% of the Brahmas' rush attack (and a sizeable chunk of the receiving game).
Also, Landen Akers and Alize Mack are starting to resemble a legitimate threat of a receiving tandem that even Jack Coan can target for some semblance of yardage. I believe them to be a moderately greater offensive threat if they start Paxton Lynch for the last two weeks of the regular season.
Orlando had a bright, shining moment in taking down D.C. in epic fashion. While Quinten Dormady still played well last week, he committed more mistakes, his attempts to run were stuffed by the Renegades, and Orlando's pair of running backs couldn't get anything started.
Did Arlington score 18 vs. Orlando, or do we view that as Orlando allowing 18 points to Arlington? Having said that, the Guardians can score enough points to beat San Antonio even if their backfield can't gain a single yard all game. Paxton Lynch would make them slightly more dangerous, but still within a terrible offensive scheme with few weapons to work with.
You would never guess that of these two squads, the Brahmas are the team still playing for a postseason berth. Orlando is the team with the fire in their gut at this point, and they seem to enjoy playing competitively much more than being a joke. San Antonio's string of bad luck at QB has left them looking a bit demoralized.
The Guardians are going to win this game and ride laughing into the night at axing the Brahmas' last hope. I think they'll do it by a score between 16-15 and 24-15, with 19-15 being the most probable final tally. +1.5 -- please.
Get down and throw down hard on the Guardians' ML. These teams have no chance of reaching 39 combined points unless San Antonio's defense totally folds out of nowhere and they get blown out by Orlando reaching 30+ again.
Arlington Renegades at D.C. Defenders (Sunday, April 16, 12 PM)
D.C. (-8.5), O/U 41.5
Best Bet: Defenders (-8.5) & Over 41.5
I don't know how it possibly happened, but over the last few weeks, the Arlington Renegades (my favorite team in the South for some reason) are starting to look like they are just as good. They are possibly trending in a better direction than the Houston Roughnecks.
They've each beaten the worst teams and lost to the best. The only difference is Arlington's unfortunate loss in the back-to-back series with San Antonio and the fact that they have played maybe a bit more competitively against the XFL's top tier.
Other than their lone loss to Orlando on the shoulders of a monstrous Quinten Dormady performance, the D.C. Defenders have passed every possible test in this league against all of its best teams, multiple times over. Plus, they're getting scarier in their all-around offense with Jordan Ta'amu's passing output and efficiency steadily climbing to complement the four-man ground game and the deadly receiving duo of Lucky Jackson and Chris Blair.
The Renegades stopped all Orlando rushing attempts in their tracks after the week leading up to it had us all believing that the Guardians were now playing like a top-three team. Their secondary got lit up, but if you have to let D.C. beat you somewhere, you'd rather it come from their passing game.
Luis Perez has already proven to be a step up for Arlington at quarterback, if for nothing else because of the lack of turnovers. While Leddie Brown is joining in on the backfield action with De'Veon Smith, they're actually starting to see some guys not named Sal Cannella (as much as I love him) catch passes and do some damage.
However, we still must turn to the actual results of these games. That reads as Arlington still being worst in the league at 111 points through eight weeks with losses to the Sea Dragons and Battlehawks by a combined 22. Juxtapose that first with D.C.'s 241 total points ranking by a margin of 47 over Houston, the Defenders having put up 30+ in four of their last five contests, and a total point-differential of +33 in the five games since March 12.
I would love for Arlington to have a chance here, but for everything they do well, D.C. does it much better. There's still plenty of motivation left for Reggie Barlow's cast at home in front of the Beer Snake. I think they win by between nine and 11, but without reaching the 30+ point mark. Honestly, if Arlington keeps it in that range and scores 16+, I'll walk away impressed and encouraged by the progress. I think this game ends within 25-16 to 28-17/28-19.
Seattle Sea Dragons at St. Louis Battlehawks (Sunday, April 16, 3 PM)
STL (-2), O/U 46
Best Bet: Sea Dragons (+2, **HIT THAT ML**) & Over 46
This is the most important game of the XFL season or at least the most important game since that phenomenal Seattle-D.C. clash last week. Can you imagine if the Vipers had managed to close the door in overtime, potentially spoiling the 2023 campaign for St. Louis, while the Sea Dragons got back to slinging the rock (no Brahmas pun intended) and came within a one-point swing of taking control of the North division?
Now, this game is a must-win for Jim Haslett's bunch, and they'll have to do it in front of a ravenous crowd cheering 35,000+ deep. Both teams are coming off potential emotional letdown spots with St. Louis surviving a nothing-to-lose Vegas rushing onslaught in OT after a fourth-quarter rally and Seattle coming within a nose of a high-scoring dethroning of the XFL's best team.
Both teams feel like they need this win to grab the second North playoff spot because they do. And both teams cap off the regular season at home against eliminated teams that have been increasingly dangerous since they switched things up at QB. The stage is set, and how I feel about the outcome depends considerably on whether A.J. McCarron's shoulder injury lingers.
The fact that it seemed like no big deal at first and ultimately kept him from the next game makes me believe it is worse and more bothersome than initially suspected. Meanwhile, with Phillip Lindsay in the backfield (probably getting more comfortable), the offense opened up again against the Defenders. Ben DiNucci topped 300 passing yards with two TDs and just a single turnover (which is so much better than it could be).
If McCarron is again hampered or out, the Sea Dragons' defense will eat Nick Tiano alive and force a couple of turnovers of their own, allowing them to zone in on limiting the damage that Brian Hill does in the backfield. With McCarron, this will end up a tight game, but I think Seattle's offense is back to clicking and they are the far more desperate team.
Regardless, I think Seattle wins by between two and six points, so I'm putting my soul into the ML. If McCarron plays, I think the score is between 20-18 and 28-26. If McCarron is out, I think they try to hold possession for longer and drain the clock on the ground, so the final score lands between 18-16 and 24-17. I'm not crazy about any play on the O/U with the variables in this game.
Wow, this game is going to be awesome.
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