SPORTS USA TODAY ❚ TUESDAY, MARCH 3, 2020 ❚ 5C
The XFL season is quickly approach-
ing its midway point, and at this stage
there’s enough of a sample size to assess
some key themes and storylines.
The good news is there are now no
winless teams after the Tampa Bay Vi-
pers secured their first victory Sunday.
Meanwhile, the Houston Roughnecks
continue as the league’s lone undefeat-
ed squad.
And while play has been mixed, the
biggest concerns are steady dips in tele-
vision ratings and attendance. For the
XFL to remain a viable professional
spring league during the NFL offseason,
it simply cannot afford to lose audience
engagement.
Here are the league’s Week 4 winners
and losers:
WINNERS
Vipers’ rushing attack:Tampa Bay
earned its first victory, improving to 1-3,
with a 25-0 throttling of the DC Defend-
ers. Coach Marc Trestman got it, in large
part, because of a dominant rushing at-
tack that rolled up 266 yards. The Vipers
became the first XFL team to feature two
players to have at least 100 rushing
yards in the same game when running
backs De’Veon Smith (24 attempts and
122 yards) and Jacques Patrick (21 at-
tempts, 108 yards and one touchdown)
made it happen. In fact, those were the
first individual 100-yard rushing perfor-
mances in league history.
Dallas attendance:Perhaps it was
because the league had been trying to
drum up interest in a Dallas-Houston
in-state rivalry, but the Renegades have
been the only team to have an increase
in attendance from one home game to
the next. In Week 1, the Renegades host-
ed 17,206 at Globe Life Park in Arlington
where MLB’s Rangers played until this
season. In Week 4, that number jumped
6.5% to 18,332. The other markets, by
comparison, have struggled. The New
York Guardians had 12,116 at their Sat-
urday game, which was down 31.2%
from 17,634 in Week 1. The Vipers had a
decrease of 32.4% on Sunday. Even the
St. Louis BattleHawks, who have been
the team with the best attendance,
haven’t been able to build on strong
showings, with their Week 4 game down
8% to 27,190 from 29,554 just six days
earlier.
Jordan Ta’amu:The starting quar-
terback of the BattleHawks has seen his
play steadily improve throughout the
season and he posted his best game of
the year in Saturday’s 23-16 victory
against the Seattle Dragons. Ta’amu
was efficient, completing 20 of 27
passes for 264 yards and one TD. He
also led St. Louis with 63 rushing yards
on 16 attempts and is navigating the
run-pass options in coach Jonathan
Hayes’ offense with ease. But most im-
pressive about Ta’amu’s play has been
his ball placement. He has flashed pow-
er and touch. Houston’s P.J. Walker has
gotten all of the attention for his play,
but Ta’amu has been just a step behind.
Luis Perez:Let’s get the negative out
of the way first. Perez’s passes went for
just 5.83 yards per attempts in Satur-
day’s 17-14 victory against the Los Ange-
les Wildcats. But Perez, getting the start
for the Guardians with Matt McGloin
sidelined because of a rib injury, still
played efficiently and made enough
plays to give New York its second home
victory to improve to 2-2. He completed
18 of 26 passes for just 150 yards but
threw a second-quarter, back-shoulder
touchdown pass to Mekale McKay that
was instrumental. These numbers
might not be enough for Perez to keep
the starting gig once McGloin heals, but
at the very least it creates more compe-
tition at the position and should elevate
everyone’s play.
LOSERS
Pep Hamilton: In the past two
weeks, the Defenders have given up vic-
tories to a pair of teams that entered the
weekend without a victory. In the past
two weeks, the Defenders have been
outscored 43-3 in the first halves; over-
all, that figure has ballooned to 64-9.
Quarterback Cardale Jones was
benched for the second game in a row.
He looks uncomfortable, out of confi-
dence, and was missing open receivers.
He was heard on the sideline asking for
receiver DeAndre Thompkins, who
missed an assignment, to be benched.
Jones finished with 72 passing yards,
but he had zero in the third quarter. He
finished just 9-for-22. The entire of-
fense ran just 17 plays after halftime.
DC gained 28 yards in the final two
quarters. This all spells trouble for
Hamilton, the coach and offensive
mind behind the Defenders, who
dropped to 2-2.
Landry Jones and Renegades’
turnovers: First-half struggles for
Jones and the Renegades continued in
a 27-20 loss Sunday to the Rough-
necks. Landry, in the first quarter,
completed as many passes to his own
team (three) as he did to Houston.
Jones went 3-for-7 for 35 yards with
the three picks in the first frame. It
even forced coach Bob Stoops to ex-
press annoyance on some of Jones’ de-
cisions when Stoops wore a micro-
phone. Jones finished with four turn-
overs after a strip-sack fumble was re-
turned for a touchdown in the fourth
quarter. Though Jones’ play improved
in the second half, he reinjured his left
knee, the same one he hurt in his first-
ever practice with the Renegades, on a
quarterback sneak. Then, backup Phil-
ip Nelson, Jones’ replacement, turned
the ball over on a play that was ruled a
fumble when a backward pass was
bobbled and landed in the hands of
Houston linebacker DeMarquis Gates.
It came with 2:00 left to play in the
game and when Dallas was at Hous-
ton’s own 3-yard line.
Jim Zorn:It was a rough go for
Zorn, the head coach of the Dragons, in
Week 4. Not only did his team fall to 1-
after a 23-16 loss to the BattleHawks,
but he was one of the main reasons
why. First, Zorn stuck with quarter-
back Brandon Silvers as his starter but
then benched him to start the second
half. B.J. Daniels, who had a legitimate
claim to start as recently as a couple of
weeks ago, instantly outperformed
Silvers and put Seattle in position to
come back from a 17-3 deficit. Then
Zorn hurt his team again with a ques-
tionable decision early in the fourth
quarter. After Daniels threw a 10-yard
touchdown pass to tight end Evan
Rodriguez to cut the deficit margin to
four points, Zorn inexplicably opted to
go for a three-point conversion try
from the 10-yard line, when a one- or
two-point try would have put Seattle
in position to tie or take the lead with a
field goal. Making matters worse, Zorn
doubled down when asked about the
decision, and his answer made no
sense when he said a conversion
would have put Seattle “one touch-
down away.”
Wildcats’ third-down tries:This is
officially a problem for coach Winston
Moss. On offense, time and time again,
the Wildcats just can’t stay on the
field. In Saturday’s 17-14 loss to the
Guardians, it was more of the same as
Los Angeles converted 2 of 12 third-
down tries. In LA’s three losses the
team has converted just 12 of 40 (30%)
attempts on third downs. In the Wild-
cats’ victory, in Week 3 against the De-
fenders, that figure wasn’t that much
better with LA moving the chains on
4 of 10 (40%) attempts.XFL WEEK 4 WINNERS AND LOSERS
Vipers rush out of
winless column
Lorenzo Reyes
USA TODAY
The Vipers’ De’Veon Smith, shown
Feb. 22, had a league-high 122 yards
rushing Sunday. MARY HOLT/USA TODAYTony Romo, per a New York Post re-
port, agreed to a deal to stay at CBS as
its lead NFL analyst partnered with
Jim Nantz for $17 million a year, a jaw-
dropping figure when you look at how
he’s out-earning some current star
NFL players in the process.
It’s a humongous chunk of change
to spend on a broadcaster, and it’s ig-
nited some debate, including with
some folks at For The Win: Is Romo
really worth all of that money, despite
the fact that he’s been a hit on the air
ever since he left the NFL and went to
the booth right away? Our Charles
Curtis and Steven Ruiz discuss below.He’s worth every pennyIt seems like no matter what contro-
versy or problems there are in the NFL,
fans will watch. That much is true.
It’s also true that there’s some value
to having respect from those same
fans for your booth. A broadcasting
team is only great when they’re seen,
heard and the criticism is at a mini-
mum.
That’s why ESPN went so hard after
Romo. Seemingly every Monday night
the past two seasons, social media was
filled with roasts of Booger McFarland.
He’s been at the center of multiple
memes, with NFL fans just waiting for
him to trip up so they can tweet about
him.
No, that doesn’t stop fans from
avoiding “Monday Night Football” or
playoff games. It won’t hurt the bottom
line. But it does mean the network
that’s supposed to be known as the
Worldwide Leader is the butt of jokes
for a few hours.
CBS found magic between Romo
and Nantz that it’s now paying a pre-
mium for. It’s worth it when the overall
feeling about watching a CBS lead
game is, “Man, I love hearing what Ro-
mo teaches me about each team every
week,” and the feeling about watching
‘MNF’ might be, “I wish I could mute
this thing.” – Charles CurtisCBS paid way too much moneyOh, I like this question because it will
give me some practice before the start of
free agency when I’ll hate every deal and
call every single one an overpay.
*clears throat*
WHAT IS CBS THINKING HERE?
$17 MILLION? THAT’S TOO MUCH.
ROMO ISN’T EVEN CLUTCH!
Look, I like Tony Romo. He’s already
established himself as one of the better
on-air analysts in the NFL. I’m not deny-
ing that he’s very talented; but, for me,
commentators are like running backs in
that even the great ones don’t move the
needle enough to warrant such an over-
pay.
Especially for Sunday games! This
isn’t “Monday Night Football,” which
takes a bit of effort to watch. Think
about it, you just spent the previous day
watching football for 12 hours and now
you’re exhausted from work ... it can be a
chore to watch ANOTHER football game
at that point. Especially if it’s like Dol-
phins-Steelers. Maybe you need a little
extra motivation, like an entertaining
commentator, to tune in.
But not on Sunday.
That’s THE day for football. We’re
watching no matter what, regardless of
who’s on the call. And Romo is typically
assigned to the best game CBS has that
week. Half the time, it’s the nationally
televised game, which means, in most
markets, it’s the only game on air. So if
people already have to watch, what ben-
efit is Romo providing?
Remember Phil Simms? There was a
whole Twitter account created just to
make fun of how bad he was at his job.
And guess what? We all still watched. It
did not make a difference. Romo will not
make a significant difference.
Of course, none of this really matters.
It’s not our money and there’s no salary
cap for the NFL’s broadcast partners. If
CBS thinks Romo is worth $17 million a
year, then, by all means, pay that man.
I’m just here to tell *does a quick Google
search* George Cheeks, CEO of CBS, he
could be spending his money more effi-
ciently. How about ”Old Sheldon”?
That’d make some money. – Steven RuizAnalyzing why Romo
is/isn’t worth $17 million
Charles Curtis and Steven Ruiz
For The Win | USA TODAY Network
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