Dallas Renegades struggle to cash in on scoring chances in XFL debut
We still don’t have a winning pro football team in North Texas.
The Dallas Renegades, who opened their inaugural season in the XFL Sunday afternoon at Globe Life Park, struggled to put the ball in the end zone as the St. Louis BattleHawks held on for a 15-9 win in front of an announced crowd of 17,026.
Both quarterbacks, including the Renegades’ Philip Nelson, played admirably. Nelson, who was starting in place of Landry Jones — still recovering from a knee injury — completed 33 of 42 passes for 209 yards. His only mistake came with 15 seconds remaining when his 42nd pass of the game was picked off to seal the win for St. Louis.
“We were a little rough tackling and being physical,” Renegades coach Bob Stoops said. “We allowed them to mush us a little bit too much there. Hopefully we can grow from Game 1 to Game 2 in being able to playing a little bit more physical.”
The Renegades took a 9-6 lead into the fourth quarter behind three field goals from Austin MacGinnis but the BattleHawks regained the lead with a 9-yard touchdown pass from Jordan Ta’amu to Alonzo Russell.
Ta’amu completed 20 of 27 passes for 209 yards and a touchdown.
The big difference was St. Louis’ ability to run the ball. The BattleHawks outrushed the Renegades 192 yards to 58. Former Dallas Cowboys and Haltom High School running back Lance Dunbar led the Renegades with 27 yards on five carries, including 20 yards on a one play early during the third-quarter drive that briefly gave Dallas a three-point lead.
St. Louis outgained Dallas 374 yards to 267 and had 24 first downs to Dallas’ 16.
“I thought [Stoops] was going to try to make this a defensive struggle and we were up to the challenge today,” St. Louis coach Jonathan Haynes said.
The Renegades play their first road game against the Wildcats in Los Angeles next Sunday at 2 p.m.
“Defensively, we really did a great job keeping us in there but we gave up a couple of big plays,” Stoops said. “Offensively, we’ve got to be able to convert down in the red zone. Too many field goals. I’ve said it and lived it my whole life as a coach, too many field goals get you beat.”
This story was originally published February 9, 2020 at 6:56 PM.
