In falling to New York Guardians, Dallas Renegades remain winless at home

Just not good enough.

Those were the words Dallas Renegades head coach Bob Stoops used to sum up his team’s play after their 30-12 loss to the New York Guardians before a crowd of 15,950 at Globe Life Park. The defeat dropped Dallas to 0-3 at home.

It’s not hard to see why. The Renegades offense accounted for two field goals, both coming in the first half, as the Guardians scored 21 points in the third quarter in breaking free from a 6-6 halftime game.

“A lot of the same old story with us, some of the same things, just very ineffective offensively, big touchdowns, interception for a touchdown, those kinds of things continue to plague us,” said Stoops.

New York came out in the second half and went 76 yards on eight plays to take the lead for good on a Marquise Williams 1-yard touchdown run.

Dallas (2-3), playing without injured starting quarterback Landry Jones, didn’t have the answer as it punted on its next two drives. New York didn’t have that problem as after the second Dallas punt New York (3-2) came out throwing as quarterback Luis Perez found wide receiver Colby Pearson open after a double move that ended up in an 80-yard scoring play for a New York 20-6 lead.

Any life Dallas had left was snuffed out two plays later as a short Philip Nelson pass was batted in the air by defensive end Ryan Mueller, who stayed with the ball for an interception and scampered 33 yards to extend the lead to 27-6.

The only spark Dallas had the entire game came on the ensuing kickoff when Austin Walter returned it 97 yards for the lone Renegades touchdown.

There were no bright spots on offense as Nelson had 210 passing yards but threw the ball 49 times to get there and was intercepted twice. The Renegades ran for just 56 yards as New York outgained Dallas 373-262.

“We just as an offense have to execute better, I have to execute better,” said Nelson, who will likely be the starter for Sunday’s road game at the DC Defenders with Jones expected to miss another week. “That’s what it really comes down to, I have to execute better.”

Getting the ball in Walter’s hands might help the woeful offense. He had 235 kickoff return yards, the most by an XFL player this year. His kickoff return was the second in the league this year and the longest. He also had 23 receiving yards as his 265 total yards are the most in a single game this year.

“Defensively overall I thought we were really pretty solid outside of the one big play we gave up,” Stoops said. “And then Austin Walter was a huge bright spot and huge kick return. He was excellent.

“It’s a disappointing loss, and we’ve got to play much better,” he said. “I take the blame for that as a coach. Us coaches have got to do a better job.”

This story was originally published March 7, 2020 at 9:01 PM.