Monday, Feb. 19, 2001

XFL commentary — Week Three

Can anyone find the endzone other than defenses?

By Andy Hanacek, Associate editor and XFL analyst

But, as we’ve seen these first few weeks, the XFL’s defenses seem to have the edge. No team is a better example of that fact than the Enforcers. Chicago has the second-best offense in the league (tied with Los Angeles) but hasn’t won a game yet. That’s because its defense is absolutely, positively the biggest sieve in the league. The Enforcers’ defense has given up 86 points on the season, 28 more than the next-worst unit.

When the Enforcers return to Chicago this week for their (Week Four!) home opener, expect to hear boos for QB Tim Lester when he takes the field. He’s made terrible mistakes at crucial points that have cost the Enforcers, but really, it’s not wholly his fault. If the defense would step up, Lester wouldn’t have to force the issue at the end of the game. He’s obviously not comfortable enough in the offense to be forcing throws, so his coaches and teammates need to find a way to get him to relax. A defensive stop would help a lot.

Week Three brought us our first true QB benching. New York/New Jersey Hitmen QB Charles Puleri was taken out of the game by head coach Rusty Tillman in favor of Wally Richardson. Richardson promptly drove the team to a touchdown. Don’t be surprised if Puleri remains on the bench. And if Week Three was any indication, Puleri will help Richardson as much from the sideline as he can. See, those microphones can bring us interesting tidbits.

The potshots have slowed to a trickle as sportswriters and columnists around the country begin to ignore the XFL. But there are some hints of stupidity out there. Case in point: An Associated Press writer, working for a news service that should be unbiased in its game recaps, talked about the offsetting personal-foul penalties in the Enforcers-Bolts game at the end of the story. The writer said that the penalties seemed to be borrowed from the XFL’s relative, the WWF. Where do they get this stuff? You mean to tell me in the holier-than-thou NFL they don’t push and shove each other? There are never fights? Wow.

If Stepfret Williams gets hurt, will QB Casey Weldon have anyone to throw to?

It seems to me that the biggest problem for offenses so far has been penalties and turnovers. Not much different from the NFL. But what is different is that there are often so many penalties that it really slows the game to a crawl. There isn’t much the XFL can do about that except hope that the players get their acts together.

I’ve noticed that the announcers have gotten less annoying and more digestible from week to week. Soon, we’ll be ignoring them, as we do most of the generic NFL announcers. Also, the production crews have gotten much, much better. Kudos to them for improving on the fly. They deserve a lot of credit for making the games more bearable to watch. But I still think Matt Vasgersian belongs on NBC’s A team, not the B team.

If you’re like me, trying to play XFL fantasy football, I wish you good luck. I’m having an extremely difficult time picking out players on a weekly basis who might do well. It’s such a guessing game right now, but it’s getting a bit clearer as to which players are at the top of their games. Check back later in the week for my fantasy tips, so I don’t get burned on a Brian Roche-like pick. (Roche was declared out for the season after I had advised everyone to sign him as their tight end last week).

E-mail your comments to ahanacek@primediasi.com

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2000 - 2001 Season