When the XFL looked ahead to the 2023 season, Week 3 was almost certainly the type of action the rebooted league was hoping to deliver. Each of the four games was a one-score affair, and each game included big plays and signature performances.
The weekend was capped off with a showdown between Hines Ward's San Antonio Brahmas and Wade Phillips' Houston Roughnecks. Houston roared out to a 22-7 halftime lead but needed several defensive stands in the second half to come away with a nine-point win. The Roughnecks are one of two teams that remain undefeated, along with the D.C. Defenders.
Sunday's second game wasn't pretty, but the Arlington Renegades improved to 2-1 thanks to their excellent defense. Two takeaways by the unit coupled with a clutch fourth-quarter drive by Kyle Sloter gave the Renegades a 10-9 victory over the Orlando Guardians.
The day's first game saw a clash of two of the league's three teams that had started 2-0, as the Defenders hosted the St. Louis BattleHawks. It was close most of the way, but the Defenders surged in the second half. A.J. McCarron tossed four touchdowns for St. Louis, but also had a pair of interceptions that proved costly. The win put D.C. alone atop the North Division.
Week 3 started off with an absolute bang on Saturday night, as the Seattle Sea Dragons got their first victory thanks to a 65-yard game-winning touchdown scored by former NFL star Josh Gordon.
Here's a look at the scores along with our biggest takeaways from the XFL's third weekend of games.
Week 3 scores
Saturday
Seattle Sea Dragons 30, Vegas Vipers 26
Sunday
D.C. Defenders 34, St. Louis BattleHawks 28
Arlington Renegades 10, Orlando Guardians 9
Houston Roughnecks 22, San Antonio Brahmas 13
Seattle soars behind Gordon, DiNucci
There was plenty of intrigue surrounding the Seattle Sea Dragons-Vegas Vipers matchup. Both entered Week 3 winless, but hadn't necessarily been terrible. In fact, both blew second-half leads in each of their first two games. So, who was going to blow it in Week 3?
After scoring 18 combined points in the first two quarters, Seattle and Vegas dropped a combined 38 points in the final two quarters. It was one of the games of the year, and ended up being the highest-scoring matchup of the season with 56 total points -- before it was eclipsed the next day by Defenders-BattleHawks. Sea Dragons quarterback Ben DiNucci completed 29 of 37 passes for 377 yards, four touchdowns and one interception, but it was Gordon who was the MVP of Saturday night. The former NFL star caught six passes for 118 yards and two touchdowns -- including the 65-yard game-winning score with just under one minute remaining in the fourth quarter. The Sea Dragons finally won their first game, and Gordon may be ready to explode.
Turnovers key in battle of 2-0 teams
The Defenders' showdown with the BattleHawks lived up to the hype as the weekend's only game between undefeated teams. It was a surprisingly high scoring game -- the 62 combined points are the most this season -- between two teams that largely leaned on their defenses during the season's first two weeks.
D.C. finally got a relatively prolific passing performance from Jordan Ta'amu, but the Defenders' victory can be mostly attributed to two key turnovers forced by their defense. The first turnover, a 41-yard pick-six by defensive back Michael Turner, gave the Defenders an early 14-0 lead. A fumble by St. Louis quarterback A.J. McCarron in the second half set up a D.C. field goal. In all, the Defenders forced four turnovers that included two interceptions of McCarron, who was unable to lead the BattleHawks to a third comeback win in as many weeks.
Arlington wins defensive duel
The Renegades did struggle on offense again, but the defense came up with two more takeaways to give them eight in three games. Kyle Sloter was efficient in his first start at quarterback, going 18-of-23 for 124 yards with a touchdown. The score came off a clutch fourth quarter drive to give Arlington the win, as Sloter went 6-of-7 for 52 yards on the possession. Sloter had a 17-yard touchdown strike to Tyler Vaughns for the score to tie the game with 7:58 left and De'Veon Smith converted the 1-point attempt to give Arlington the lead the good. It's difficult to determine if the Renegades are good enough to compete for a title, but their defense is one of the best in the league. They'll be in every game as a result.
The Orlando Guardians had another poor performance on offense, only scoring nine points in Sunday's loss -- even though the offensive yardage was improved. Paxton Lynch was efficient in completing 61.3% of his passes for 219 yards and a rushing touchdown, the only TD of the game for the Guardians. Two fumbles for Jah-Maine Martin in the first half took away any opportunities for points from a Guardians team that has just 33 points in three games -- failing to score more than 12 in any game. While Orlando looked better, it still has a long way to go to turn its season around.
Roughnecks make their case as XFL's best team
The Roughnecks may be the league's best team, and their third win was a total team effort. Quarterback Brandon Silvers started hot by completing 15 of his first 20 passes. He threw for 225 yards and three touchdowns in the first half while taking advantage of the league's deepest receiving corps. His favorite target was Jontre Kirklin, who caught two of Silvers' three touchdown passes.
San Antonio's defense pitched a shutout in the second half while setting up the half's only score on Kameron Kelly's interception. The Roughnecks' defense responded by forcing a punt, recording an interception and forcing a turnover on downs on the Brahmas' next three possessions.
You can relive all the action from Week 3 in our live blog below: