Defensive Struggles and Offensive Strengths: What to Expect for Week 2 Brahmas vs Battlehawks
- SABrahmabullpen
- 16 hours ago
- 2 min read
This Week, the San Antonio Brahmas will face the St. Louis Battlehawks in St. Louis. The Brahmas should be very comfortable with the travel to St. Louis since they played in the Dome of Americas Center three times last year: one regular-season game, the XFL Conference Championship game, and the UFL champions game against the Birmingham Stallions. They were 1-2 in those games and hope to increase their winning percentage since scheduling conflicts with using the Alamodome will require them to play two regular-season games this year. If they make the championship game, the Brahmas will play at least three games in St. Louis. They could be required to play a fourth game if the Battlehawks have home-field advantage for the conference championship game again, and the Brahmas right the ship enough to play in that game.
On to this week's preview, the Battlehawks were one of the league's top-performing teams from Week One. QB Manny Wilkins had a completion percentage of 77.3%, while the Battlehawks RBs went 1 and 3 in rushing yards in the league. Jarveon Howard rushed for 115 yards, Jacob Saylors added another 93 yards, and each recorded 1 rushing TD.
These stats are concerning for the Brahmas, whose defense gave up a league-leading 33 points to the Renegades in week 1. However, this doesn’t mean the Brahmas are not equipped to handle UFL offenses. Wade Phillips has historically fielded the league's best scoring defense, which was ranked #1 in 2023 for the XFL and 2024 for the UFL. With the performances from Brahmas defenders such as Rashard Lawrence, who leads the team with a PFF defensive rating of 80.6, Jordan Williams, who is currently in 2nd place for the league in tackles with 8, or Caeveon Patton, who is second in the league in rush defense grades the team looks to slow down this Battlehawks Offense.
In the post-game news conference, Coach Phillips did not seem concerned, stating, “It is just week one. They are 1 and 0, and we are 0 and 1.” (The UFL, n.d.) In a separate interview by San Antonio Sports, Star Phillips took the blame for the sear number of points given up, stating, “We tackled poorly, and that's probably my fault. We should have run more full-contact tackling drills in training camp.” (San Antonio Sports Star, n.d.)
Historically, the Brahmas are known for winning games with a whatever-it-takes mentality, and this week's match will amplify that mantra. And make no mistake: If the Brahmas can pull the upset, the week one loss will be a distant memory and set the team up for a second consecutive XFL conference championship run.
All stats and ratings sourced from PFF.com.
eferences
PFF Football News & Analysis. (2025). Premium Stats. Retrieved from PFF: https://www.pff.com/
San Antonio Sports Star. (n.d.). The Blitz With Jason & Joe. Retrieved from 94.1 San Antonio's Sports Star: https://www.sasportsstar.com/
The UFL. (n.d.). Latest Videos. Retrieved from The UFL: https://www.theufl.com/teams/san-antonio/videos
Commenti