Bandits Broken: Breakers cruise 34-3

  Remember last week when I wrote that opening week wins in brand new leagues can often be deceiving?

Well, after an opening week victory over Pittsburgh, the Tampa Bay Bandits now have questions on which is their true team- the winners from week one or the team that was trounced by the New Orleans Breakers 34-3 at the USFL Hub in Birmingham.

Tampa Bay allowed four sacks and rarely challenged the Breakers in moving the football in a game that I severely question if anyone watched the game at all after halftime.

Tampa Bay will next play Houston next Saturday night.

Bandit Ball

1) This game could have been worse as New Orleans missed a field goal, an extra point, and turned the ball over on downs once.

2) The weather showed one difference between spring football and the fall and this is going to be something to watch as the season moves on- the humidity and heat.

Birmingham Alabama isn't noted for its cool weather or low humidity and you could see on the sideline just how draining the humidity was and how much worse it's going to be as the next eight weeks play out.

At least it will be fair for all eight teams at the same home site but it's going to be interesting to see how the lack of depth with the league's smaller rosters and who profits most late in games as the conditions grow worse.

3) Tampa Bay completed only eleven of twenty-eight passes between Jordan Ta'amu (eight of eighteen) and Brady White (three of ten) for only ninety-six yards between them and each throwing an interception.

Not winning many games with passing games like that!

4)  To be fair to Ta'amu and White, New Orleans sacked them four times and spent as much time in the Bandit backfield as the Tampa Bay running backs.

I'll have to see more games to note if the Breakers pass rush is that dominant or the Bandits offensive line is that terrible but on this afternoon, it was a clear mismatch between the lines of the two teams.

5) And the Breakers' passing game was strong with Kyle Sloter throwing two touchdown passes and Jonathan Adams making a leaping one-handed grab that ranks with anything you will see at higher levels.

Adams was the star with the spectacular catch, finishing with five catches for ninety-three yards but former Ohio State wideout Johnnie Dixon caught a touchdown pass as well.

6) I'm about done with this because it was as big a mismatch as you could imagine from a game with two teams that had played only one previous game.

I still stand by my statement that we still need to see more before getting too decisive on the top teams in a new league this early.

However, after two weeks, only New Orleans and Birmingham have won both of their games and they play each other on Saturday.

Two teams are 2-0, four teams are 1-1, and two are 0-2 so there is plenty to sift through but next week is going to be very important in a ten-game season for potential playoff berths.