Maulers can't keep up with Stallions in USFL championship game

When head coach Ray Horton offered his opening remarks on the eve of the USFL championship, he wasn’t concerned that the Pittsburgh Maulers took a losing record into the game against the league’s top team, the Birmingham Stallions.

“We’re ready,” Horton said Friday. “We’re like fine-tuned thoroughbred horses that are now in the gates, and they are ready for the gates to open, and they’re ready to sprint.”

It didn’t quite work out that way Saturday night at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton, Ohio. Although the Maulers got off to a good start and held an early lead, they did no sprinting. Instead, they traded field goals for touchdowns and couldn’t keep up with the Stallions in a 28-12-loss.

Birmingham, which finished 8-2 in the regular season, repeated as league champions in the second year of the USFL’s rebirth. The Maulers, who played their home games in Canton this year, had a three-game winning streak stopped and finished 5-7 overall.

“We didn’t play well enough to win the game,” Horton said. “We didn’t play up to our level at any capacity. Any. We expected more, and we didn’t do it.”

League MVP Alex McGough had 243 yards passing and threw four TD passes, including three to former Steelers receiver Deon Cain. His number of touchdowns matched the field goals made by the Maulers’ Chris Blewitt, the former Pitt kicker.

“Field goals don’t win in this game,” Horton said. “Not in championship games.”

The Maulers, trying to go from worst to first after a 1-9 season in 2022, entered with the league’s best defense and led the USFL in takeaways, but they couldn’t convert their only turnover into points, a momentum killer in the second half.

An example of the Maulers’ offensive shortcomings came in the first half when they controlled the clock for 21 minutes yet came away with just three Blewitt field goals and trailed 14-9 at intermission.

McGough threw his third touchdown pass and second to Cain to push the Stallions’ lead to 21-9 on Birmingham’s first possession of the second half.

Blewitt’s fourth field goal, a 51-yarder, pulled the Maulers within 21-12 midway through the third.

McGough had the Stallions inside the red zone with a chance to pad the lead late in the third. That’s when the Maulers, armed with a league-high 20 takeaways in the regular season, got their first of the title game.

Linebacker Reuben Foster, a former first-round pick of the San Francisco 49ers, chased him out of the pocket and forced a fumble that massive defensive end Olive Sagapolu scooped near midfield. As he neared the end zone, Sagapolu handed the ball to safety Eli Walker who ran the rest of the way for the apparent touchdown. The lateral was forward, however, bringing the ball back to the Stallions 34.

The Maulers couldn’t capitalize, and Blewitt was wide left from 48 yards.

McGough threw his fourth touchdown pass, from 40 yards, to Cain with 6:28 remaining to establish the final score.

“You’ll have games like that,” Maulers linebacker Kyahva Tezino said. “You have to play better in big games like that, and we didn’t play up to our standard.”

When the teams met in early May in the regular season, the lead was exchanged three times in the fourth quarter before the Stallions pulled out a 24-20 victory.

Blewitt booted four field goals in that game, and the championship game began in similar fashion with Blewitt kicking a 37-yarder to give the Maulers a 3-0 lead on their first drive.

If the game plan was to keep the Stallions’ high-scoring offense on the sideline, it was successful as the opening drive exhausted 9 minutes, 33 seconds from the clock.

Birmingham’s opening possession ended with a failed fourth-and-2 attempt at their 43. Foster collided with McGough before the line of scrimmage, and the Maulers stopped him for a loss.

McGough got untracked on the Stallions’ second possession. He hooked up with wide receiver Davion Davis with a 42-yard touchdown pass that on a post route that put Birmingham ahead, 7-3.

Maulers quarterback Troy Williams had a chance to match McGough with a deep touchdown pass on the next possession, but Ishmael Hyman couldn’t hold onto it as he landed in the end zone. That drive also ended without a touchdown, although Blewitt’s 36-yarder pulled the Maulers within 7-6.

McGough provided Birmingham a 14-6 lead with 0:31 left in the first half when he threw a 3-yard touchdown pass to Cain, who finished with four catches for 70 yards.

Blewitt knocked through a 50-yard field goal on the final play of the half to make it 14-9.

Another contributor for Birmingham was tight end Jace Sternberger, who spent the past two seasons on the Steelers practice squad. He caught three passes for 65 yards. Other former Steelers on the Stallions’ roster included defensive back Brian Allen, defensive lineman Khalil Davis and offensive lineman Derwin Gray.

Horton said the Maulers reaching the championship game was a building block for his team.

“We’re not laughingstocks of the league anymore,” he said. “We’re a force to be reckoned with.”