XFL Week 5: What We Learned

Justin Carter reviews Week 5 of the XFL 2020 season with a recap of each game and identifies risers and fallers for fantasy football leagues.

The fifth week of XFL play is behind us, which means we've officially reached the halfway mark of the XFL regular season.

The Houston Roughnecks remain the league's only undefeated team, and no one else has fewer than two losses. Tampa Bay and Seattle bring up the rear at 1-4, but Seattle's playoff chances are still alive, as they're just a game back of second in their division.

Every week, I'll be bringing you some thoughts on how the previous weekend's games went, plus a few fantasy risers and fallers. Let's get going.

Houston Roughnecks 32 - Seattle Dragons 23

Dragons make move to B.J. Daniels, while Houston keeps on trucking

After benching Brandon Silvers last week, Seattle officially made the move to B.J. Daniels in the starting unit on Saturday, and he delivered by rushing for a pair of touchdowns and by not throwing an interception, which is significantly more than you can say for Brandon Silvers.

Of course, Daniels running the ball so much does mean less opportunities for others, and it's probably officially time to wave goodbye to Ja'Quan Gardner for fantasy purposes. Five carries for 12 yards to go along with zero targets in the passing game is, uhh, not great, especially when Gardner has been on the downswing lately.

Another player for Seattle who disappeared is Keenan Reynolds. Once expected to be the leading receiver for this Dragons team, his up-and-down year continued, as he caught just one pass for four yards. That's the same stat line he had in Week 4 against St. Louis, by the way.

For Houston, it's more of the same. P.J. Walker was 27-for-38 for 351 yards and three touchdowns, with 10 of those completions and two of those touchdowns going to Cam Phillips, who bounced back after a week of lessened involvement against Dallas. Walker did throw a pair of interceptions, but you're still pretty happy with using him as a fantasy starter.

Sam Mobley had 95 receiving yards, and Nick Holley had 72 and a score, so it's not like Phillips was the only guy producing either. And on the ground, James Butler continued to rise to the top, rushing for a pair of touchdowns on 12 carries.

This Roughnecks offense is good, and they've got so many solid weapons. Are we going to end up seeing a 10-0 team in the league's first year?

New York Guardians 30 - Dallas Renegades 12

Luis Perez was the right call, while the Renegades are in some serious trouble

Luis Perez went 16-for-30 for 229 yards with a touchdown and an interception on Saturday against Dallas, and it was another week where Perez's numbers might not have popped out, but the fact that New York has clearly made the right decision in moving to him as their starting quarterback does.

It was also a strong week for Colby Pearson, who led the team with five catches for 95 yards and a touchdown, including a huge 80 yard strike from Perez, and for Guardians running back Darius Victor, who has now established himself as the lead back for New York; he had 15 carries for 58 yards. New York also got a key pick-six in the third quarter.

For Dallas, switching back to Philip Nelson at quarterback didn't go so well. Nelson threw 49 passes because that's what you do in a Hal Mumme offense, but he completed just 57 percent of them for 210 yards and a pair of picks. I'm not sure what Nelson's aDOT was in this game, but my guess would be that it was low.

Donald Parham was targeted nine times, but the league's top tight end couldn't get much to happen, catching four passes for 34 yards. Lance Dunbar also wasn't as involved as expected, as he had just two carries and four targets. Dallas has to get a dynamic player like Dunbar the ball more.

D.C. Defenders 15 - St. Louis Battlehawks 6

Do we have to talk about this game?

Yikes. D.C. benched Cardale Jones after he started 0-for-2 with a pick and brought in Tyree Jackson, who was 9-for-14 for 39 yards and a touchdown to Khari Lee. Jackson also added 32 rushing yards on seven carries.

With this move, D.C. essentially committed to being a running team, and it worked out on Sunday, mainly because of Jhurell Pressley, who had 15 carries for 107 yards. Pressley was a hyped player coming into the year and then had essentially vanished, but we got a reminder of why people expected big things from him, and if Jackson is now the quarterback going forward, we should see a lot of Pressley.

St. Louis also ran the ball a lot and they ran it pretty efficiently, but they only scored six points. Matt Jones had 13 carries for 70 yards. Christine Michael had 12 for 69. Quarterback Jordan Ta'amu was 15-for-25 for 174 yards and didn't throw an interception. Wide receiver L'Damian Washington caught five passes for 114 yards.

And yet, the only scoring for St. Louis featured only a pair of field goals, both in the first half. This is the downside of being a team that's so focused on the run -- you need to either be able to break a couple of big ones that get you into the end zone, or you need to be able to move the ball through the air. Ta'amu can usually do that, but it didn't happen on Sunday.

Los Angeles Wildcats 41 - Tampa Bay Vipers 34

The weekend ended with some offensive fireworks

If St. Louis/D.C. represented the kind of game that pushes the progress of the sport backwards, this one was the kind of game that was exactly what people were hoping for in the XFL.

For Tampa, Taylor Cornelius seems to have shaken off all the doubters, and while he did throw two picks, he also was 22-for-34 for 300 yards and two touchdowns and added seven rushes for 45 yards and a touchdown. Aaron Murray isn't getting his job back.

The Jalen Tolliver, Reece Horn, and Dan Williams trio all went for over 85 receiving yards, with Tolliver and Horn both scoring touchdowns. This team is going to be really interesting in the second half of the year, as they've finally figured out how to move the ball through the air, and they've got one of the more underrated receiver groups in the entire XFL.

Of course, they didn't win this game, because the Wildcats were just a little more powerful on offense. With no semblance of a run game, Josh Johnson took to the air, attempting 36 passes for 288 yards and four touchdowns. They went to four different receivers, but none went to Jordan Smallwood, who led the team in receiving yards.

Johnson spread the ball out to nine different receivers, with two more who were targeted but didn't have a catch. Los Angeles having so many potential weapons makes them such an interesting football team.

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