The Battlehawks play on Tuesday in week two of the UFL season. While the scheduling does throw off the normal flow of games, this one is set to be a heavyweight match-up.

The Battlehawks take on the Dallas Renegades this week, and unlike in years prior, Dallas looks like a juggernaut after week one. With that being said, St. Louis is going to have to rely heavily on its defense to stop Dallas’s best trait and hope that their own offense doesn’t buckle under the pressure.  

Starting with Dallas, their offense was the highlight of their week one victory with their new quarterback being the gem of that. Normally, Dallas would trust in their franchise quarterback Luis Perez, instead they let the young gun out of Western Kentucky, Austin Reed, lead them into the season opener.

Reed threw for 376 yards and three touchdowns, with his longest being 66 yards in week one. He broke the UFL record for passing yards in a single game while going 26 for 40, boasting a 65 percent completion rating.

Reed also has three very talented receivers on the outside to catch passes in: Tyler Vaughns, Greg Ward and Ellis Merriweather. Vaughns had seven receptions after nine targets for 144 yards and a touchdown, with Ward not far behind at three receptions after three targets for 93 yards and a single touchdown. Merriweather was the only other one with a touchdown but only had six receptions after eight targets for 47 yards.

The defense for Dallas on the other hand, had a pretty average outing. They allowed 17 points in total week one with 14 of those coming in the second half, almost as if they had lost steam. They did have three sacks and two interceptions with all five of those coming from five different defenders.

The most notable defender from the side of the Renegades was cornerback Bobby Price. He had three solo tackles, a forced fumble, and a sack, which amounted to a loss of six yards. While Dallas’ defense didn’t have a highlight performance, it is on par with what D.C. was able to accomplish week one against the Battlehawks.  

Speaking of, lets dive into the Battlehawks offense and their ambitions going into week two. Week one was a little rough with the offense only totaling 16 points with six being in the first half, and St. Louis finally getting comfortable and scoring 10 in the back half. Quarterback Brandon Silvers was kicking off his first start for the Battlehawks, and it was a bit of a rough patch to kick off. Pocket collapses were keeping him uncomfortable to where he only passed for 111 yards in the first half with them leading to have to rely on the kicker to keep the game close.

In the second half though, Silvers was able to recapture some of the magic he had from last season and capitalize with a touchdown and help St. Louis take the lead. The big names to watch coming out of the week, though were Gary Jennings Jr, Kevon Latulas, and Jarveon Howard. Jennings only hauled in one pass, but it amounted to 64 yards with 59 of those coming after he had caught the ball. Howard had a day on the ground as he led the rush attack against the Defenders, averaging around four yards a carry and having a total of 69 yards on the day. Latulas was the playmaker, though as he ended the day with 84 yards with a 43-yard rush to help put the Battlehawks in scoring position in the second half.

Hakeem Butler also should be back this week, so if Silvers can get him integrated alongside the two powerful running backs, this offense is going to be problematic. 

The Battlehawks defense showed why they were one of the scariest presences last season and continued that ominous presence into week one. They recorded a record seven sacks on the night with six defenders being credited with a portion. This was only reinforced with defensive back Jordan Mosely recording seven tackles and an interception on the day.

This unit did not let up during all phases of the game as the only points from D.C. were in the first quarter followed by three shut out quarters. We are looking for nothing more than a repeat performance going into Dallas, and if that happens the Battlehawks will walk away with a win.  

Coach Proehl sat down to answer some questions ahead of his teams week two matchup coming off a long holiday weekend.

• Q: “You showed optimism for Hakeem Butler kind of making a return this week and kind of getting put into the scheme of everything. I know I asked the offensive coordinator earlier this week about it, and they said practice hadn’t started because the game was so late, but now the practice has started. You guys have gotten a few days in. How has he looked so far and can we expect the heavy workload out of Hakeem going into his first game of the season? 

• Proehl: “Great question. Let me just say this, he’s looked like Hakeem the last couple of days. And you know, we’ve got to be smart as coaches, you know, obviously his workload, we just got to be smart, you know, and monitorhim during the course of the game and but he looks great. He feels really good. So, you know, we’re excited to have a team back. 

• Q: “I know yesterday was Good Friday. I’m not sure if you guys spent your time watching football or not but seeing what DC did last night against the Columbus aviators, seeing how they kind of rebounded after the week one loss against you guys, how does that help your team’s confidence level going into week two, knowing that you were able to sort of stuff them as well as you could week one? 

• Proehl: You know, every week’s different. I think you could go down that rabbit hole, if you let yourself as a team, as a coaching staff of, you know, wow, we must be pretty good, because look what, look what DC did to Columbus. I just think you know, different situations happen during the course of the game, that that can change the outcome, that can change the momentum of the game and I think you know, for me, new time head coach, I’m in the mindset of new week, new challenge. We can’t rely or look back at what we did last week and how well we played defensively and some of the stuff we didn’t do well offensively, I just know this, it’s going to be a great challenge for us defensively this week, because, I mean, Dallas put up a bunch of points yards, and then offensively, we didn’t play as well as we had hoped, and as we want to going down moving forward, especially in the red zone. So, I challenged our football team, and I’m excited, because I think these guys, you know, it’s, it’s a resilient group, it’s a group that I can challenge, and they, they rise up, you know, it’s today. I challenged them in practice, and we had a great practice. They finished a lot better than they did yesterday, and that’s what you look at, you know, as a football coach in your team, and how they response to adversity, and how, how they respond to you as a coach. So moving forward, that’s the only thing that that I look at right now is, is our next opponent, and that’s, that’s Dallas. 

• Q: “Coach, I got one last question, kind of regarding Dallas and sort of the preparation going into that week. You know, in years prior, you were able to kind of prep for Luis Perez as the QB one. He’s been sort of theirfranchise guy going forward. I asked Coach Chamblin about it earlier this week, but I just kind of wanted to get your thoughts on it. Is there any sort of like big game plan changes towards their new quarterback, or is it still sort of business as usual, even with Perez being QB two in Dallas now? 

• Proehl: “Well, I think anytime you have a quarterback that can move and has shown his versatility throwing and running. You’ve got to be aware of that defensively. I mean him, you know, RPOs and pulling and running, you know, getting him outside the pocket to extend plays and that’s where I really, you know, I’m excited to see how our defense responds, because I do think that he does. He can cause some problems but I do think we’ve got a lot of team speed on defense. And, you know, I’m hopeful that he won’t be able to do a lot of the things that he did last week against us.” 

The St. Louis Battlehawks play next on Tuesday April 7 at 7 p.m. at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas, and available to stream on FS1.