Stallions Clinch Playoff Spot Despite Loss To Battlehawks
MAY 18, 2025 - BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA
By Steve Irvine
The Birmingham Stallions lost a game in heartbreaking fashion and clinched a playoff spot on Saturday afternoon in St. Louis.
In other words, it was a good news, bad news Saturday afternoon for Skip Holtz and his Stallions.
The bad news was the Stallions dropped a 29-28 decision to the St. Louis Battlehawks in a game that wasn’t decided until a late Birmingham turnover. However, the good news arrived first when word trickled in that the Houston Roughnecks dropped a 30-18 decision to the visiting Michigan Panthers. That loss eliminated Houston from playoff contention and ensured that Birmingham and Michigan will play at Protective Stadium in the USFL Division championship game on June 8. At the time the first game ended, though, the Stallions were still trying to find a way to win a game that could possibly be a preview of the UFL championship game.
“We’re guaranteed 10 (games),” Holtz said afterwards. “We’re guaranteed – now – 11. Ultimately, that’s the goal. You want to go win every game and that’s the disappointment in these players and everybody’s voice in that locker room right now. We didn’t win the game. We bought ourselves another opportunity. Once you do that anybody can win it. We’ve got to keep growing.”
There was plenty to learn from and create some growth in Saturday’s game. J’Mar Smith, who was making his first start since the opening game in 2023, was sensational at times, going 14-of-27 passing for 262 yards with a pair of explosive scoring plays of 65 and 50 yards to Deon Cain and another of 47 yards to Cade Johnson. But Smith also threw a pick six interception to St. Louis linebacker Callahan O’Reilly, missed some open receiver and was sacked four times. The Stallions defense did some good things but couldn’t stop quarterback Max Duggan from rushing for a pair of first half scores and had no second half answer for running back Jacob Saylors.
Saylors became the first opposing player to rush for more than 100 yards against the Stallions since Wes Hills had 191 yards in a USFL game against Birmingham on April 29, 2023. Saylors finished with 118 yards on 16 carries and provided the winning points on a 1-yard run and one-point conversion run with 3:03 left in the game. The scoring run came on the heels of the Stallions claiming a 28-22 lead on a beautiful 47-yard pitch-and-catch from Smith to Johnson with 5:21 remaining. St. Louis then sped 65 yards on five plays to take the lead.
Smith and the Stallions had one final chance and inched their way down the field, hoping to get in range for kicker Harrison Mevis. The Stallions took over at their own 25-yard line and gained 10 yards on a pair of Smith runs before the two-minute timeout. Smith and tight end Jordan Thomas connected for 11 yards on 4th-and-11 to keep the drive going at the St. Louis 40-yard line. At the time, the Stallions (5-3) were in field goal range for Mevis, who is 18-of-19 on the season. But they followed with a false start and a mishandled shotgun snap that lost another yard. Running back C.J. Marable appeared to have the Stallions back in field range on second down but St. Louis outside linebacker Travis Feeney knocked the ball out of Marable’s hands and cornerback Myles Jones recovered at the Battlehawks 38-yard line with 28 seconds remaining.
On a day when both teams made big plays – and big mistakes – St. Louis made the last one.
“We talk about it each and every week,” Holtz said. “You learn lessons from your football team. You learn lessons as a man, you learn lessons as an individual, you learn lessons as a team. We've learned an awful lot about this team. We have now been through five quarterbacks – J’Mar is our fifth quarterback. We're really proud of the way that he went out there, the way that he competed and some of the plays that he made. I certainly am. There's a couple we'd like to have back. I know there's a couple he'd like to have back. But that's the thing about football and sports. You've got to own it. You've got to own the plays that you've made. All you can do is learn from it and grow from it and find a way to get better and improve the football team.”