Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s version of the XFL kicked off this past weekend, and like many other football leagues, not named the NFL, this one was rough. To be fair trying to make a pro-football league is extremely difficult especially since the NFL is king 24/7/365 and college football is the natural feeder system for it.

I would like to point out some things I liked before the bashing begins. The uniforms were pretty cool with the striping and colors, the ability to go for 1, 2, or 3 points after a TD is creative, and keeps teams within the one possession deficit threshold, the play clock being 35 seconds instead of 40 keeps the game moving, and instant replay provides the audience the audio conversations between the referees and the replay booth.

Now time for the bashing but to be fair, this airing of grievances is not solely on the XFL but, on all leagues such as the AAFL, and the soon to be sophomore season for the USFL , but also what I saw this past weekend:

Bad offense, bad offense, bad offense – the teams couldn’t sustain drives, mostly due to the receivers dropping passes and the lack of good offensive line play that hindered the running backs. Turnovers were also a major problem.

More bad – the receivers weren’t good at catching the ball but they sure could get open with their speed, and the lack of competent cornerbacks was a huge factor as well. Missed field goals were also a problem that led to low scores throughout the league in week 1.

The biggest problem: Quarterback Play – the NFL is a quarterback driven league who currently has many teams with a glaring hole at that postion so having a new startup league that has even worse play at the quarterback position is a recipe for disaster and unfortunately the XFL isn’t immune to this.

The Rock can preach about how tough and hungry the players are and I don’t question that one bit. The problem is why would fans want to watch a product that has horrible quarterbacks? The answer has always been ,they don’t, and I don’t see that answer changing for the XFL.

– Ed in Columbus

@Ed_In_Columbus

*Photo courtesy of CNN*

6 responses to “Ed-itorial: I can Smell What the Rock is Cooking, and it’s Not Good”

  1. David Coulter Avatar
    David Coulter

    Fair enough report. It looked like a good pre season game and would expect Third week to be the real measure of what the Rock is cooking

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  2. Mike Williams Avatar
    Mike Williams

    The field goal kicking in the NFL is bad. As far as the receding being sub par we could blame that training camp didn’t start til January 8th. Also, without knowing what QBs and receivers would be playing before January 8th it’s impossible to have offseason workout which develops chemistry. Beside if they were real good they be in the NFL or CFL. The XFL is developmental league it’s not the NFL zero comparison. Let me break it down for you. High JV Football is not Varsity Football. Should know the game before you posted the article jabroni!

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  3. Michael Chalmers Avatar
    Michael Chalmers

    Well let’s see 5 weeks of practices with no actual scrimmages. You expected flawless football, did you play past pee-wee level?
    Games were great. Exciting. Great new wrinkles. Kickoff, 4th and 15 play capability, one foot for a catch, running clock, replay. It’s not the NFL, gotcha.
    Sit down at the table and eat what the Rock is cookin’!

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  4. Brian Avatar
    Brian

    You do realize that the teams had no film, and in order to protect players, there has been no full contact before the weekend contests, right? Considering that many of the players haven’t played a game in a year or two, along with the aforementioned factors, the first week was always going to be a little rough. And yet, we had an absolutely epic comeback win with the Battlehawks, in which an ex-NFL and three time college National Champion QB went 11 for 14. I watched every game, and there were plenty of sustained drives, amazing catches, and hard as hell hits. I feel like the writer here has an unfair bias and didn’t actually watch the games.

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  5. Ron Roberson Avatar
    Ron Roberson

    I’m a sports fanatic it work for me. True the quarterback are not like the NFL quarterbacks but get off the gas it’s still fun and exciting that he brought football to us while waiting for the NFL to kick back off. I enjoyed my Houston Roughnecks in there first game win. Thanks the Rock keep doing you brother much love

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  6. J. Camicia Avatar
    J. Camicia

    XFL is better than any golf tournament on TV. Give it a chance.

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