4 Takeaways: UFL Week 1

[ad_1] Austin Reed’s first begin at quarterback within the UFL was one to recollect.

The Western Kentucky product engineered a scintillating debut for the Dallas Renegades, finishing 26 of 40 passes for 376 yards — probably the most in league historical past in a regular-season sport — three touchdowns and no interceptions in his staff’s 36-17 win over the Houston Gamblers within the season opener for each groups.

Veteran UFL receiver Tyler Vaughns led Dallas (1-0) with seven receptions for 144 yards and a rating, whereas fellow receiver Greg Ward added three catches for 93 yards and a landing in a runaway victory over Houston (0-1).

"It was actually a staff effort greater than something," Reed mentioned. "[The] guys had been taking part in properly, and we had a extremely good sport plan. We felt good about what we had going into this sport, and what we had been going to do. It simply got here down as to whether we had been going to execute or not."

Reed mentioned regardless of how properly the offense moved the ball, the Renegades can play even greater, which makes for an fascinating matchup subsequent week in opposition to probably the greatest defenses within the league within the St. Louis Battlehawks (1-0).

"I really feel like we might have performed even higher, and that’s an ideal factor to see when your Week 1 output appears to be like like this," Reed added. "There’s a lot extra we will enhance."

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Talking of St. Louis, former legendary NFL receiver Ricky Proehl earned his first victory as a head coach, main his hometown Battlehawks to a 16-10 victory over the defending UFL champion DC Defenders (0-1) in entrance a league-high crowd of 31,191 at The Dome at America’s Middle.

The Louisville Kings (0-1) couldn’t maintain onto the lead late, falling to the Birmingham Stallions (1-0) by two, 15-13, in AJ McCarron’s first victory as head coach. The Kings performed in entrance of 14,034 at Lynn Household Stadium in Kentucky.

Main the Orlando Storm (1-0) for the primary time, head coach Anthony Becht helped to engineer a 23-16 victory over the visiting Columbus Aviators (0-1).

Listed below are my takeaways from Week 1 of the UFL:

1. Opportunistic protection leads Stallions to street win over Kings Birmingham pressured 13 takeaways final season, and it continued its ball-hawking methods to begin the 2026 season.

The Stallions thwarted an early promising drive for Louisville when Kings tight finish Zach Davidson didn't corral a cross from his quarterback, Jason Bean, with Birmingham linebacker Dyontae Johnson winding up with the unfastened ball. The Stallions turned that right into a 5-yard landing, courtesy of Snoop Conner, for an early lead. Later within the sport, Birmingham security Hudson Clark intercepted a Bean cross within the fourth quarter to assist salt away a two-point victory — McCarron’s first as a head coach, as he changed three-time spring soccer champion coach Skip Holtz this yr.

Birmingham completed with three takeaways general, probably the most for a protection in Week 1.

2. Matt McCrane drills first 60-yard, 4-point subject objective It didn’t take lengthy for a kicker to benefit from one of many UFL’s latest guidelines applied to generate extra factors. Defenders kicker McCrane booted a 60-yard subject objective on his staff’s opening drive on the street in opposition to St. Louis on Saturday, marking the primary 4-point subject objective in UFL historical past. Nonetheless, McCrane did miss from 55 yards later.

Elsewhere, Battlehawks kicker Tucker McCann made a 58-yarder within the opening quarter however missed from 45 yards.

"Matt was hitting the ball properly on subject targets and issues like that," Defenders head coach Shannon Harris mentioned. "He had the lengthy miss, however he’ll make that 10 out of 10 occasions. So, we’re going to at all times proceed to place him in these conditions due to the religion we've got in him."

In Week 1, kickers went 15-for-20 on subject targets, together with 4 from past 50 yards, and 8-for-10 on further factors.

3. Battlehawks’ protection appears to be like legit after seven-sack efficiency Led by 2025 UFL Defensive Participant of the Yr Pita Taumoepenu, the Battlehawks sacked the Defenders seven occasions on their strategy to a troublesome win. Taumoepenu completed with 2.5 of these sacks, together with a mixed six tackles within the win. St. Louis misplaced to DC at dwelling within the playoffs final season, so the win was slightly measure of revenge for St. Louis.

"When one man will get to the ball service, I would like 11 guys attending to the soccer," Proehl mentioned. "They purchased in, they usually’ve accomplished it in apply on daily basis for the final two weeks. They confirmed up right this moment. They wore them down. We had been in higher form, for my part. We had been in nice form, and we completed."

4. Jordan Ta’amu and DC's offense present early struggles Led by 2025 UFL Championship Sport MVP Ta’amu, the Defenders struggled to maneuver the ball on the street in opposition to the Battlehawks. One of many prime offenses in 2025, DC mustered simply 153 complete yards offensively in opposition to St. Louis' stingy protection. The Defenders averaged 22.4 factors per sport final season however had been held to a league-low 10 factors this week.

Thought of one of the crucial dynamic quarterbacks returning within the UFL this season, Ta’amu was sacked seven occasions and held to 123 passing yards. He additionally threw two interceptions. The one approach is up for DC's offense in Week 2.

"We’ve acquired to wash issues up," Harris mentioned. "We’ve acquired to know that each sport to date goes to be everybody’s Tremendous Bowl. We’ve acquired to know that magnitude of it."

4 ½: What’s Subsequent The Kings and the Battlehawks are on the street subsequent week after internet hosting in Week 1, whereas the Renegades and the Storm have their second consecutive dwelling matchup of the season.

One sport shall be performed on Friday (Defenders at Aviators), one on Saturday (Kings at Storm), one on Sunday (Stallions at Gamblers) and the ultimate sport on Tuesday (Battlehawks at Renegades).