The Orlando Guardians offense was anemic in their Week 2 home game against the San Antonio Brahmas. Neither Paxton Lynch or Deondre Francois could move the ball. The Brahmas broke open the game in the second half with consecutive scores and their offense looked great. The blame doesn’t fall on the Orlando Guardians quarterbacks because receivers did drop passes and the offensive line looked overwhelmed. The Guardians also committed a mess of penalties that killed drives. Head Coach Terrell Buckley was visibly upset and has his work cut out for him to get anything out of the offense.
Guardians quarterbacks weren’t effective.
I still think Paxton Lynch has a slow windup to throw the ball. But, I did see him leave the pocket a few times and move the ball down the field. I wonder though why, at 6’7″ is he so easy to bring down? The advantage of tall quarterbacks is that they are tough to bring down. But, when the pocket has closed down on Lynch, he has not leveraged his size and strength to shake off rushers and keep plays going. He was good on the first few drives, recognizing a broken play and throwing to Eli Rogers who was wide open for the touchdown.
Deondre Francois took over in the second quarter and the two quarterbacks alternated throughout the game. The Guardians offense changed to more of a run-centered attack with him in the game but when he tried to throw, receivers dropped passes. Andrew Jamiel had three drops and Cody Latimer also dropped a pass. Francois finished with eight yards passing. Big Blue View blog has a great article here focusing on quarterback pocket presence which I think both quarterbacks need to sharpen their ability on as the line won’t give them a comfortable pocket.
San Antonio Brahmas improved from Week 1.
Head Coach Hines Ward said pre-game that the offense needed a complete makeover after week 1 and they were able to make it happen. The Brahmas were leading 13-6 at the start of the second half and Orlando punted the ball on a three and out to start the half. The Brahmas ran the ball down the Guardians throat and then Jack Coan threw a 24 yard touchdown pass to Jalen Tolliver to go up 20-6. The Guardians got the ball back and again went three and out and the punt was blocked. The Brahmas recovered the ball at the 7 yard line and on the next play, Coan threw a touchdown to Alize Mack to put the game away at 27-6. Coan finished with three touchdown passes and showed command of the offensive squad.
Problems with Guardians offense
The Orlando Guardians offensive squad’s performance could be summarized in one drive. In the third quarter, they started a drive at their own 10 yard line. San Antonio bailed the Guardians out with penalties that kept drives going. The Guardians had a 1st down at the Brahma 7 yard line and couldn’t run the ball into the end zone. Orlando got to a 4th and 14 and San Antonio bailed them out again to get down to the 1. The Guardians still couldn’t run the ball in the end zone and on 3rd down, Cody Latimer made a play on a juggling catch to score. Check out more stats on the game from the XFL website here.
The offensive line doesn’t look like they could protect the quarterback. The running game for the Guardians is effective but the team falls behind so quick that the running attack gets deprioritized. Maybe the Guardians should hold open tryouts at Camping World Stadium for offensive lineman. Head Coach Terrell Buckley gave quick and terse sideline interviews as he looked he was going to spout steam from his head on his team’s performance. The Guardians committed 11 penalties. The entire team lost this game. Jorden Hamilton writes in this article here on our site about other problems with the Guardians.
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