Ladies and gentlemen, we have playoff football in June. The restarted USFL – unlike the AAF and XFL before it – has completed a full regular season of 10 games and is now starting the postseason with two Saturday semifinals in Canton, Ohio. The winners will play for the championship one week from Sunday.
Saturday began with an exciting game between the New Jersey Generals (9-1) and the Philadelphia Stars (6-4). The Stars, who lost both of their regular-season games to the Generals, recorded a 19-14 victory on Saturday to end New Jersey’s nine-game winning streak. Philadelphia took the lead forever on the return of Maurice Alexander with 88 yards with a shot to score at 1:41 to the end. Moments later, the choice of Amani Dennis sealed the victory for the Stars, who have won five of their last six games.
The stars led 10-0 at halftime with the strength of QB Case Cookus and a defense that imposed a key turn in the red zone, which led to a touchdown of Cookus. Philadelphia seemed ready to take the lead at the start of the second push and regained their composure on the opening shot. But the generals responded safely to Mike Bell’s critical interception deep in New Jersey.
After the selection, Perez hit Darius Shepard for a 59-yard gain to create the USFL offensive player of the year in a touchdown of Darius Victor in the fourth and goal. USFL MVP KaVontae Turpin then gave the generals their first lead with a 78-yard comeback on the puck with a score of 10:30 left. Down 14-13, the star defense forced a critical stop, which ultimately led to Alexander’s winning result.
The second semifinal on Saturday will face the Birmingham Stallions (9-1) against the New Orleans Breakers (6-4) at 20:00 ET on NBC (streaming on fuboTV, try for free). Birmingham was unbeaten until week 9 and beat the Breakers twice, but won the last meeting by one point. The stallions are the favorite of 5 points.
Keep it locked here all day for the latest updates from the two playoff games on our live blog below:
USFL Philadelphia Stars 19 Semifinals, New Jersey Generals 14Birmingham Stallions vs. New Orleans Breakers, 20:00 ET
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