The XFL’s 40-game regular season — four games per week for 10 weeks — ended Sunday night, and it took all 40 to decide which team got the fourth and final playoff berth.
The Seattle Sea Dragons entered their Sunday night matchup with the Vegas Vipers knowing they’d need to at least win to match the St. Louis Battlehawks’ 7-3 record. The Sea Dragons got the win, 28-9, as well as the final playoff berth, with the deciding factor amazingly coming down to the fifth point in the XFL’s list of playoff tiebreakers.
The Sea Dragons, who’ve gone 7-1 in their last eight after an 0-2 start, have had a difficult week. Defensive lineman Chris Smith, who also played for five different teams in eight seasons in the NFL, died last Monday at age 31. Seattle wore Smith’s No. 42 on their helmets and had his jersey on the sideline.
Seattle’s win knocked out the Battlehawks, who got an absolute monster effort from A.J. McCarron on Saturday (more on that below). First, let’s dive into the playoff matchups.
XFL playoffs set
| PLAYOFF SEMIFINALS | DATE, TIME | TV |
|---|---|---|
|
Arlington Renegades at Houston Roughnecks |
Saturday, April 29, 7 p.m. ET |
ESPN2 |
|
Seattle Sea Dragons at D.C. Defenders |
Sunday, April 30, 3 p.m. ET |
ESPN |
The championship game will feature the winners of those two matchups, with the game kicking off at 3 p.m. ET on Saturday, May 13, on ABC.
Here’s a look at the Week 10 scores (check out the final regular-season XFL standings here).
Saturday
St. Louis Battlehawks 53, Orlando Guardians 28
D.C. Defenders 29, San Antonio Brahmas 28
Sunday
Houston Roughnecks 25, Arlington Renegades 9
Seattle Sea Dragons 29, Vegas Vipers 9
Sea Dragons top Vipers, knock Battlehawks out of playoff picture
Seattle led just 6-0 at half, perhaps feeling some nerves in a must-win game. But after that it was all Sea Dragons. Seattle scored a touchdown on four consecutive drives from the end of the second quarter to the start of the fourth.
Sea Dragons quarterback Ben DiNucci threw for 339 yards with 3 TDs and 2 INTs. Former NFL receiving leader Josh Gordon led Seattle with nine catches for 115 yards. Juwan Green had five catches for 88 yards.
Two of Seattle’s three losses this season came against the D.C. Defenders — 22-18 in Week 1, and 34-33 in Week 8 — and they’ll now face each other for a third time in the playoffs.
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