‘30 for 30’ drill drives stallions to dramatic win over dc defenders

APRIL 21, 2024 - BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA

By Steve Irvine

A daily practice routine for the Birmingham Stallions offense is a drill that head coach Skip Holtz calls ’30 for 30.’

It’s a relatively simple drill, at least on paper. The Stallions offense has 30 seconds to travel 30 yards. Sometimes, that means needing a touchdown in the drill. Other times, the goal is to travel 30 yards for a field goal attempt.

Late Saturday night, in a 20-18 victory over the DC Defenders in a game that was stalled for 90 minutes because of lightning, the Stallions took the drill to Protective Stadium. And they looked comfortable in a less-than-comfortable situation.

“Our players look up there and go ‘Coach, there’s 1:14, this is like eternity. We got three 30 for 30s, we don’t need to rush,’” Holtz said.

Actually, the go-ahead field goal by DC kicker Matt McCrane came with 1:08 on the clock. And, by the time Deon Cain was done with a 23-yard kickoff return, the Stallions had a first down at their own 41-yard line with 59 seconds left on the clock.

It was still nearly two of the ’30 for 30’ drill that they are accustomed to facing.

The drive began with a 10-yard pass from Matt Corral to Cain and a 15-yard strike along the sideline to Amari Rodgers. Holtz said Corral’s underneath throw to Cain was a smart decision.

“They kind of loaded the box and flew out of there,” Holtz said. “I thought Matt did a great job and stayed with the checkdown. Throw a completion and let’s get moving. You don’t want to go incomplete, incomplete and then you’re trying to force the ball down the field.”

The completion to Rodgers complicated things a bit, though. It was originally ruled that Rodgers was swept out of bounds before making the catch, which stopped the clock. Holtz told his offense to get in a huddle and slow things down. But, the ruling was overturned by the replay official and the clock resumed after the chains were set.

“We burned a lot of time there,” Holtz said.

The Stallions followed with a 6-yard pass to Kevin Austin Jr. and Holtz called his final timeout with 19 seconds remaining. After a pair of incompletions, the second was nearly a touchdown in the corner of the end zone to Austin, placekicker Ramiz Ahmed trotted on the field to attempt a game-winning 46-yard field goal.

To get to that point, the Stallions had traveled 31 yards in 50 seconds.

Ahmed finished a storybook evening by drilling his fourth field goal of the night. Ahmed joined the team on Tuesday because of an injury to regular kicker Chris Blewitt. Five days later, Ahmed, who Holtz called “a rent-a-kicker” celebrated with his new teammates.

“I told him I’m going to have to learn his name now after he went and did what he did today,” Holtz said. “He was money. Just really proud of what he was able to do and the way that he handled pressure.”

It was also a big night for Corral, who took all but one snap just a week after Adrian Martinez took every snap for the Stallions in a win over the Memphis Showboats. Corral had a solid night despite a pair of red zone fumbles in the first half. He was 19 of 29 passing for 240 yards with a 50-yard touchdown pass to Rodgers. Corral also rushed for 51 yards on seven carries.

Holtz said the plan all along was to keep Corral on the field throughout, even though Martinez was coming off a game where he accounted for 378 yards and three touchdowns.

“I rolled them the first two games,” Holtz said. “One of their complaints, that I have to listen to, is they wanted to be able to go wire to wire. I said that’s fair. I know everyone says I’m crazy because I (sat) a quarterback that played as well as Adrian did a week ago. I’ve taken a lot of criticism for it. But, I have a lot of confidence in both of those quarterbacks that they’re good enough to play. I have to answer it in my (quarterback) room more than I need to answer in this (press conference) room. I made an obligation. I gave those two gentlemen my word and I stuck to it.”

What’s the quarterback plan for the rest of the way?

“I don’t know what I’ll do going forward, to be honest with you,” Holtz said. “I pretty much had a plan through (Saturday).”