Eliminating sacks is key for stallions in prep for panthers

JUNE 6, 2024 - BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA

By Steve Irvine

Quarterback sacks were a problem for the Birmingham Stallions offense in the regular season finale win over the Michigan Panthers. Adrian Martinez was sacked a season-high five times during the game.

The natural assumption, at least from outside the Stallions locker room, is the offensive line is working overtime devising a plan to keep that from happening again when the same two teams meet in the UFL Divisional Playoff round on Saturday afternoon at Protective Stadium.

However, that assumption might not be completely accurate. You see, it might not take that many changes to keep Martinez protected. In fact, it may be more mental than physical.

“We just gotta execute better,” Stallions head coach Skip Holtz said.

Holtz broke down what happened during his weekly teleconference on Tuesday. Two of the sacks, Holtz said, came after Martinez failed to throw the ball away when given a chance. Another time, an offensive lineman made the wrong call, leading to a defender getting through unblocked. On another sack, a receiver ran the wrong route, throwing off the timing off the play, and Martinez had nowhere to escape.

Put that all together and the narrative that the offensive line was physically whipped is thrown at the window, which is encouraging considering the Stallions face the same defensive front on Saturday with the opportunity to play for the UFL championship on the line.

“They're really good up front,” Holtz said. “They have a lot of sacks this year. But I thought our offensive line played a heck of a game, although it doesn't look like it statistically when you look at those stats. So when you watch the film, it's got a whole different meaning to it. And I think everybody that watched it was like, that's my bad (on the mental mistakes), you know what I mean? That's the one reel you don't want to be on. You don't want to be on the my bad reel. You know what I mean? That's not a good clip to have. So I think with everybody dialed in that much more, I think we'll be much better in that category.”

Take away last Saturday and the Stallions have done a good job of limiting the sacks this season. Birmingham entered last week allowing just under two sacks per game, which is among the best in the league. The success has been a combination of one of the best offensive lines in the UFL and the ability for the Birmingham quarterbacks, particularly Martinez, to escape pressure.

One of the challenges for that group on Saturday is handling All-UFL defensive end Breeland Speaks, who has a UFL best 9.5 sacks in the regular season. One of those sacks came last Saturday. He is just part of a formidable front that helped the Panthers finish with 30 sacks, which was to the 32 sacks by the San Antonio Brahmas.