This Saturday we saw the DC Defenders play their first home game of the season against the Houston Gamblers. This game would go onto be historic having the largest win in league history! The Defenders would go onto win 45-7 over Houston. With that being said, let’s see how this game unfolded.
This game would be DC’s first home game of the season. This meant that it had a special halftime performance by Wale and would see the 2025 Championship banner be unveiled. In front of a little over 12K people the Defenders would get the largest win in league history.
The four main reasons for this decimation were Gamblers QB Taulia Tagovailoa, Defenders RB Deon Jackson, Defenders TE Briley Moore and DC’s defense. Taulia would make his UFL debut after injuries to Houston’s QB1 & QB2 this past week. He would have a rough go going 21-40 for 170 yards with just 1 TD against his 1 pick-six. Taulia would also lose a fumble in this game early in the 2nd quarter.
Deon Jackson on the other hand for DC would have another great game. On DC’s second offensive play of the game Jackon would break a 60-yard TD run. While he wouldn’t do much after this, it was because he didn’t need to. TE Briley Moore would have himself a two TD day for himself! DC was able to bring him back to the team thanks to a trade for him from Columbus. Morre would score a 24-yard rushing TD on a great designed play in the second quarter. He would also score a 20-yard receiving TD in the 4th quarter to get his second of the day. We would also see K Matt McCrane hit his second 4-pt FG of the season in this game.
The DC defense was able to dominate Houston all day. DC held Houston to just under 220 yards all day thanks in large part to the 4 sack and 7 TFLs that DC was able to get. Add in the two turnovers they got on Houston, and you have an incredible defensive performance. This was also helped by DC’s HC Shannon Harris. Late in the 4th quarter Gamblers WR Justin Hall would score a 55-yd TD, but it got taken off the board after Harris successfully challenged for offensive holding. During the post-game press conference, I asked DC CB Garbiel Taylor about how the defense was able to hold Houston to the lowest points any team has scored this season, here is what he had to say.
“First off, shoutout to coach Blake (Williams) for the calls, putting us in position to make plays. Shoutout coach (Vernon) Dean, Coach (Jerod) Kruse to like draw up plays during the week, which makes us very prepared, we know that they (Houston) came from like a college system so it’s like very basic and we got the best trenches in the UFL, so he (Tagovailoa) doesn’t have a lot of time, the new quarterback Tua’s little brother, so we knew what was going to happen. We just have to be more disciplined in some areas for next week, but shoutout the whole defense, offense, special teams we’re all one.”
This game is one that is etched in the record books. DC now has scored 89 points in their last two games. They will need to keep this pace up next week as they face off against their rival in the St. Louis Battlehawks at 12:30 PM EST on Saturday back at Audi Field.
