With both teams tied at 5-3, Saturday’s contest between the New Orleans Breakers and the host Memphis Showboats (Saturday, 3 p.m. ET) could go a long way toward determining which team makes the postseason in the stacked USFL South Division.
The Showboats won the earlier contest between the two teams, a 17-10 Week 5 victory in Birmingham. That started a league-high five-game winning streak for Memphis, while New Orleans has lost three of its last four.
The Breakers ended a three-game losing streak with a 24-20 victory over the Michigan Panthers last week, while the Showboats handled the New Jersey Generals in Week 8, 25-16.
Here’s one thing to watch for each team with two games remaining in the regular season.
Through the first half of the season, Hills led the league in rushing and was one of the top candidates for offensive player of the year.
However, Hills and the Breakers have struggled to find any consistency in the running game over the second half of the season, and it has affected their ability to move the football.
Hills averaged 130 yards a contest and scored eight total touchdowns through the first four games of the season as the Breakers raced out to a 4-0 record. But during his team’s 1-3 stretch over the last four games, Hills has averaged just 57 yards a contest and has one total touchdown.
The Showboats held Hills to a season-low 38 yards in their Week 5 win over New Orleans. Memphis is holding opponents to 99 yards per game on the season, No. 5 in the USFL.
Hills still leads the league with 613 rushing yards, but he also has fumbled three times, with two of those recovered by the defense.
Showboats: Defense leading the way
Memphis defensive coordinator Carnell Lake has his group playing well when it matters most — at the end of the season.
During the Showboats’ five-game winning streak, Memphis has held opponents to 11.2 points a contest. That’s a huge improvement from the team’s first three games of the season, an 0-3 start where they gave up 33 points a contest.
Memphis head coach Todd Haley says the difference was his team stayed together during some adversity at the start of the year.
