As much as it pains me to say this, it is safe to say that the Orlando Guardians’ inaugural season in the newest version of the XFL was not a successful one at all. Many fans that witnessed this season may agree that calling the Guardians’s season unsuccessful would be describing it in the nicest way possible.
Led by coach Terrell Buckley, the Orlando Guardians were never able to sustain any sort of momentum. They ended up being the worst team in a XFL South division that wasn’t so great overall. The division had three teams that finished under .500. The Orlando Guardians finished with a brutal record of 1-9.
The season got off to an ominous start with a 33-12 loss to the Houston Roughnecks. The Houston Roughnecks got out to a 21-6 lead at halftime and never looked back. Another ominous sign of things to come was the fact that there was uncertainty at the QB position.
Even though Paxton Lynch started the game at QB, he would be taken out in favor of QB Quentin Normady that would end up finishing the game. Normady would actually end up putting up better passing statistics than Lynch overall at the end of the game.
During the Guardians’ 30-12 loss to the San Antonio Brahmas, Paxton Lynch would be taken out again in favor of DeAndre Francois. In effect, two major issues were taking shape for the Guardians: Poor defense and uncertainty at the QB position.
It didn’t help that QB DeAndre Francois was caught telling his teammates to shut the f*** up while being mic’ed up.
Things would spiral out of control record-wise for the Orlando Guardians as they would end up starting the season 0-6. Even though the Guardians’ defense played better in Week 3, Paxton Lynch could not guide the Guardians to victory in a 10-9 loss to the Arlington Renegades.
After the Orlando Guardians were blown out 44-16 by the Houston Roughnecks in Week 4, Terrell Buckley made a switch at QB for Week 5 and ended up giving Quentin Normady the starting job.
Three weeks later, the move would end up being the main catalyst to the Guardians’ 1st and only win of the season. In Week 7, the Orlando Guardians would pull off a stunning upset of the powerhouse DC Defenders. It was the biggest upset of the XFL Season. The Guardians picked up the only win of the season by giving the DC Defenders the only loss of their season.
In that game, Quinten Dormady had his finest moments of the season and justified Buckley’s move to make him the starter. He was 27 of 34 for 328 yards and 3 touchdowns.
However, the Guardians would go winless the rest of the season. Fittingly, the season ended with them being shellacked by the St Louis Battlehawks 53-28.
In terms of what the Guardians need to do, it’s clear that extensive changes are needed on the defensive side of the ball. The Guardians were last in the league in points allowed as they allowed a league-worst 31.0 PPG.
The Guardians will have to start with improving their secondary. They were the 2nd worst team in the league with 242.2 yards allowed per game. Thus, this has to be their greatest priority. After that, they will need to shore up their defensive line and linebacking corps. The Guardians were ranked near the bottom of the league with regards to rushing yards allowed per game. Additionally, the Guardians need to shore up their running game. The Guardians were ranked in the lower half of the league in terms of running.
In the not-too-distant future, the Guardians can’t do much worse than 1-9. If the front office places a particular focus on improving the defense and shoring up their running game. I can see the Guardians improving their record by a few games next season. Quinten Dormady’s progress as QB will play a big role in terms of how much the teams improve.
On a league-wide level, the league’s future isn’t looking too bright when you consider the brutal ratings slide over the course of the season.
In Week 1, 3 of the 4 games had over 1,000,000+ viewers. Unfortunately, the XFL had only 2 games that averaged over 1,000,000 viewers for the rest of the season. The ratings for the XFL playoffs did not meet expectations either. Therefore, the ratings for the XFL Championship will play an important role in determining the audience’s current perception of the league.
