New Orleans Breakers Face USFL’s Best Team In The Playoffs

The New Orleans Breakers will have a tough task in front of them this weekend as they'll take on the best team in the USFL in their first playoff game.

The Breakers finished the inaugural season of the USFL reboot with a 6-4 overall record. They started out the year as one of the best teams in the league, but have fizzled out tremendously as the season progressed.

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New Orleans will face the Birmingham Stallions in the first round of the playoffs. The Stallions are the best team in the league with a 9-1 overall record. Their head coach is the former long-time head coach at Louisiana Tech, Skip Holtz. It's no surprise the Stallions are good, coaching football runs deep in his blood, and it's the family business. Skip's dad is the Hall of Fame coach Lou Holtz.

The Breakers will have to shake off last week's regular-season finale loss to the Houston Gamblers. They'll need a short-term memory as they'll be heavy underdogs going into the game with the Stallions.

The Breakers' starting quarterback, Kyle Sloter, returns this week after missing the last game with an injury. However, I don't know if they really gives the team an edge on offense. Sloter has struggled over the final games of the season and was eventually replaced during a game two weeks ago. His replacement, Zac Smith, showed signs of being capable of leading scoring drives, but he was also hurt in the same game.

Smith returned last week to start against the Gamblers. I was excited to see what he could do having the offense to himself, but that feeling faded very quickly. On the Breakers' first drive he threw a pick-six and it didn't get better from there. Smith ended the game with 28 yards passing with two interceptions and zero touchdowns.

The Breakers will have to rely heavily on the USFL's leading rusher Jordan Ellis and the rest of the running backs to control the clock and keep Birmingham's explosive offense off the field. The defense will also need to create points with turnovers to help supplement the struggling New Orleans offense.

You can cheer on the Breakers when they take on the Stallions this coming Saturday at 7:00pm on NBC or if you're in the mood for a road trip, you can purchase game tickets here.