St. Louis BattleHawks 2023 XFL Season Recap
As expected, that Week 9 home loss to Seattle proved costly for the St. Louis Battlehawks who went on to destroy the Orlando Guardians in their season finale but still missed out on postseason play due to losing a tiebreaker to the Sea Dragons. The end result was a 7-3 team missing out on the playoffs regardless of the fact that the same 7-3 record won the South Division title for the Houston Roughnecks. Unfortunately for Anthony Becht’s squad, it was a member of the much tougher overall division. If new teams don’t surface for the 2024 XFL betting season, the league might want to think about adding a play-in game of sorts or get rid of the division format altogether. No team should miss out on the playoffs when its overall record is better than half the league! Regardless, the Battlehawks will be back for the 2024 season in full force with the city of St. Louis proving it should undoubtedly have a professional football franchise the way the fan base packed The Dome at America’s Center for all five of the Battlehawks home games.
XFL Betting Odds
St. Louis Battlehawks 2023 Season Recap
The Battlehawks initially hit the board +500 choices to win the XFL Championship. Heading into their Week 1 road clash in San Antonio, the betting market had turned them into the +350 favorites to win it all. That remained the case through the first two weeks with the team logging successive comeback wins on the road against San Antonio and Seattle, but their odds took a tumble following their first loss in Week 3 after dropping a 34-28 non-covering decision at the D.C. Defenders. Heading into their Week 10 home finale against Orlando, the Battlehawks were offering up a +445 return on investment. The dominant 53-28 win and cover against the Guardians moved the team to 6-4 against the XFL odds in the regular season. Though the finale soared past the closing total, St. Louis proved to be an under team with it cashing in six of their 10 played games.
Soon to be 33 years old in September, is it possible A.J. McCarron finds himself back in the NFL for the 2023-24 season? The former Alabama product certainly showed he can still sling the pigskin around the ball yard after throwing for 2,150 yards and a 24:6 TD/INT ratio through nine starts. Only Ben DiNucci threw for more yardage than No. 10 over the course of the regular season. I’m not sold however on McCarron returning to the XFL to play the role of a backup. He’s one of the XFL’s premiere gunslingers and it’s very easy to envision the league pumping him up as one of their ambassadors moving forward. But if St. Louis wants their guy to remain healthy, it best make it a point to go out and find some offensive linemen that can protect him after the Battlehawks conceded the second most sacks in the league (30). That by all accounts should be the front office’s main job this offseason.
It remains to be seen if he’ll have his main weapons at his disposal next season with wide receivers Hakeem Butler and Darrius Shepherd ranking out as two of the top-5 pass catchers in the league. The former led the XFL in touchdown receptions (8) and nearly led the league in receiving yardage as well (599), while the latter went for 519 yards and 6 TD. Each will undoubtedly be getting looks from NFL teams this offseason so it’s certainly within the realm of possibility that each isn’t around next season.
St. Louis marched a middling defense onto the gridiron and that proved to be the catalyst for the team’s inability to punch a ticket to the second season. It surrendered 310.9 total yards per game (No. 5) with a bulk of the damage being done on the ground. While forced to run up against the D.C. Defenders potent ground attack twice, the Battlehawks still served up a league-worst 121.7 rushing yards per game at 4.5 yards per carry (No. 8). The inability to limit opposing rushing attacks was a thorn in the side that couldn’t be avoided against the best of the best. That should be another area upper management looks to improve in the offseason. The unit did however make up for its shortcomings stopping the run by coming up with 21 total turnovers, but still had some issues with pressure rate only accruing 19 overall sacks (No. 7).
2023 St. Louis BattleHawks Season Schedule
| WEEK |
MATCHUP |
RESULT |
RECORD |
| 1 |
at San Antonio Brahmas |
W 18-15 |
1-0 |
| 2 |
at Seattle Sea Dragons |
W 20-18 |
2-0 |
| 3 |
at D.C. Defenders |
L 28-34 |
2-1 |
| 4 |
vs. Arlington Renegades |
W 24-11 |
3-1 |
| 5 |
vs. D.C. Defenders |
L 20-28 |
3-2 |
| 6 |
at Vegas Vipers |
W 29-6 |
4-2 |
| 7 |
at Houston Roughnecks |
W 24-15 |
5-2 |
| 8 |
vs. Vegas Vipers |
W 21-17 |
6-2 |
| 9 |
vs. Seattle Sea Dragons |
L 12-30 |
6-3 |
| 10 |
vs. Orlando Guardians |
W 53-28 |
7-3 |
XFL Teams
Access live betting lines and Football Betting Articles from your mobile device at BookMaker Sportsbook! You can wager on sporting events as they unfold on television with BookMaker’s live betting platform. Real-time spreads, totals, props and, money line odds are all available by clicking here so start betting with BookMaker now!
