COLUMN: St. Louis steamrolled by Seattle, now we have chaos in the XFL

All the St. Louis Battlehawks had to do on Sunday was defeat the Seattle Sea Dragons a second time and secure a spot in the XFL playoffs.

Instead, they got boat raced 30-12 in front of the largest crowd in the league.

“Credit the Seattle and coach [Jim] Haslett," Battlehawks coach Anthony Becht said. "[Sunday] was vitally important to both teams and then came into our house and took the game from us.’’

This matchup was originally billed as a battle between two of the league's best quarterbacks, but it wasn't that close. Seattle's Ben DiNucci and St. Louis' AJ McCarron attempted and completed a similar amount of passes. However, DiNucci's completions went for 260 yards and two touchdowns against one interception, while McCarron's went for 186 yards, a 42-yard touchdown pass to Darrius Shepherd, and two interceptions.

“We had an opportunity today and let it slip away,’’ McCarron said.

The Battlehawks are 6-3 on the season, but most of their wins have come from second-half comebacks that made for captivating stories. In the nine games the Battlehawks have played this season, they went into halftime with the lead only twice.

There was no luck left for them this time around.

“We were a little sloppy in the first half, but we hung in there and were still in a good spot," Becht said. "It came down to who was going to be the best team in the second half, and quite frankly, we fell a little short."

Winning is no longer enough. The Battlehawks start the final week of the regular season with a matinee against the Orlando Guardians (1-8) at 11 a.m. Saturday, April 22. Seattle (6-3) closes the slate with a home game against the Vegas Vipers (2-7) on Sunday, April 23. The Vipers and Guardians have as many wins combined as the Battlehawks have losses, so winning and hoping the other team loses is unlikely.

St. Louis and Seattle have split the season series, and have the same winning percentage against division opponents, unless the Sea Dragons lose to the Vipers. That's the top-two tiebreakers, the second of which would be the only one where both teams losing would benefit the Battlehawks, because their loss would be against a non-division opponent.

The third tiebreaker is the strength of victory, otherwise known as the combined wins of opponents each team has defeated. If both Seattle and St. Louis win then they would have wins over the exact same opponents, everybody but the D.C. Defenders.

The fourth tiebreaker comes down to the team with the best combined ranking in points scored/allowed in all games among divisional teams. Simply put, St. Louis needs to score 19 more points against Orlando than Seattle scores against Vegas. On top of that, Vegas would have to score at least seven more points than Orlando for St. Louis to finish with fewer points allowed than Seattle.

The Guardians' only win came against the league-leading Defenders (8-1) on April Fool's Day, of all days. The Battlehawks will have to treat the Guardians like everyone treated their little brother on Madden and just pour the points on them.

"It’s up to the football gods," Becht said. "Next week, it’s likely going to come down to points, so we have to make sure our guys are prepared for that. All year, we’ve been resilient, so now we have to focus on bouncing back.”