Manny Wilkins of the St. Louis Battlehawks (Photo by the St. Louis Battlehawks and the UFL)
St. Louis fell to Arlington Saturday afternoon in Choctaw Stadium in Northern Texas, 30-15. The Battlehawks fall to 2-2 in this young 2025 season after a 2-0 start. Worse than the two consecutive losses they have now suffered is the loss of their starting quarterback, Manny Wilkins. Wilkins, a standout from Arizona State, is in his third year in the XFL/UFL after being a part of the Green Bay Packers franchise after leaving ASU in 2019.
Wilkins played great in the Battlehawks’ first two games and wins of this season, his first as a full-time starter in St. Louis. He struggled in their loss to D.C. last week and was looking to bounce back in Arlington. That got stopped before it started, with Wilkins going down with an injury. As of this writing, we don’t know the severity of Wilkins’ injury.
Max Duggan
Enter Max Duggan. Duggan, the TCU star who took the Horned Frogs to the 2021 National Championship and was the Heisman runner-up that year, is no stranger to pressure. Unfortunately, being thrown into the fire today didn’t work out well for Duggan or the St. Louis Battlehawks. Duggan finished the game 8 of 17 for 78 yards and threw two interceptions. The Hawks’ rushing attack didn’t help much as Jacob Saylors, who also started the year strong, was held to 61 yards on 20 carries.
The bright spots for St. Louis weren’t many in a 15-point loss. However, one was linebacker Willie Harvey and the other was kicker Rodrigo Blankenship. Harvey, who starred at Iowa State in college, had eight tackles, a pass breakup, and an interception. He provided the only touchdown for St. Louis when he returned that interception for a touchdown.
Rodrigo Blankenship
Blakenship, the Georgia Bulldog, was a perfect three-for-three with his field goal kicking. His first was a 55-yarder, his second a 31-yarder, and his final kick a 51-yarder. Blankenship has been the most consistent scoring threat for St. Louis through four games.
Next Saturday night, St. Louis will battle the Panthers at Ford Field in Detroit. The Panthers are 3-1 and lead the USFL Conference of the UFL. We’ll see if taking all of the QB1 snaps in practice this week will help Max Duggan as the Battlehawks fly to the Motor City.
