The Birmingham Gunners bury the San Antonio Brahmas in the UFL Championship game

The San Antonio Brahmas had the No. 1 statistical defense in the United Football League this season. But it turned out that the Birmingham Stallions had a championship defence.

The Gunners defeated the Brahmas 25-0 in the inaugural UFL Championship game on Sunday at the America’s Center Dome in St. Louis.

“I thought our defense played a game of football,” Holtz said. “They kept the ball in front of them, they didn’t give up any big plays, they made tackles — just an incredible effort by our defensive team.”

Birmingham added the new spring football league crown to the championships won by the Stallions the past two seasons in the USFL, which merged with the XFL to form the United Football League this year.

The result avenged Birmingham’s only loss of the season. The Brahmas defeated the Stallions 18-9 on May 25 in Week 9 of the regular season.

“We were undefeated the first time we played San Antonio,” Birmingham linebacker Kyahva Tezino said. “And if I’m being real with ourselves, we were comfortable, we were satisfied. I probably needed that. Coach Skip actually came into the locker room and said he would rather lose that game and win the championship than the other way around.

“We just came together and said we’re not going to let (San Antonio shortstop Anthony McFarland) beat us, we’re not going to let this offense beat us and we’re just going to come together and play. we got our ass and that’s what we did.

“Shout out to those guys. He yells at the D-line. It starts with them, and then everyone else follows right behind them, so it’s just a team effort.”

With crime no. 1 in the league, Birmingham broke open the title game with three points and a fumble on its first four possessions. The Stallions then scored the next three times they had the football.

For San Antonio, however, the offense produced six points, lost two fumbles and was stopped on downs twice.

Birmingham’s go-ahead play was a 44-yard burst by running back Ricky Person Jr. to the San Antonio 30-yard line. The big play led to an 8-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Adrian Martinez to receiver Gary Jennings with 40 seconds left in the first half. Birmingham took an 8-0 halftime lead on Martinez’s 2-point pass to wide receiver Amari Rodgers.

Receiving the second half kick, the Stallions moved 64 yards in eight plays for another touchdown. Martinez ran from 11 yards out with 11:00 left in the third quarter, then hit tight end Jordan Thomas with a 2-point conversion pass for a 16-0 lead.

“We’re a put-off team,” Holtz said. “We’re always going to put the ball away, so when it was a coin toss, we were hoping we’d win it so we could put it away, and they won it and got the ball. And our whole sideline was like, “Yeah!” because what we talked about is the opportunity if we can manage this clock the right way and find a way to get a score before halftime and then get the ball in the third quarter and go score again, it’s a game of two scores. before going back outside. They had the ball at the end of the second quarter, we went down and scored, went down and scored again, and when the offense came out it was 16-0. That’s hard to overcome for an offense.”

San Antonio then made the fatal error of the game. Birmingham linebacker Kyahva Tezino set up Brahmas wide receiver Jontre Kirklin for a completion on the Brahmas’ first play of the second half, and safety Kenny Robinson Jr. recovered to the 24-yard line meters from San Antonio.

The Stallions cashed in on Martinez’s 1-yard quarterback sneak for a touchdown — a play ruled by the field goal line but turned into a TD on video review with 7:25 left in the third quarter .

A 49-yard field goal by Chris Blewitt with 11:31 left to play set up the final score.

San Antonio rushed for 127 yards on 33 carries in its regular-season win over Birmingham. On Sunday, the Brahmas had 52 yards on 16 rushing attempts. Meanwhile, the Stallions ran for 210 yards and two touchdowns on 35 carries against San Antonio on Sunday, and Person went 102 on 13 attempts.

“I told the team in today’s meeting I was going to run the ball 25 times and they said 30,” Holtz said. “I told them if they could average over 4 yards a carry, I would call it 30 times. We wanted to run the ball in this game. That was the game plan that was working. I was upset when I went three-and-three, three-and-out. We had a few third downs and maybe a few drops or reads or throws that we couldn’t execute. But it was easy to stick with it with the defense showing a zero on the scoreboard, because even though it looked bad, it was still 0-0. You are still right in the game. We are exactly where we need to be. We don’t have to win in the first quarter and I applaud our players for being patient.

“And the offensive line — we knew (San Antonio’s defense is) athletic, they’re fast, they can run, they can rush the passer. They proved it. But we feel like our offensive line is pretty good and we felt like we would get benefits in the second, third and fourth quarters if we kept hitting the rock because eventually we were hoping it would wear them down. And our offensive line got stronger as the game went on.”

Birmingham won, even though Martinez finished with 98 yards passing, completing 13 of 23 passes with a touchdown and no interceptions.

Martinez, who was the UFL’s most valuable player during the regular season, also won the championship game MVP award.

Two studs with Alabama football roots played on Saturday. Receiver Marlon Williams (McGill-Toolen) had four receptions for a team-high 36 yards and guard Deonte Brown (Austin, Ala.) did not record a stat.

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.