In Week 6, the Seattle Sea Dragons are back on the road, this time to Camping World Stadium in Orlando to face the winless Guardians.
The Sea Dragons come into this matchup on a three-game winning streak, having just delivered the Houston Roughnecks their first loss of the season. Seattle’s been far from perfect, with turnover issues as the root of their problems. However, the offense has been explosive enough, and the defense has been stout enough to win their recent matchups.
Orlando comes into Week 6 as the XFL’s only remaining winless team. However, they’re coming off their best performance of the year, having just scored a season-high of 32 points against the Vegas Vipers. While Seattle’s defense seems to rank a bit above the Vipers, the Sea Dragons have made plenty of mistakes which have kept their opponents alive late in nearly every game this season.
If Seattle can limit the turnovers and penalties, this should be an easy win for the Sea Dragons. However, if they continue beating themselves, this game could be too close for comfort.
Seattle Sea Dragons (3-2) at Orlando Guardians (0-5)
Kickoff: Saturday, March 25th at 10:00 am PT
Where: Camping World Stadium, Orlando, Florida
TV: ABC, ESPN+, & ESPN Xtra on Sirius/XM
Broadcast Team: Roy Philpott (Play-By-Play), Joey Galloway (Analyst), Eric Maclain (Sideline Analyst), Tiffany Blackmon (Sideline Reporter)
Weather
Saturday’s forecast calls for intervals of clouds and sunshine, with a high of 92 degrees and winds from 10-15 mph. Expect around 81% humidity with a 6% chance of rain.
The Seattle Sea Dragons come into Week 6 on a three-game winning streak and currently sit at 3rd place in the North Division. Meanwhile, the winless Orlando Guardians sit at the bottom of the South Division, but are coming off their highest-scoring game of the year. Unfortunately, they’d not pull off the victory, but quarterback Quinten Dormady brought a spark to Orlando’s offense that hadn’t been seen all season.
Saturday’s matchup has the potential to go one of two ways in my opinion. Either Seattle limits the turnovers and dumb penalties, then runs away with the game fairly early; or the Sea Dragons continue to beat themselves and give the worst-ranked team in the league too many opportunities to stay in the game.
As explosive as Seattle’s offense has been over the first 5 weeks of the season, poor decision-making at times from Ben DiNucci, miscommunications between receivers, and injuries in the running back room have held them from reaching their full potential. It should be noted that running back Morgan Ellison and offensive tackle Liam Jimmons will miss Saturday’s matchup, both with knee injuries.
While Seattle’s defense has played better as the season’s progressed, they’ve continued to commit dumb penalties and almost allowed a 21-point comeback by the Houston Roughnecks after shutting them out through 3 quarters. Seattle’s defense should be well-equipped to handle the Orlando Guardians’ offense, but with the team coming off their best offensive performance of the season, they shouldn’t be completely written off. Additionally, Seattle’s linebacker and team captain, Jordan Evans, will miss Saturday’s matchup due to a hamstring injury.
The Orlando Guardians come into this game fresh off a 32-point outing, which was their best game of the year despite not being able to come away with the victory. Quarterback Quinten Dormady was named the starter for Orlando moving forward after he took over for Paxton Lynch and completed 22/25 passes for 256 yards and 2 touchdowns in their Week 5 matchup against the Vegas Vipers.
Defensively, Orlando’s had trouble getting to the quarterback and currently has the second least amount of sacks in the league with 9. Additionally, they have the fewest takeaways in the league. That said, linebackers Terrance Plummer and Terrance Smith, along with defensive backs Matt Elam and Marcus Murphy have made some big plays on Orlando’s defense this season.
Overall, this game should be an easy win for the Sea Dragons assuming they don’t kill themselves with penalties and turnovers. The Guardians haven’t played an offense as explosive as Seattle’s so far this season, and the closest thing to it was the Houston Roughnecks, who put up 33 and 44 points in their two matchups against Orlando this year. Being without Morgan Ellison will definitely hurt Seattle’s rushing attack, but the Sea Dragons are a talented enough group that they should be able to pull off this win even without their leading rusher.
