Wednesday night at 6 PM local time, 9 PM Eastern on VERSUS, the Las Vegas Locos will play host to the Florida Tuskers in what might just be a Championship Game preview. The two teams showed off potentially dominating defenses, solid offenses, and a tendency to close out their games strongly.

While some might say it is too early to make such a judgment after one game, in a six game regular season every game matters infinitely more. Whichever team wins the battle royale tomorrow night will be in the drivers seat for the Championship Game, while the team that loses will be tied with the winner of Saturday’s Redwoods v. Sentinels game for second place.

One of the compelling aspects of the Premiere Season model is that simply every game matters.

So, who will win tomorrow night? Tune in on UFLAccess’ Inside the UFL Radio Show tonight for the prediction but for now let’s examine each team.

The Las Vegas Locos

The Locos started shaky in the early going last Wednesday. The O-Line looked like it was going to allow itself to be cut through easily all evening and QB JP Losman faced continual heat. Eventually they pulled themselves together and looked much stronger.

Losman proved that he is worthy of being considered one of the premier players in the league this first year by showing off some mobility and a strong arm. DeDe Dorsey proved in the second half that he might be worthy of being the starter despite Marcel Shipp’s resume, while Shipp offered leadership and a 4.1 ypc average. Andrae Thurman and Adam Bergen showed that they might be the stars of what seemed to be a serviceable WR corps, at a minimum.

Barring some early miscues last week they may very well have ran away with the game.

The defense looked solid as well, especially in the second half. Adrian Awasom looked awesome (forgive me for the terrible pun) with the only sack of the night for the Locos. Nick Turnbull seemed to be a solid tackler, even in space, and Gary Stills showed that he might be a defensive leader.

Particularly impressive for the Locos was the fact that Tony Parrish seemed to have a lot more left in the tank than some might have suspected. It will be interesting to see if that trend continues.

Florida Tuskers

The Tuskers were the preseason UFL favorites but they looked like they might be unworthy of the hype in the opening portion of last Saturday’s game.

Then the defense showed poise on the goal line and the team rallied to show that they might just deserve the preseason hype after all.

Brooks Bollinger admitted to league officials after the game that he was a bit nervous in the early going and it showed. Yet by the end of the game he had 4 touchdowns versus 1 pick and a 20 for 26 completion number. I remain skeptical that Bollinger is the man for the Tuskers but I don’t think he will kill them either.

Tatum Bell, Michael Pittman, and Shaud Williams looked like a three headed monster by the end of the game with each of them averaging over five yards per carry. Chas Gessner, Jayson Foster, and the other receivers showed occasional flashes of electricity.

In my mind, however, it was the defense that showed why the Tuskers might very well be the team to beat. Odell Thurman looked like he had barely left the field despite his lengthy absence and NFL contenders would be wise to keep him in mind come the end of November. McKinley Boykin and Tim McGarigle also turned in strong performances and looked to be steady tacklers.

Meanwhile, Fakhir Brown had a great interception and Dexter Jackson looked 23 rather than over 30 throughout the evening. Oh – and that is without mentioning Ricky Manning Jr. who just joined the Tuskers. Manning had 3 interceptions in the NFC Championship game not too terribly long ago, few Carolina Panthers OR Philadelphia Eagles fans will ever forget that, and if he is recovered from injury he will bring another deadly presence to the Tuskers secondary.

Tickets…

And for those near Vegas, well, tickets are only $7 online. So you should probably go buy them… today! If this price doesn’t get football fans excited then they do not have a pulse. For that low price they will be able to see dozens of former NFL players and some future NFL stars take the field in their home town.

Remember…

To tune into our radio show tonight (and join the chat room to join in the discussion) and come back to the site for a live chat tomorrow evening.

A few quick hits if you don’t mind…

Men’s Wearhouse announced as a foundation sponsor proves that football is #1. Why, you might ask? A startup football league, approaching this season as a soft launch in true startup fashion, has managed to sign a number of respected sponsors…

The Redwoods versus Sentinels game Saturday night in beautiful AT&T Park is do-or-die for those teams which is why we hope to have Redwoods QB on the radio show tonight to discuss the game…

Ralph Vuono’s offer of VIP treatment for UFL fans show why we hope this league is around for a long time to come. Simply put, they care about the fans…