Las Vegas beats California in UFL debut

Oct 9, 1:35 am EDT

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LAS VEGAS (AP)—J.P. Losman threw two touchdowns passes and Dede Dorsey scored twice to help the Las Vegas Locomotives win the first game in United Football League history, 30-17 over the California Redwoods on Thursday night.

A crowd of 14,209 fans attended the game at 40,000-seat Sam Boyd Stadium.

“Our defense stepped up to the plate big time,” Las Vegas coach Jim Fassel said. “The things that we didn’t do well at the end of the day we can coach. It was a good football game. It wasn’t sloppy. It was hard hitting. It was what people want to see.”

Losman, who spent the last five seasons with the Buffalo Bills, completed 21 of 31 passes for 226 yards. He threw a 1-yard TD pass to Dorsey with 13 seconds left in the second quarter, and had an 11-yard scoring pass to tight end Adam Bergen that gave Las Vegas a 17-14 lead with 11:07 left in the third quarter.

“I think guys are hungry, they’re looking forward to next week,” Losman said. “Ball security from the pocket standpoint was my biggest concern. These guys did an excellent job. The guys responded very well.”

The Locomotives made it 30-17 on Dorsey’s 9-yard TD run with 2:18 remaining in the game. Dorsey had nine carries for 63 yards and caught four passes for 19 yards.

“Dede is a flash-and-dash-take-it-to-the-house guy,” Fassel said.

Graham Gano scored the first points in league history, hitting a 33-yard field goal with 3:20 left in the first quarter for the Locomotives.

The UFL’s first touchdown came when Redwoods quarterback Shane Boyd scored on a 4-yard run with 11:03 left in the second quarter. California increased its lead to 14-3 on Cory Ross’ 4-yard run with 8:45 remaining in the second quarter.

The Locomotives scored their first touchdown on Losman’s scoring pass to Dorsey that cut it to 14-10. Following Losman’s TD pass to Bergen, the Locomotives increased their lead to 20-14 on Gano’s 39-yard field goal with 8:05 left in third quarter.

The Redwoods made it 20-17 on Parker Douglass’ 26-yard field goal with 52 seconds remaining in the third quarter, but Las Vegas countered with Gano’s 53-yard field goal with 5:32 left in the fourth quarter.

“I feel like our guys played well,” California coach Dennis Green said. “I liked the way they played. I liked their effort. We didn’t run the ball well in the second half. We were really chasing the rabbit into the rabbit hole in the second half.”

The UFL follows mostly NFL rules. Visible differences from the NFL are that all of the referees wear solid red shirts and black pants and the yard-line and end-zone markers, as well as the sideline crew’s vests, are lime green. There are also LED screens on one sideline and both end zones.

The four UFL teams will each play six games in the regular season. The championship games is set for Nov. 27 in Las Vegas.

Updated Oct 9, 1:35 am EDT
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29 Comments

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  1. Big Mak
    29. Posted by Big Mak Fri Oct 9 9:32pm EDT

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    Other football leagues come and go for a reason.
  2. <i>lineback_45</i>
    28. Posted by lineback_45 Fri Oct 9 6:37pm EDT

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    players need to work on fundementals. losman fumbled on back to back plays and the running back fumbled on the 5 yard line.three false starts in a row it was acctually getting pretty funny. Cali capitalized on the turn overs and scored on every one. vegas didnt throw a pick and the locos defense looked good in the second half as the redwoods only scored three points after the second quarter.
  3. <i>lineback_45</i>
    27. Posted by lineback_45 Fri Oct 9 6:31pm EDT

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    i was at the game last night and it was a good game the statium acctualy got very load at points. There slogan "at the UFL its all about you' is complete BS!my brother cought the field goal and they made him throw it back on the field. but for the most part it was a good game and competitive. If there are any loco fans out there our defense looked really good in the second half! im going to buy tickets to the remaining las vegas games and watch it progress. at points it was very hard to tell which team was which, the only thing seperating it was the stripes on the sholder pads, vegas had blue pants but cali had blue socks lol.
  4. keltic
    26. Posted by keltic Fri Oct 9 1:27pm EDT

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    23 what you want is elementary school style football. If they were to pull an idiot stunt like that they wouldn't last as long as the XFL. Only other thing they would need is not keeping score to make it WUSSY FOOTBALL.
  5. keltic
    25. Posted by keltic Fri Oct 9 1:24pm EDT

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    23 what you want is elementary school style football. If they were to pull an idiot stunt like that they wouldn't last as long as the XFL. Only other thing they would need is not keeping score to make it WUSSY FOOTBALL.
  6. ZerO
    24. Posted by ZerO Fri Oct 9 11:40am EDT

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    From what I've seen, this has some potential, yes, the plays in the game were mostly simplified and the uniforms were awful and it was kind of hard to figure which team is which, but in the end, for the UFL's first ever game, It was very good and they didn't go gimmicky which I had feared.

    Overall, I give it a 78%, Better than what I was expecting, but the UFL could use some work if it wants to even compete with the NFL.
  7. RobertT
    23. Posted by RobertT Fri Oct 9 10:29am EDT

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    I wish the UFL would do something more different and create a more PURE football game. Things would be simplified down a bit to optimize the chances that the better team actually wins week in and week out. But I guess we want entertainment not athletic competition.

    The changes would be somewhat subtle... No Punts and No Returns on turnovers. Ball is placed on the 50 and returned to the 50 after every score. 4 downs to get a first down. FG attempts would be same rules as NFL, overtime for tie games would proceed as-is to 15-minute timed sudden death 5th qtr, i.e. no coin flip (this favors the team that last had the lead, and is a detriment to the team that most recently was behind--as it should be).

    The No Return rule is there to prevent what are essentially "free" or uncontested yards... i.e. intercepting the ball at your own goalline should not entitle the team about to surrender points with a "free" 99-yard sprint and an uncontested 6 point reward. Extra points are open to discussion. A mandatory 2-pt (or change it to be 3-pts from the 3-yd line?) conversion attempt would be an interesting.

    That's my Football Dream League; a more Manly Tug-Of-War Chess version of American Football.
  8. Kadhi
    22. Posted by Kadhi Fri Oct 9 9:43am EDT

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    I hope that this league will surpass all expectations and break the monopoly of the NFL!!
  9. Pedro
    21. Posted by Pedro Fri Oct 9 9:08am EDT

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    The games are playing on versus but i have direct tv and jacka$$ of a company comcast wants way to much money from direct tv to play that channel but it played on their website. i saw the game and i would have to agree not that bad better the nfl european league due to known names and nfl drop outs not just practice squad players.
  10. Peter Gibbons
    20. Posted by Peter Gibbons Fri Oct 9 9:08am EDT

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    On TV, it certainly looked empty in the stadium even with 14,000 people supposedly in attendance. I hope the league survives for another year and tickets seem competitively cheap compared to your average NFL game. But in this economy if nothing is a surefire money maker from Day1 it usually is gone.

    The whole split scheduling of games between HDNet and Versus is also kind of dumb too. HDNet is a pay channel in my local cable system and I think in plenty of other places but while I get Versus as part of the expanded package, I'm sure the availability varies in other markets. And of course they're dispute with Directv doesn't help either. Point is its harder to access than NFL games and that might serve as negative factor when trying to raise public awareness.

    The upside for the UFL is if the NFL does have lockout in 2011 it can be a fall back for fans who need any kind of football. The game looked pretty average to me though last night and was managed like any other second rate league like the AFL with nothing really unique to set it apart from the rest of the pack.
  11. <i>robritcomm3</i>
    19. Posted by robritcomm3 Fri Oct 9 8:35am EDT

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    i had no idea they were even playing yet????

    hey yahoo lets make a ufl fantasy league next year, this might generate some interest, atleast in the players.
  12. brian b
    18. Posted by brian b Fri Oct 9 8:23am EDT

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    14,2009 fans x an average ticket price of 40 bucks equals $568,360. Say each fan bought a 7 dollar beer. and they would make an additional 99.463 dollars. Let's assume parking is 20 bucks and 7k cars paid for parking. That's 140k. These are pretty generous numbers so lets assume the revenue from the game before paying players, vendors, security, etc was $807,823. These numbers essentially spell the demise for the ufl as only a little over 14k fans showed up. IF they don't get a bigger fan base it's curtain time.
  13. brian b
    17. Posted by brian b Fri Oct 9 8:12am EDT

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    How is this league going to succeed when no one even knew they were playing? I mean I knew the league existed but had no idea they started yesterday. Yahoo doesn't even have a UFL section. This league will tank if they don't get the word out.
  14. <i>youngjet</i>
    16. Posted by youngjet Fri Oct 9 8:06am EDT

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    I watched most of the game. Sure there were mistakes, but I understood that this was not on par with the NFL so I lowered my expectations. I was plesantly surprised at the play on the field. It was a competative game. But them uniforms are terrible.. Terrible.. The refs outfits looked ok (Tiger Woods clones) .. But the teams uni's have got to go..

    The announcers were also pretty bad.. They were corny and simple minded.. James did a decent job as color but it was very difficult to listen to the broadcast.. But I can see the broadcasting improve as the games progress..

    If everyone looks at the UFL to see some of their favorite college players try to play their way into the NFL or former NFL players trying to get back to the NFL, they may enjoy a few games. It is what it is, a redemption football league. Maybe some people want to see grown men play football for love of game instead of divas playing for millions.. Either way, the league has a purpose and can prove vital to players, coaches, refs and announcers a path to the NFL..
  15. Brn4Life
    15. Posted by Brn4Life Fri Oct 9 5:57am EDT

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    beastie # 14, That is why I NEVER watch pre game, post game, or half time shows. I watch the game on mute, with the local radio feed. ITS GREAT ! The has beens and never wases are an awful bunch to watch. A $2000.00 suit may not look good on someone just because he has the money to buy it.
  16. beastie
    14. Posted by beastie Fri Oct 9 5:09am EDT

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    whats irritating is how espn is treating this like its a joke. the sportscasters were pretty much mocking the teams, players and games on the 3 second report they had after the game was done. it was actually a good competitive game and all they did was laugh at it. pathetic.
  17. jr9613
    13. Posted by jr9613 Fri Oct 9 4:54am EDT

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    i watch a little bit of it, its not that bad ,and if you dont know what the ufl is then your not really a fan of football
  18. <i>shimaun3</i>
    12. Posted by shimaun3 Fri Oct 9 4:40am EDT

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    I watched the first half and was very pleased. It was good football with some recognizable names but I didn't like the "Redwoods" team colors. I will definitely watch up and coming a games.
    Go UFL!
  19. PhilipH
    11. Posted by PhilipH Fri Oct 9 3:53am EDT

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    Losman was better than Edwards. Look at the Bills now!
  20. SteveT
    10. Posted by SteveT Fri Oct 9 3:31am EDT

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    Losman chose to be a starter in the UFL over a back-up in the NFL (he had offers). He wanted to play.
  21. Jefferson
    9. Posted by Jefferson Fri Oct 9 3:24am EDT

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    Yeah, Jimmy is right. Why no box score/stats??
  22. Wes
    8. Posted by Wes Fri Oct 9 2:28am EDT

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    I HAD TO WORK TONIGHT!!! Man I wanted to go watch Losman play...
  23. Jimmy In Reno
    7. Posted by Jimmy In Reno Fri Oct 9 2:24am EDT

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    I wish there was a boxscore to go with this story.


    .
  24. SinCity
    6. Posted by SinCity Fri Oct 9 2:23am EDT

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    I watched the game, and I have to say that players that have been together for less than a month...they looked pretty good. Good game overall. So false starts and key penalties, but the game was natural and lots of talent out there. I think that this league will actually stick around for a while as long as the prices for the tickets stay down and the fans showing up to these games increase. Wednesdays might be a bad day for ppl to show up, but Fridays might not be a bad idea in the future.

    Overall, I would grade it a B
  25. KevinD
    5. Posted by KevinD Fri Oct 9 2:07am EDT

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    Just got back from the game here in Las Vegas. I really enjoyed it and hope the league survives to become a feeder league for the NFL. Too bad DirecTV and Versus/Comcast are fighting as that will hurt the audience. They had a streaming feed from their UFL website, but I don't know how popular that will be.
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