The USFL season has reached its mid-season mark after this past weekend of Week 5 match-ups. In week 5, the last remaining unbeaten team fell to the team with the worst record and an entire Division finds its four teams at 2-3. It's a tale of two different styles of football between the two Divisions. The North, which is home to the 'Canton Hub' New Jersey Generals and Pittsburgh Maulers as well as their brethren to the North in the 'Detroit Hub', the Philadelphia Stars and Michigan Panthers are deadlocked at 2-3 each. Each team has accumulated between 82-96 points in their first 5 games while allowing 86-130. The New Jersey Generals are the only team with a positive point margin, sitting at a +9 to date. The next best in terms of point margin is their Hub partner Pittsburgh Maulers who have registered a -4. The Detroit squads have played in more lopsided affairs, with the Michigan Panthers (-20) and Philadelphia Stars (-40) both multiple touchdowns from the break-even point.
Shifting focus to the South Division squads, they are led by the now-lone 1 loss team, the New Orleans Breakers. Following the Breakers are the Houston Gamblers and Birmingham Stallions at 3-2 apiece. Looking like the punching bag of the league for the first 3 weeks, don't look now but the Memphis Showboats, under the tutelage of former NFL head coach and longtime coordinator Todd Haley have righted the ship, err, showboat and have won their previous two games, including as previously mentioned the New Orleans Breakers. The point margins in the South feature all but Memphis in the black. Led by the Stallions with a +40, followed by Division leader New Orleans at +24. Houston rounds out the division on the positive side at +13 after Week 5 action and the Showboats sit at -22.
Each team at this point has a very clear path to the playoffs and a top seed at that. The North teams clearly have relied on their defenses and special teams while the South has found much more offensive success than their North counterparts. It is shaping up to be an exciting month of football to whet the appetite of football-crazed fans who await the start of NFL training camps at the end of July.