USFL Week 6 best plays: Big-man TDs, trick plays and more
From wild trick plays to momentum-shifting scores to huge defensive stops, Week 6 of the USFL season featured a host of big moments.
And in a season in which every game matters, many of these plays proved to be huge factors in the final scores.
Here are the best plays of Week 6.
Big-Man TD of the Week: Tomasi Laulile, Houston Gamblers
The Gamblers were trying to earn their first victory since Week 1, and it was looking good after Laulile picked up the loose ball — caused by Chris Odom's strip-sack — and rumbled 58 yards for a touchdown.
The play put Houston up 25-20 with less than six minutes to play, and while they wouldn't hold the lead, the play led to plenty of chatter on Monday.
"That's 6-foot-3, 300-plus pounds coming right at you," Nick Wright said on "First Things First." "That's gonna be the best big-man touchdown of the year, would be my guess."
Trick Play of the Week: New Jersey Generals
Part of the reason the Generals were able to rally after Laulile's big-man TD was that they pulled off a sweet trick play on their final drive.
"They're calling this the ‘Philly-Jersey Special,’" Chris Broussard said on "First Things First." "Cameron Echols-Luper takes the reverse, throws it back to quarterback Luis Perez for a key first down. Generals punch it in as time expired."
Shannon Sharpe added on "Undisputed," "I kind of wanted this play to score, because when you think ‘Philly Special,' you think Nick Foles in the Super Bowl that actually scored. But because it did lead to the game-winning touchdown, you know what, I'm going to have to give it a lot of credit."
Juke of the Week: KaVontae Turpin, Generals
New Jersey receiver doesn't have a lot of size, checking in at about 5-9, 155 pounds. But he makes up for that with extremely shifty feet and sticky hands, making him a major problem for opposing defenses.
That was apparent on Sunday against the Gamblers, when he left a Houston safety grasping at air.
"It's hard to tackle these guys in the open field," Sharpe said. "Give these guys credit. When they can tackle a running back or receiver in the open field, they need to get a lot of credit because these guys are really shifty."
"When you got the safety in space against little Turpin, it was game over," Skip Bayless added.
Best Concentration of the Week: Marlon Williams, Birmingham Stallions
The Stallions remain the only unbeaten team in the league and a big reason for that is their penchant for coming up with big plays when they need them the most.
Case in point: A huge grab by Williams against the Michigan Panthers, which he made while having his helmet ripped off.
Interception of the Week: Ike Brown, New Orleans Breakers
Brown took advantage of a miscommunication between Pittsburgh quarterback Vad Lee and receiver Bailey Gaither, grabbing an errant pass and sprinting 97 yards for a touchdown. The score gave the Breakers a 23-3 lead on the way to a 26-16 victory.
"It looked like [Lee] wanted the guy to settle down because he saw the inside guy was going to jump the route," Sharpe said. "… and he goes in there and, well, the rest is a reservation for six into the end zone."