The St. Louis BattleHawks were down by 12 points with just ninety to go in their 2023 XFL regular season debut. But that wasn’t enough of a lead for the San Antonio Brahmas, coached by Hines Ward, to emerge victorious. This was in large part thanks to Austin Proehl, son of Ricky, stringing together consecutive clutch catches down in the red zone to help complete an unbelievable comeback win.
St. Louis, who is coached by former NFL tight end Anthony Becht and quarterbacked by former Alabama star A.J. McCarron, battled inconsistency issues with their offense all afternoon, which led to the large deficit. The BattleHawks scored just three points in the first half before breaking out with a 15-point fourth quarter to leave the Brahmas shocked.
In what has to be considered the greatest XFL comeback of the young 2023 season, we captured some of the best reactions from social media to the BattleHawks’ clutch comeback win.
But first, here are the plays by Proehl, which helped the BattleHawks surge to victory.
Our first clip comes on a fourth-and-15 conversion, which was attempted instead of trying for an onside kick, per the XFL’s rules.
Here’s the second, which helped the BattleHawks take an 18-15 lead, which ended up being the final score.
Proehl caught a total of four passes for 49 yards and a touchdown. He caught all four passes thrown his way. Proehl was a seventh-round pick by the Buffalo Bills in 2018 and has never appeared in an NFL game
Related: 10 Best players on XFL rosters in 2023, including NFL vets Josh Gordon and Vic Beasley
Social media reacts to St. Louis BattleHawks’ large comeback win
Related: XFL power rankings: Breaking down all 8 teams ahead of Week 1