Memphis Express comes back to earn first win of the season

Memphis Express comes back to earn first win of the season

AAF squad looks to continue turnaround this weekend

The Alliance of American Football MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Memphis Express head coach Mike Singletary huddled his players after the game in the locker room and had a simple message: “We had to communicate.

That’s how we got this win. Let’s go forward.”

The Memphis Express return home on March 24th to face the Birmingham Iron. The game starts at 3 p.m. local time and will broadcast on NFL Network. Get tickets here.

The message from Singletary all week was finishing the game.

On Saturday afternoon at the Liberty Bowl, the team put on a performance that the city of Memphis can remember with a comefrom- behind victory over the San Diego Fleet, 26-23. After giving up 20 points in the first half, the Express defense gave up three points in the second half and forced four turnovers in the game to secure the first win in team history.

“Our fans were amazing today and I loved the music we were playing,” Singletary said with a laugh.

“The support was amazing, and our players could feel that. Being embraced when you were 0-3 was really special.”

Down 23-15 in the fourth quarter, Express defensive end Corey Vereen hit Fleet quarterback Alex Ross as the ball came loose and defensive back Jeremy Cutrer recovered the fumble at the San Diego 21-yard line.

Soon after, Express quarterback Zach Mettenberger hit Terrence Magee on a 6-yard wheel route to tie the game at 23 after Mettenberger’s 2-point conversion run.

After a failed fake punt by San Diego, new Express kicker Austin MacGinnis hit a 45-yard field goal to give the Express the 26-23 lead with 2:42 left to play.

MacGinnis went 4-for-4 in his team debut at kicker.

On the next drive for San Diego, Vereen came up big again with another forced fumble, recovered by Greg Gilmore to seal the first win in Express history.

Singletary gave the defense the game ball after the thrilling victory.

“Our defense has been playing their tails off and it showed tonight,” Singletary said. “Our linebackers and defensive backs really stepped up tonight. To be able to keep playing and creating turnovers in tough situations was awesome.

We want to be a great defense.”

The defense gave the offense the ball in the second half with great field position to win the game and the offense capitalized on those opportunities.

“Our defense played tough tonight and they play well together,” Mettenberger said. “We got to move the ball more to help them out. Ultimately, we got the win and that’s all that matters. We got a lot of things to stack on and hopefully we’ll improve this week.”

Mettenberger finished the game 18-for-25 passing for 174 yards and accounted for two touchdowns, one passing and one rushing.

It was his first professional start since 2015 with the Tennessee Titans and his first win as a starting quarterback in his professional career.

“It’s definitely exciting for me to win. It’s been a long time since 2015,” Mettenberger said.

“There’s nothing better than to win. It’s an awesome feeling.”

Linebacker Drew Jackson had his best game of the season and led the Express defense with 14 total tackles, including four tackles for a loss, four passes defended, one sack and one interception.

The defense won the game for the Express and the confidence is sky-high for the unit going forward. “We knew we had to finish. We knew we had no other choice,” Jackson said. “0-4 wasn’t going to cut it. We had to finish the job and we definitely did that.”

The team continuously fought through the first four games of the season and finally came away with the first win in team history.

The wait was long, but it was worth it in the end.

Now the task is to build off that and create something special.

“It was very special tonight. We all kicked and clawed and came up short the first three weeks. We finally put it together,” Singletary said. “It was just a really special feeling. Now we can build off it and go from there.”

Dylan Rubino covers the Memphis Express for The Alliance of American Football. You can follow him on twitter @DylanJRubino.

By Dylan Rubino