World Bowl X Recap and 1983 Trivia

For the second time in three seasons, the New Jersey Generals are champions of the USFL/WFL.

New Jersey's defense forced Denver QB Dustin Nichols into four interceptions and QB Stephan Labelle fired three TD passes as the Generals held off the Gold, 37-22, in World Bowl X.

Stephan LaBelle, New Jersey

The Generals were making their third consecutive appearance in the title game. New Jersey won two seasons ago, lost to Houston last season, and put on another ring Friday. Denver was making its first World Bowl appearance.

Running backs Rudi Johnson and Magic Johnson combined for 153 yards rushing and Labelle threw scoring strikes to Aaron Paul, Steve Jobs, and Justin Timberlake. New Jersey scored on five of its first six drives, but it was the Generals' defense that really came up big when it needed to.

A seemingly safe 31-14 New Jersey lead early in the fourth quarter did not look nearly as safe when Nichols found veteran WR Michael Sonnenberg for his second TD of the day. A 2-point conversion cut the lead to 31-22 with plenty of time to go (13:38).

An interception by Bernardo Schoenberger killed the next Denver drive, and incomplete passes on third-and-one and fourth-and-one ended the next possession. The Gold got the ball back one more time, but four incompletions ended that final drive,

Kerry Justin, Lars Ulrich, and Mike Williams also had interceptions for New Jersey. Nichols finished the game with a 65.00 QBR compared with Labelle's 107.81. Leroy Selmon caught eight passes for the Generals. Denver MLB Michael Flores led all tacklers with 11.

Useless Trivia

Here are some nuggets I stumbled upon while updating the team vs. team results chart:

• The Southern California Sun season ncluded both a victory over Denver (14-2) and a loss to Georgia (1-15).
• SoCal also recorded just its second-ever victory over Los Angeles. The Express leads that series, 18-2. The only other division series with a similar disparity is New Jersey's 18-2 all-time record against Philadelphia.
• Teams finishing with their best-ever regular-season records were Denver (14-2), SouthernCalifornia (6-10), Birmingham (13-3), Charlotte (8-8), and Jacksonville (12-4). Finishing with their worst-ever regular-season record were Oakland (5-11), San Antonio (3-13), Georgia (1-15), Shreveport (4-12), and Tampa Bay (4-12).
• The San Jose SaberCats ended the season on a 12-game losing streak. The longest losing streak in league history is 17, by the Boston Breakers spanning the end of the 1982 and beginning of the 1983 seasons.
• The Portland Storm and Detroit Wheels have both finished .500 or better for 10 consecutive seasons.
• In games between teams in other divisions, the biggest margin is Chicago's 7-0 record vs. San Antonio. New Jersey is 6-0 against Baltimore, Houston is 6-0 vs. SoCal, and Detroit is 6-0 vs. LAX.
• Birmingham earned its first-ever win over Tampa Bay after five losses.
• Portland is a combined 19-3 against the Pacific Division.
• Charlotte was 0-10 against the West Division before defeating both Portland and Oakland this season.
• Look how even the West Division competition has been over 10 seasons (click to enlarge):