On the first snap of his first start in the 2025 United Football League season, San Antonio Brahmas quarterback Kevin Hogan completed a pass to wide receiver Justin Smith for a 56-yard gain on Sunday. On the final snap of the first half for the Brahmas offense, Hogan connected with Smith again for a 45-yard gain.

But San Antonio’s other 40 snaps netted 77 yards as the Birmingham Stallions bullied the Brahmas in a 26-3 victory at Protective Stadium.

With five touchdowns allowed through six games, the Birmingham defense has become the stingiest defense in the UFL, and on Sunday, the Stallions held San Antonio to 24 yards on 13 rushing attempts, allowed no conversions on 10 third-down snaps, sacked Hogan three times, broke up seven passes (with cornerback Steven Gilmore getting an interception) and got a recovery by linebacker Tae Crowder of a fumble forced by defensive tackle Marvin Wilson.

“What a defensive performance,” said Stallions coach Skip Holtz, whose team had a 9:38 edge in time of possession on Sunday. “I thought those guys were awesome. We talked about what we wanted to do offensively is play the game probably a little more conservatively, giving our quarterback an opportunity to stand in the pocket, throw some play-action and some ball-control stuff. I thought our defense gave us an opportunity to do that because they kept getting off the field.”

The first of Ronnie Perkins’ two sacks helped overcome the 56-yard pass. The sack produced a 9-yard loss on a third-and-6 snap at the Birmingham 14-yard line. When Tristan Vizcaino missed a 41-yard field-goal attempt, the Brahmas came away empty on their first series.

While the Stallions produced 313 yards of total offense, a punt return is what got Birmingham going. Wide receiver Davion Davis returned a punt 35 yards to allow the Stallions to start their second possession at the San Antonio 39-yard line.

Five straight handoffs to Ricky Person covered the final 25 yards of the touchdown drive, with the running back going into the end zone from 4 yards out for the game’s first points with 2:10 left in the first quarter.

In the second quarter, Stallions quarterback Case Cookus connected with wide receiver Amari Rodgers on a 43-yard touchdown pass as Birmingham took a 12-0 lead with 21 seconds left in the first half.

Making his second start after injuries to Alex McGough, who started Games 1 and 2, and Matt Corral, who started Games 3 and 4, Cookus completed 16-of-23 passes for 166 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions.

Andrew Peasley saw his first action at quarterback for the Stallions on Sunday. He completed 5-of-8 passes for 79 yards.

Peasley left the game after getting shaken up on a rushing attempt, and on the next play, Cookus threw a 5-yard touchdown pass to tight end Jace Sternberger with 9:37 remaining, followed by a 2-point conversion pass to tight end Jordan Thomas to set the final score.

Birmingham’s other points came on field goals of 49 and 50 yards by Harrison Mevis in the third quarter. Both scoring series started in San Antonio’s half of the field after punt returns of 25 yards by Rodgers and 11 yards by Davis.

The Stallions improved to 4-2, tied for the lead in the USFL Conference with the Michigan Panthers, who lost to Birmingham 21-12 on April 4. San Antonio sank to 1-5.

The Stallions play the Houston Roughnecks at 11 a.m. CDT Sunday at Protective Stadium in Birmingham. The Stallions defeated Houston 23-16 on April 19.

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at @AMarkG1.