The Birmingham Stallions came up short in a 29-28 loss to the St. Louis Battlehawks on Saturday to reach three losses in a season for the first time in franchise history.

But Birmingham still qualified for the United Football League‘s 2025 playoffs because the Houston Roughnecks also lost on Saturday 30-18 to the Michigan Panthers.

In his first start of the season, Stallions quarterback J’Mar Smith threw three long touchdown passes at the Dome at America’s Center in St. Louis. On the field after injuries in the first seven games to starting QBs Alex McGough, Matt Corral and Chase Cookus, Smith connected with wide receiver Deon Cain for 65 and 50 yards and wide receiver Cade Johnson for 47 yards.

The first touchdown to Cain produced the first points of the game with 11:01 left in the first quarter. The second touchdown to Cain returned the Stallions to the lead at 18-13 with 13:05 left in the third quarter. The touchdown to Johnson, which featured a one-handed, over-the-shoulder catch while battling a defender, also regained the lead for Birmingham at 28-22 with 5:21 to play.

But the fourth lead change of the second half turned out to the final one of the game as St. Louis went 65 yards in five plays. After a 28-yard pass from quarterback Max Duggan to wide receiver Hakeem Butler, running back Jacob Saylors covered the final 28 yards to the end zone on three consecutive carries, then punched in the 1-point conversion run to give the Battlehawks a one-point lead with 3:03 to play.

“A heavyweight fight,” Birmingham coach Skip Holtz said. “Two teams battling it out toe-to-toe; two teams standing in the middle of the ring slugging it out. I give coach (Anthony) Becht and his team an awful lot of credit. I thought they did the things they needed to do to win today. Looking at our football team, I’m proud of the way that they competed, proud of the way that they fought. As someone said, ‘You didn’t lose; you ran out of time.’”

Holtz wanted the Stallions to reach the St. Louis 40-yard line on their final possession to give kicker Harrison Mevis the opportunity to win the game with a field goal. And Birmingham hit exactly that mark when Smith completed a 4-and-11 throw for 11 yards to tight end Jace Sternberger with 65 seconds remaining.

But then right tackle Barry Wesley got a false-start penalty followed by a mishandled snap and a fumble by running back C.J. Marable that Battlehawks cornerback Myles Jones recovered with 16 seconds to play.

Birmingham’s third-quarter comeback had been sparked by two takeaways. Safety AJ Thomas picked off St. Louis quarterback Max Duggan before Cain’s second touchdown pass, and linebacker Kyahva Tezino recovered a fumble at the Stallions 20-yard line forced by cornerback Daniel Isom. Mevis’ ensuing 36-yard field goal put Birmingham ahead 21-13 with 2:37 left in the third quarter.

But linebacker Callahan O’Reilly picked off a pass by Smith and returned the interception 18 yards for a touchdown that put the Battlehawks on top 22-21 with 13:37 to play.

Smith completed 14-of-27 passes for 262 yards with three touchdowns and one interception and led Birmingham with 45 yards on 10 rushing attempts.

Duggan had only 110 passing yards, but he ran 11 times for 54 yards and two first-half touchdowns. The first touchdown ended a series during which the Birmingham defense got three penalties. The second TD gave St. Louis a 13-9 lead and came after a sack by outside linebacker Travis Freeney produced a fumble that outside linebacker Pita Taumoepenu returned 15 yards to the Birmingham 7-yard line.

Saylors ran for 118 yards and one touchdown on 16 carries as St. Louis totaled 173 yards on the ground to improve to 6-2.

The loss left Birmingham with a 5-3 record. But with the Roughnecks dropping to 3-5 with two weeks remaining in the regular season, the Stallions secured a playoff berth on Saturday thanks to their series sweep of Houston.

Birmingham has fielded a championship team in each of the past three seasons, winning the USFL titles in 2022 and 2023 and the UFL crown in 2024.

“I don’t think the accomplishment of getting into the playoffs for four years in a row has really sank in yet because of the stain of the loss that we suffered today,” Holtz said. “… We bought ourselves an opportunity. Once you get in, anybody can win it, and we got to keep growing.”

By improving to 6-2, Michigan took a one-game lead over Birmingham at the top of the USFL Conference. The Panthers and Stallions will square off at 2 p.m. CDT Saturday at Protective Stadium in Birmingham in Week 9 game.

The Stallions defeated Michigan 21-12 on April 4. But while Holtz was speaking about the importance of regaining homefield advantage in the UFL playoffs by beating Michigan, the league announced the USFL Conference Championship Game would be played on June 8 at Protective Stadium even if Panthers win next week’s game to secure a first-place finish in the conference. The UFL said a scheduling conflict would not allow the Panthers to play at Ford Field in Detroit on June 8.

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