If the St. Louis Battlehawks had beaten the D.C. Defenders on Saturday night, they would be tied for the best record in the XFL halfway through the season. But the Defenders downed the Battlehawks 28-20 to remain the league’s only undefeated team, leaving St. Louis to start the second half of the season battling for the North Division’s second spot in the XFL playoffs.

For Battlehawks quarterback AJ McCarron, now is not the time for his teammates to start pressing.

“Coming off a loss there’s going to be rumblings of ‘Man, what are we doing? Is this the right way to do it?’” McCarron said on Wednesday. “I don’t know. I don’t worry about that stuff. I just go play. We’re playing a game for a living, and this is fun as hell. There’s no pressure. It’s just go play and do what you’re supposed to do and have fun doing it and good things are going to happen.

“I never get too high, and I never get too low. I try to stay even-keeled and just keep everything in perspective on we’re playing a game for a living. There’s people out there that are working three or four jobs to make ends meet. There are people in coal mines. My dad still works a night shift at the railyard in Mobile, so this is easy. What are we complaining about? Let’s just go play football and have fun.”

The starting quarterback for two BCS national championship teams at Alabama and an eight-year NFL veteran, McCarron is surrounded by players who have been thrown a professional lifeline by the XFL and are striving to perform well enough to attract an NFL opportunity. McCarron hopes they’ll heed his message to play loose and have fun.

“I’ve been down that road,” McCarron said, “and like I try to tell them, not to go back on the Bama days so much, but you lose a game at Alabama, and, hell, it felt like the world was coming to an end. Like, everybody in town hated you, they knew where you stayed.

“I remember we lost the Game of the Century, so called, 9-6 (to LSU). I took a girl out on a date after that. We went to Wintzell’s across the bridge over in Northport near downtown Tuscaloosa, and I was walking in with her that Monday night after we played Saturday, this family was walking out, and this probably 15-year-old kid was giving me the death stare of life and just would not stop looking at me as I was walking in. And I was just like, ‘Man, that’s just so odd.’

“And so we get done eating and come out, and I have, I mean, a big ass piece of paper, the biggest piece of paper I’ve ever seen in my life on the front windshield of my car, and it was a handwritten letter basically from that kid. Hell of job by him doing it in that short period of time. But he actually had a lot of thoughts and let me know his thoughts that he didn’t really care for me and how I played.

“So listen, I’ve been in their shoes. That’s why I try to say just have fun. Relax, have fun, play the game. We’re playing a game for a living. It doesn’t get any better than this. And your days of football are limited, right? The man above, God himself, only gives us so many snaps, so have fun while this time’s here because before you know it, it’s gone. There’s no pressure. Just go out, have fun, play, and you put the work in, good things are going to happen.”

Alabama lost the contest billed as the Game of the Century on Nov. 5, 2011. But in the rematch in the BCS championship game, the Crimson Tide defeated the Tigers 21-0 on Jan. 9, 2012. In the first game, McCarron completed 16-of-28 passes for 199 yards with no touchdowns and one interception. In the title game, McCarron completed 23-of-34 passes for 234 yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions.

When McCarron completed a fourth-down pass on St. Louis’ final possession on Saturday night, it appeared as though the Battlehawks were on their way to another comeback. But with 55 seconds to play, D.C. cornerback Michael Joseph intercepted McCarron to seal the Defenders’ 28-20 victory.

“I don’t play the game scared,” the former St. Paul’s Episcopal star said. “It’s just part of the game of football. You’re going to throw some interceptions. I have no fear of failing. To be able to achieve things that people think are impossible, you have to be willing to take risks, and it was just a risk I took and one you wish you could have back, but it’s part of the game.”

The loss dropped St. Louis to 3-2, the same record as the Seattle Sea Dragons and two games behind D.C. in the North Division standings with five games to play.

The Battlehawks visit the Vegas Vipers at 6 p.m. CDT Saturday. FX and ESPN+ will televise the game.

Vegas has a 1-4 record after downing the Orlando Guardians 35-32 in a meeting of the XFL’s winless teams on Saturday.

“They’re athletic,” McCarron said of the Vipers’ defense. “They’re the best 1-4 team I possibly have ever seen talent-wise. They have a ton of talent. They’re big. They’re fast. They have a bunch of good players, and I don’t think their record shows or reflects the talent that they have on that team, so we just got to be ready to play, play our game and handle business.”

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