St. Louis quarterback AJ McCarron completed 19 consecutive passes as the Battlehawks beat the Vegas Vipers 29-6 on Saturday night. But the former Alabama All-American did more than throw the ball during the XFL game at Cashman Field in Las Vegas.

The radio in McCarron’s helmet malfunctioned during St. Louis’ first possession of the second half, and the quarterback couldn’t hear the play calls coming from offensive coordinator Bruce Gradkowski.

Doing the play-calling in the huddle, McCarron dialed up a 35-yard completion to wide receiver George Campbell that set up a 1-yard touchdown plunge by former South Alabama running Kareem Walker as the Battlehawks took a 23-0 lead with 9:31 left in the third quarter.

McCarron said his headset started picking up Donnie Abraham, St. Louis’ defensive coordinator.

“(Gradkowski) probably thought I was messing with him, wanting to call my own plays sometimes,” McCarron said. “Sometimes you got to go through chaos and adversity. Good teams fight through it and are successful, so it was good to see. …

“I was getting D.A., our D-coordinator. He kept saying, ‘Player check,’ and so it was driving me nuts because I didn’t know who was saying it at first. Towards the end, I think the last two plays or something, we figured it out that Donnie was the one talking, so Bruce and him swapped headsets real quick so he could call in some plays, but, yeah, it was all over the place.”

Walker’s touchdown was preceded by an incomplete throw into the end zone that ended McCarron’s streak of consecutive completions at 19. He had ended the first half with a string of 17 completions.

The first-half streak included a 14-yard throw to Campbell on fourth-and-2 at the Vegas 17-yard line that set up a 4-yard touchdown pass to Greg Jennings on the first play of the second quarter. The “pass” really was a flip of the football forward to Jennings as he ran across the St. Louis backfield before swinging around the end for the score.

With 30 seconds left in the first half, McCarron connected with wide receiver Darrius Shepherd on a 30-yard touchdown pass.

McCarron and Shepherd hooked up for six points again with 3:05 to play, with the quarterback finding the wide receiver in the end zone from 6 yards out while getting knocked down on a rollout.

McCarron completed 23-of-29 passes for 236 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions in the game. He also completed a 2-point conversion pass to Shepherd. McCarron had 18 yards on four rushing attempts, including a 16-yard scramble on St. Louis’ first touchdown drive.

McCarron credited his performance to “guys just making plays, and Bruce had an unbelievable game plan. Just got back to taking what they give me.”

The passing stats might have been even more impressive. The Battlehawks lost a 27-yard completion to an offensive-holding penalty, and Shepherd dropped a long pass that would have been good for at least a 35-yard gain and likely a 46-yard touchdown.

St. Louis kept pace with the Seattle Sea Dragons in the XFL North as they chase the D.C. Defenders, the league’s only unbeaten team. Seattle improved to 4-2 by starting the XFL’s sixth week with a 26-19 victory over the Orlando Guardians on Saturday afternoon.

XFL South leader Houston is next on the Battlehawks’ schedule. St. Louis faces the Roughnecks at 1 p.m. CDT April 2 at TDECU Stadium in Houston. ESPN and ESPN+ will televise the game.

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