The St. Louis Battlehawks have won both their XFL games this season after trailing by double digits. Because of fourth-quarter rallies, St. Louis is one of the three XFL teams with a 2-0 record, and the Battlehawks visit one of the others when they take on the D.C. Defenders on Sunday.

St. Louis quarterback AJ McCarron has completed 24-of-35 passes for 257 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions and run for 31 yards on four carries in the fourth quarter this season. He has more than twice as many passing yards in the fourth quarter as he has in the other three periods combined.

Before the season, St. Louis coach Anthony Becht said the Battlehawks were counting on McCarron’s experience to make a difference. McCarron started for two BCS national championship teams at Alabama and spent eight seasons in the NFL.

But McCarron said a lot more than his experience has gone into the Battlehawks’ comeback victories.

“I think that helps, for sure, but, listen, this isn’t a one-man show, by any means,” McCarron said. “My teammates have been playing unbelievable, and it’s been a team effort. Like Week 1, it really leaned on the defense making a ton of plays and stopping San Antonio series after series and at least giving us that opportunity toward the end to have that chance to come back.

“This past week against Seattle, the defense is playing strong and Seattle just scores on the fourth down and takes the lead. I think it was just everybody on offense coming together and doing what they were supposed to do. Just focusing on doing your job and your job only and trusting everybody around you that they’re going to do their job, they’re going to make plays. But when we had that amount of time left, it was literally no panic from anybody at all. You can hear guys on the sideline talking about that they left us a ton of time and we were going to go down and give our special teams a chance to win the game.”

In the Battlehawks’ 18-15 victory over the San Antonio Brahmas on Feb. 19, McCarron threw two TD passes in the final 85 seconds. The comeback included a completion for a 3-point conversion and a 22-yard throw on a fourth-and-15 play in lieu of an onside-kick attempt in a national televised showcase for the XFL’s different rules.

“The first one was definitely cool because it was basically a teach tape for the league itself with all the different style rules that they have,” McCarron said, “and being able to go for three after we scored to make it a three-point game when we brought it back to 15-12, and then having the option of the fourth-and-15 instead of an onside kick from your own 25 and getting that, so that one was definitely unique because that was within the XFL rules and really the first one they’d had that kind of hit all the rules that they implemented for the league.

“But they’re just two wins, and we have a long season, so I don’t get too high and I don’t get too low.”

On Feb. 23, the Battlehawks beat the Seattle Sea Dragons 20-18 on a field goal on the final snap of the game.

“We’ve been blessed enough to come out with two wins, and we’re 2-0 going into Week 3,” McCarron said as St. Louis prepares for its third straight road game.

The Battlehawks and Defenders will square off in an XFL North game at noon CST Sunday at Audi Field in Washington. FX and ESPN+ will televise the game.

Under the direction of former Alabama State standout and coach Reggie Barlow, D.C. has defeated the Sea Dragons 22-18 and Vegas Vipers 18-6 by running for a league-leading 311 yards. No other team has reached 200 rushing yards this season.

St. Louis finally will play at the Dome at America’s Center on March 12, when the Arlington Renegades visit.

“Hopefully, we focus up and have a good game this week and head back to St. Louis 3-0,” McCarron said. “I think either way it’s going to be unbelievable when we get to the dome, and, hopefully, St. Louis fans can pack this thing out as much as possible.”

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