Although Birmingham has won two of the first three games on its 2025 United Football League schedule, Stallions coach Skip Holtz didn’t think his team was “running on all cylinders.”

With eight days between April 11’s 10-9 victory over the Arlington Renegades and Saturday night’s game against the Houston Roughnecks, the Stallions took “a hard look, a deep dive into ourselves” on Monday, Holtz said.

“We came in and spent that day on film,” Holtz said. “We kind of did a self-scout where we watched our own third downs, we watched our own red zone, we watched our own first-down production, we watched our own blunder tape of sacks and turnovers and lost-yardage plays and things like that just trying to see what we could do to take advantage of one extra day this week. …

“Just trying to be constructive, looking at ourselves and trying to take a 30,000-foot view of the Birmingham Stallions and what we are becoming three weeks into the season. You don’t always like what you see in the mirror and sometimes you’ve got to say, ‘You know what? We’ve got to get better.’ And I think this team has responded exactly like I wanted them to, and I’m excited to watch them line up and play this weekend.”

So is Birmingham quarterback Matt Corral.

“That was a good day for us,” Corral said, “for me and the receivers to get on the same page, for me and Skip to get on the same page situationally and what he wants in this situation, what we’re looking for on these routes during this coverage, and I think we spent all morning doing that Monday, and I think it really helped us getting on the field the next day because it showed, so I’m really excited to put the pads on and go execute.”

Holtz said “two glaring things” showed up in the 30,000-foot view.

“We got to be a little bit more patient and efficient in our passing game,” Holtz said, “and we definitely have to sustain a little bit more of a running game than we have to this point.”

With 248 rushing yards, the Stallions are next-to-last in the league, leaving Holtz seeking more consistent production out of the ground game.

“It’s blocked up, we miss a cut,” Holtz said. “Four guys do a great job blocking it, we hit the hole and one guy falls off his block. It’s like we’re one guy away here. We’re getting close in some areas, but then there’s some – we have to develop a run game. I think that is one of things. We cannot rely just on the dropback pass.”

Corral stepped into the Birmingham lineup when Alex McGough got hurt on the first snap of the Stallions’ second game – a 21-12 victory over the Michigan Panthers on April 4.

Corral has completed 37-of-70 passes for 453 yards with two touchdowns and three interceptions.

“We’ve got to become more efficient,” Holtz said about the passing attack. “A big part of that is kind of taking what a defense gives us and not trying to get greedy and not trying to throw the ball way down the field, but taking the underneath completions and not trying to force it in there. And sometimes a quarterback like Matt, who has a very strong arm and there’s not many windows that he can’t get it into, I’m trying to get him ‘You know what? It’s not worth it. Take the underneath. Take the sure completion.’

“You never go broke making a profit. If we can get 3 or 4 yards a play, you can win a lot of football games just going 3 or 4 yards and driving the length of the field.”

The DC Defenders sacked McGough eight times in beating the Stallions 18-11 in the season-opener on March 30. But Corral hasn’t been sacked during his two games under center even though Birmingham has had to play musical chairs on the offensive line because of injuries. Keaton Sutherland already has lined up at left tackle, left guard and center. When the Arlington game ended, the Stallions had five offensive linemen still able to play.

Holtz hopes some consistency in the offensive line will help Birmingham progress, starting against the Roughnecks at 6 p.m. CDT Saturday at TDECU Stadium in Houston. FOX will televise the game.

The Roughnecks broke an eight-game losing streak by beating the Memphis Showboats 18-17 one week ago.

“It’s been interesting watching their film just because I think they are evolving into what they’re going to be,” Holtz said of Houston. “I think they are running their quarterback (Nolan Henderson) quite a bit more. He’s been very, very productive for them and probably feeling more and more comfortable in their offense. Defensively, they are really starting to become much more of a pressure-oriented defense. So I think it’s going to pose some challenges for us, but I think one that we are really excited about.”

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