{"id":9117,"date":"2026-04-17T15:53:52","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T19:53:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.distantreplaysports.com\/usfldr\/?p=9117"},"modified":"2026-04-17T15:53:52","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T19:53:52","slug":"1987-usfl-playoffs-semifinals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.distantreplaysports.com\/usfldr\/2026\/04\/17\/1987-usfl-playoffs-semifinals\/","title":{"rendered":"1987 USFL Playoffs, Semifinals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Early Game, Birmingham Stallions at New Jersey Generals<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Birmingham&#8217;s Defense Smothers Flutie, Generals<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>By Linda Castillo, Southern Correspondent<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Herschel Walker got 113 yards, but Birmingham kept him out of the end zone. They also harrassed Doug Flutie into an 8-22 performance with 2 interceptions and 4 sacks. The Stallions, who stubbornly kept a defensive philosophy in the face of the high flying offenses of the league, finally saw their persistence pay off in this game. They still have one more game to play, but finally getting over the hump to get into the Championship game is a victory for the Stallions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Meanwhile, New Jersey, goes into the offseason with one big question mark. What happens to Herschel? Rumors continue to swirl that New Jersey might send Walker to the NFL. What team bites and what can they possibly offer for a player who defined the league for the first five years of its existence? Stay tuned during the offseason for the answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.distantreplaysports.com\/usfldr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/BIRNJ.htm\" data-type=\"attachment\" data-id=\"9121\">Box Score<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Late Game, Houston Gamblers at Las Vegas Ace<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kelly and Gamblers Rally Late to Stun Cinderella Ace<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>By Dave Chen, Midwest Analyst<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Las Vegas, behind their MVP candidate quarterback Randall Cunningham, went into the fourth quarter leading 24-14 an looking to punch their ticket to the Championship game in only their 3rd season. All year, the Ace looked nearly unstoppable. They finished with a 15-3 record and the top seed in the playoffs. Then, they missed a field goal to make the lead 27-14.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Houston&#8217;s own MVP caliber quarterback, Jim Kelly, led them on a 6 play, 76 yard drive to pull to within 4. After two punts by Las Vegas and a seemingly costly Houston fumble, Kelly again engineered a masterful 10 play, 93 yard drive in only 1 minute and 27 seconds. The missed field goal proved costly as Houston&#8217;s kicker also missed two extra points after those two drives, and the game ended 26-24. Houston now has a chance to pick up their second championship trophy in two weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.distantreplaysports.com\/usfldr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/HOULV.htm\" data-type=\"attachment\" data-id=\"9120\">Box Score<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Early Game, Birmingham Stallions at New Jersey Generals Birmingham&#8217;s Defense Smothers Flutie, Generals By Linda Castillo, Southern Correspondent Herschel Walker got 113 yards, but Birmingham kept him out of the end zone. They also harrassed Doug Flutie into an 8-22 performance with 2 interceptions and 4 sacks. The Stallions, who stubbornly kept a defensive philosophy [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9046,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-box-scores-and-recaps"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.distantreplaysports.com\/usfldr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.distantreplaysports.com\/usfldr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.distantreplaysports.com\/usfldr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.distantreplaysports.com\/usfldr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.distantreplaysports.com\/usfldr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9117"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.distantreplaysports.com\/usfldr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9122,"href":"https:\/\/www.distantreplaysports.com\/usfldr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9117\/revisions\/9122"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.distantreplaysports.com\/usfldr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.distantreplaysports.com\/usfldr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.distantreplaysports.com\/usfldr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.distantreplaysports.com\/usfldr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}