* Three weeks to go in the 1984 season, and three teams tied for two playoff spots in the National Conference. It's going to get really interesting around here. The Washington Federals, Baltimore Stars, and New Orleans VooDoo are all 8-5. Here is what remains for all three:

Washington
@ Florida (2-11)
@ Pittsburgh (9-4)
Orlando (2-11)

Baltimore
Pittsburgh (9-4)
@ Florida (2-11)
Jacksonville (10-3)

New Orleans
@ Oakland (2-11)
@ Philadelphia (4-9)
Shreveport (5-8)

The schedule would seem to favor New Orleans. BUT the VooDoo are coming off back-to-back losses to the New York Stars and Shreveport Steamer. Baltimore would seem to have the toughest row to hoe, BUT the Stars have already swept their season series with Washington, so they have a tie-breaker ace to play against the Federals. BUT, Washington's toughest remaining game is against the Pittsburgh Maulers, a team they beat two weeks ago.

* The Houston Gamblers knocked Washington out of its share of the Atlantic Division lead by defeating the Federals, 23-15. Gabriel Ahrens caught six passes for 178 yards for Houston, including a 75-yard TD. Cory Martin rushed for 125 yards for Washington, but fumbled at the Houston 10 with 2:25 to play.

* Baltimore QB Jon Snow was 31-for-36 passing during the Stars' 41-3 win over the Oklahoma Outlaws.

* The Los Angeles Express maintained a one-game lead on the Michigan Panthers for the final American Conference playoff spot by defeating the San Jose SaberCats, 44-23. Mario Valencia passed for 413 yards and four TDs for LAX (9-4), which has won five in a row. The Panthers (8-5), meanwhile, stayed close via a 10-6 win over the New York Stars. The remaining schedule for both:

Michigan
@ Arizona (7-6)
@ Denver (11-2)
@ San Antonio (5-8)

Los Angeles
Detroit (11-2)
@ Oklahoma (4-9)
@ Southern California (3-10)

* The New Jersey Generals had won three in a row with zero RB on their roster, but it wasn't the offense that let them down in a 37-28 defeat at the hands of the Birmingham Stallions. Birmingham scored on TD drives of 75, 76, 75, and 77 yards, Lee Rice and Mario Burton combined for 244 yards receiving and three TDs on six catches (40.67 per reception). Stephan Labelle threw 68 passes for the Generals, who led, 20-7, midway through the second quarter.

* Philadelphia at Cleveland was definitely the Crazy Game of the Week. Cleveland QB Fred Murphy was intercepted on back-to-back pass attempts, the second one leading to Philadelphia's go-ahead TD that gave the Bell a 20-16 lead with 4:17 to play. Murphy was then picked off for the third time in the quarter with 1:51 to go, leading to a field goal that widened the Bell's lead to 23-16. Murphy then completed passes for 45, 25, and 5 yards for the tying TD with 26 seconds to play. In OT, Cleveland went for it on fourth-and-one (and converted) and, five plays later, Gary Spence booted a 57-yard field goal to give the 'Bolts a 26-23 victory.

Good game Generals/raidergreg...so all we need to beat rg's Generals....they have 0 starting rbs and throw 3 ints and then get a handful of big plays...sure....that's going to be the case every time we play them.

Still pretty happy with my offense...your run defense and third down defense gave us fits..45 yards rushing and 0/12 on third down....we have to do better than that.

Your offense...434 yards of offense , 28 points and 19 first downs with no starting rbs...yeah, that shouldn't worry anybody left on the schedule or in the playoffs, wait til you get your rbs back.

Good game, I changed up my offense because I didn't think I'd be able to run successfully against you. Losing the turnover battle 3-0 didn't help much either. I likely lost any possible chance at the #1 seed with this loss and if we don't rebound next week against Jacksonville, we could lose the BYE week.

On the plus side for us, our RBs are healing up and should be ready for the playoffs.

Yeah, if I am New Jersey, I REALLY want that bye week to have a healthy roster for the second round.

Gg crazy...I got lucky to hold you off and get the win...this game had me worried as im battling Memphis for my division and my schedule is rough

Good game force!

GG CJfred. I didn't expect to win it. That team won the Championship two seasons ago. You'll probably get them back there.
I am happy about the fact that it wasn't a blowout.

The team I took over is great but I'm not sure if winning it all will happen this season. They have been incredibly inconsistent at times as I sorta force feed my identity and gameplan into the pre-existing framework. It might be another season before I get locked in but I'm gonna try my best

GG Mac