Nearly three years after Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson purchased the XFL, the league will hold its first championship game this Saturday. Kickoff for the 2023 XFL Championship Game is at 8 p.m. ET from the Alamodome in San Antonio, with the Arlington Renegades (4-6) taking on the DC Defenders (9-1). Arlington won the South Division Final after finishing runner-up in the division in the regular season. The Defenders swept both the North Division regular season and postseason game.
The XFL Championship Game 2023 is a rematch of a Week 9 meeting in which the Defenders won 28-26 in Washington, D.C. Caesars Sportsbook has DC as the 7-point favorite, while the over/under is 48. Before locking in Renegades vs. Defenders picks, you need to see the XFL predictions from SportsLine’s Emory Hunt.
Hunt is the founder and CEO of Football Gameplan, which has been supplying analysis of all levels of football since 2007. He is a former running back for the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns and knows the game from a player’s perspective. Hunt’s dedication to analysis of all levels of college and professional football helped him start the USFL season 24-18 last year, and now he’s 25-17 on his XFL spread picks this season.
Now, Hunt has broken down the XFL Championship Game 2023 and locked in his best bet for Saturday’s showdown. You can head to SportsLine to see his picks.
XFL Championship Game 2023 picks
Hunt has analyzed Defenders vs. Renegades and is leaning towards the Under (48) for total points scored. The Renegades scored 23 fewer points than any other XFL team this season, and Hunt labeled them “one of the more frustrating offenses all season.” They’ll now have to match up with a DC defense that racked up the second-most sacks (25) this year and added three more in the XFL semifinals.
On the other side of the ball, Arlington has already displayed that it can take away what DC does best on offense, and that’s run the ball. The Defenders averaged 150.9 rushing yards per game versus every team besides Arlington, but they could only muster 50 yards on the ground when these teams met in Week 9.
Arlington brings the league’s second-best run defense into this game, only topped by DC having the No. 1 run defense. It could be a struggle to move the ball on the ground, which is both of these squads’ preferred method of attack. With points hard to come by, Hunt comfortably backs the Under (48). See more XFL picks at SportsLine.
How to make 2023 XFL Championship Game predictions
Hunt has also found a critical x-factor that has him jumping on one side of the spread. He’s sharing it only at SportsLine.