It may not be the Detroit Lions, but a football team from Michigan will be playing in a championship game this year.
The Michigan Panthers are moving on to the UFL championship game next weekend in St. Louis after outlasting the Birmingham Stallions on Sunday, June 8 at Protective Stadium in Birmingham, Alabama.
Michigan will face either the D.C. Defenders or St. Louis Battlehawks in the title game for the second year of the UFL.
The Panthers, who were on the road after finishing a game behind the Stallions, dominated on offense in a 44-29 victory in the USFL championship game. The win snapped an eight-game losing streak for the Panthers against the Stallions that remarkably dates back to March of 1983.
The Panthers won the championship in the inaugural USFL season in 1983 before the league eventually folded and will now have a chance to lock up their second championship, though this time in the UFL, a merged league between the USFL and XFL.
Thundering running back Toa Taua led the way for the Panthers with 85 yards and three touchdowns on the ground, while quarterback Bryce Perkins impressed with an efficient day himself.
The former Virginia quarterback, who started a game for the Los Angeles Rams in 2022, completed 20 of 25 passes for 238 yards and a touchdown, but made the play of the day with his legs.
On third-and-14 in the third quarter with the Panthers’ drive looking like it was coming to an end, Perkins dropped back looking to pass but found nothing. He scrambled, scrambled some more and finally decided to run, making several Stallions defenders inexplicably miss on a 29-yard run that eventually ended with a Taua touchdown to make it 28-17.
The Panthers added another score after Perkins’ touchdown to make it 34-17, and though the Stallions didn’t go away easily, the Panthers were able to hang on from there for a 15-point win.
The league championship game will be next weekend on Saturday, June 14 in St. Louis, with the game televised on ABC at 8 p.m.