"Birmingham Iron Cruises in Debut Win"

As print media has become nearly extinct in recent years, tracking down newspaper clippings of game summaries from 2019 becomes almost impossible. Where the Birmingham Iron is concerned, we'll have to turn to news websites.

I don't think I could be less original than to copy from al.com but their coverage was quite good at the time, I found, and I want to hang on to it in case the links go dead at some point.

For now, the abbreviated article below was written by Evan Dudley. The photography is the work of Vasha Hunt. They have a February 10th, 2019, publishing date.

Iron is forged by hand but it was the leg of former NFL veteran kicker Nick Novak that gave Birmingham’s newest professional football team its first win in the inaugural weekend of the Alliance of American Football.

The Birmingham Iron took an early lead on three first-half field goals from Novak before former Alabama running back Trent Richardson put the exclamation point with two fourth-quarter touchdowns on a 26-0 shutout of the Memphis Express at Legion Field.

Novak, who played collegiately at Maryland before a 12-year career in the NFL, was the highest profile player to sign with the Iron – outside of local favorites like Richardson – and proved his worth with kicks of 29, 28 and 47 yards in the first half while pushing a 31-yard field goal through to give the Iron a 20-point lead midway through the fourth quarter.

The AAF has no kickoffs or PAT attempts so Novak was relegated to only field goals.

The showdown between quarterbacks was settled quickly as Memphis quarterback and former 2016 second-round pick Christian Hackenberg struggled mightily against the Iron defense. Hackenberg was 10-of-23 for 87 yards and an interception, and looked completely lost in the passing game while getting sacked twice and hounded throughout the contest.

Iron quarterback Luis Perez, who taught himself the finer details of the position by studying YouTube videos before winning a national title at Texas A&M-Commerce, was solid if not surprising in his debut. The California native was 19-of-33 for 252 yards with no turnovers and 17 yards on three carries.

...

The running game for both teams was inconsistent through three quarters until Richardson showed the potential that made him an NFL first-round pick in the final 15 minutes. He had only 18 rushing yards heading into the fourth quarter but added 40 rushing yards and two scores – plus a reception on a 2-point conversion attempt – and a catch for 14 yards.

Richardson turned it around in the second half and flashed the ability that made him an All-American at Alabama.

“Trent’s an unbelievable person and player,” Perez said. “He works very hard, and he’s very hard on himself so after that fumble he gathered himself up and said, “That’s on me and I’m going to come back and I’m going to end this game. I’m going to run the ball down their throats and we’re going to get this win.” And sure enough he did that.” 

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The Iron defense was spectacular, allowing only 202 yards while shutting out the Express and forcing three turnovers. Jonathan Massaquoi, a former Troy linebacker, was the defacto leader for the Iron and was excellent in space with seven total tackles (3 for a loss) and two sacks to go along with three quarterback hurries.

The most telling number from the defensive performance, however, was the Iron’s ability to force the Express into an 0-of-2 showing inside the red zone.

Novak was named the Special Teams Player Of The Week for hitting on four field goal attempts in this game.