News: Perfect 10-0, Beef beat Bandits in 50th meeting

For the first time the Omaha Beef have finished the regular season undefeated as they beat the Sioux City Bandits 44-15 on Saturday night at Liberty First Credit Union Arena.  Omaha finished the regular season at 10-0 and have the number one seed, a bye, and home field advantage for the playoffs.  The Beef now have a two-game lead over Sioux City in the all-time series 26-24. 

Omaha never trailed in the 50th meeting of these teams as it took only two plays for the Beef to score as Tommy Armstrong hit Terrance Tolbert-McIntyre on an 18-yard strike and Paul Ortiz hit the first of his five extra points kicks and the Beef led 7-0.  The Beef opened their second quarter with one play drive as Armstrong hit Traveon Samuel on a 24-yard pass.  The Bandits responded with an eight-yard pass from backup quarterback Tyler Lauenstein to Braden Meints with seven minutes left in the 2nd quarter.  Lauenstein started in place of the injured starter Tasleem Wilson.  Omaha finished up the first half with a nine-yard pass from Armstrong to Tolbert-McIntyre with 56 seconds left.  Sioux City got the ball back and were trying to get setup for a late FG attempt as time was running out, but Omaha called a timeout with 11 seconds hoping to get the ball back to score again.  This allowed Sioux City time to set up for the FG and Brandon Stewart hit the 24-yard field goal and we went to halftime with the Beef leading 21-9. 

The second half started with another short Beef drive as they got the 3rd quarter kickoff and needed only two plays as Armstrong hit Tabyus Taylor on a swing pass and ran through the defense to score from 25 yards out.  Samuel added a seven-yard run on the longest scoring drive the Beef had in the game (8 plays) as the lead grew to 34-8.  The fourth quarter started with a defensive stop at the Beef nine-yard line and on the next play Armstrong hit Jordan Barton on a 41-yard bomb and it was 41-9.  It didn’t take long for the Beef to score again after Dreko Statham picked off his league leading 11 interception. Paul Ortiz hit 44 yards field goal, his longest of the season, and the Beef were up 35.  Fred Bruno finished the Bandits scoring as he ran it in from a yard out with 2:09 left in the game.  Omaha recovered the on-side kick and ran the clock out.  

Armstrong finished the night 10 for 18 and 164 yards and five touchdowns and 28 yards rushing on six attempts.  Half of his completions went for touchdowns as all four players who caught passes scored.  The defense caused havoc all night for the Bandits, and they were sacked three times and had only 164 yards of offense averaging on 3.8 ypp.  On the other side the Beef averaged 6.9 ypp.  Omaha forced three turnovers to increase their season turnover margin to +23 as the continue of the path to set defensive scoring and total defensive records.  They finished the regular season allowing only 21.3 points per game and 137.9 yards per game which are currently leading those categories.  Week 11 defensive player of the week, Tamar Heart, led the Beef with eight tackles on the night including a sack.  JayShawn Washington (5 tackles) and Cameron Hunt (4 tackles) added sacks and Statham (7 tackles) and Aaron Jackson (3 tackles) had interceptions. 

OTHER NOTES: The Road to Champions Bowl 8 is now set. The quarterfinals have the SW Kansas Storm traveling to Gillette on June 3rd and the Sioux City Bandits traveling to Billings to play on Monday June 5th.  Omaha will face the lowest seed left (Billings, Sioux City, or SW Kansas) while Salina will host the highest seed left after the quarterfinals on June 10.  The winners of the semi-finals will meet June 17 in Champions Bowl 8.  If the top two seeds make it to the championship it will be the third straight time the Beef and Liberty will play in the Champions Bowl.  Omaha won at Salina in 2021 40-39 as they block the winning FG attempt, while Salina took the rematch in 2022 38-34. 

The first class of the Beef Hall of Fame was inducted at halftime of the game. Jim & Sandy Klimshot, the first owners of the Omaha Beef, started the list of eight who were inducted. Offensive Lineman Dan Potsmeil, Quarterback James McNear, Defensive Lineman DeWayne Harris, and defensive back Troy Travis are the four players making in on the first ballot. Also being inducted are the first head coach of the Beef, Sandy Buda, Rump Roaster Kris “Moose” Orr, and former Prime Dancer and Dance Team Director Samantha Lucile. 

2023 Omaha Beef Schedule (10-0)