Taube held fast to David Dixon's original blueprint for the USFL, heavily marketing the team in the Bay Area while keeping tight controls on spending (including player salaries).
Led by the league's 2nd ranked passer QB Fred Besana, WR Gordon Banks, and ex-Raiders HB Arthur Whittington and TE Raymond Chester, the Invaders finished with 9–9 record.
In the playoffs, despite a valiant effort, they were overrun by the eventual league champion Michigan Panthers, 37–21 in front of 60,237 rabid fans in the Pontiac Silverdome (the largest crowd for any USFL game in the 1983 season).
Sources[3][4][5] The Invaders were picked by most to again challenge for a playoff spot in 1984, but their powerful offense fell apart in the first half of the season, scoring only 82 points.
The Raiders had successfully built their own niche market and fan base in Oakland for two decades, and there was at least a chance the Invaders could have survived in the same manner.
However, talks collapsed when Outlaws owner William Tatham demanded that his son, Bill Jr., be given control over the merged team's football operations.
Knowing that he would not even begin to be able to go head-to-head with the Lions even if he'd been inclined to do so, he had begun putting out feelers for a merger partner when it became clear that the move to the fall was a foregone conclusion.
The new team, bolstered with key players from the Panthers such as Bobby Hebert, went a league-best 13–4–1 in the regular season and advanced all the way to the 1985 USFL championship game.