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Show I i COACHES WORK ON DEFENSE FOR STRONG FORWARD PASS tlBBBBI 1 . W By WAITER camp, Special Correspondent of The Stand-ord-Examincr. I 'Copyright. 19 22, by Tho Standard-Examiner. Standard-Examiner. ) NEW YORK, Oct 2S Already very Important developments have been indicated in-dicated in the season's football pla It is somewhat difficult to pick out the one of the greatest Importance, hut after close study and reports from various sections, it is manifest that the most vital is the development of the defense to the forward pass. This was excellently demonstrated in the Iowa-Yale game at N n Ravi a In mid-October Howard Jones' men showed a deployment of defensive backs which was so effective that in a half dozen attempts by Yale, not one of the passes was anywhere near ompleted and three times the passer was practically compelled to hold the ball because there w as no place vv here be could throw it without imminent danger of direct Interception by an Iowa back who stood looking at him and practically waiting for the ball. There are three lines upon which this defense is based by the modern team First, and a cardinal point, the' hurrying of the man who is going to make the pass. Teams have always known that this must be done, and yet it has never been carried out thoroughly thor-oughly before. The writer makes this statement advisedly, because on all sides one hears coaches complaining when the opponents complete a for-1 ward pas against them that theirj team did not hurry the passer buti gave Mm all the time he wanted. TRY Sl'EHD STIFF. Wkrst Point tried to hurry the Notre I Dame passer la.s; year but Ineffectively. Ineffective-ly. ,Timc. and again we see a man with the ball running around louse,1 waiting fr his men to get in position and apparently not very much flustered flus-tered by one or two men who aro trying try-ing to prevent his throwing No more remarkable instance of this was ever given than In tho game in which Ohio State defeated Wisconsin at Columbus a few years ago when Workman In the last few minutes of long forward passes to Stinchconib which carried tho ball from Ohio 1 Plate's territory over to a touchdown. They were bo long that Workman was running back and to tho rbrht a long time to enable Stlnchcomb to get well down the field. One must go to the Centre-West I Virginia contest of some years ago to I find a really effective hurrying of a I first-class, able backfield man W est j Virginia had defeated Princeton 29 to, 0. and largely through the ability of i Rodgers, loth in the running game j and in making long, as well as short forward passes. Centre knew this and attempted in the first period to defend de-fend In the usual -way with seven men in the line and thejbackfield as well I placed as In their Judgment could be done. But Rodgers was too much for them and West Virginia scored a touchdown in tho first four minutes of play DI0PL.KTE BACKTTLXD. I Then Centre took the gambler's hance by sending Roberts up Into tho lino to hurry Rodgers and depleting their backfield defense by one man ' Tho ability of Roberts and tho co operation of the other linemen In go- j lng through, put even tho agilo and i powerful Rodgers In such a position i that he could not hold the ball long enough for his ends to get down the I field. Ho was defending therefore I confined to short pa.sscs. II The second method of defending 'j against tho forward pass. and of j -ourso. this is always coupled with the hurrying of the DOSSer Is the placing I V lOf the men in the backfield and this .was as well done fay Iowa as the writer writ-er has over seen It performed liy th.s is meant the placing of the Ordinary backfield men. not necessarily tho withdrawal of men from the line. ! The third method of defense Is the reverse of that practiced by Centre, and has been used by Harvard. It consists of the withdrawal of linemen in order to have more men in the backfield This has been effective against forward passing to a reasonable reason-able degree, but it presupposes that tne running attack of the opponent is not so severe and so varied In Its possibilities as to make this danger-1 ous It would practically permit of a first-class varied running attack win-: nlng a certain number of yards until! tho line stiffened In the deployment i of men in this fashion, the men whoj are In advance positions In the back-field back-field are rushed speedily up into the lino when the play develops into a running play. These three methods of coping with the forward pass then Indicate the pathways along which the defense is working to take the sting and danger out of the aerial game by opponents. None of them have been developed yet to the extreme point, and It will takei still more study and more practice1 against the forward passing game to I bring about anything like a perfect defense. If that ever vhould be possible of realization. |