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Show Declining Scores Prove Defense Has Upper Hand By HERBERT W. BARKER NEW YORK, Dec. 1 (AP) The coaches have been squawking that the defense has become top dog in the football world, and, this time, at least, the fieures sav thev don't lie. The 13th annual Associated Press scoring compilation today revealed a comparatively sharp drop under figures for 1936 and a continuance of the downward trend in scoring that has been more or less steady since 1922. The 209 teams included In the compilation scored an average ef '107.19 points for the season, while 'the 3813 games they played produced pro-duced an average of 12. ST po.nt! J per game. The 168 teams included ! in the 1938 survey scored an average av-erage of 113.3 points per season, while 1438 games were producing an average of 13.23 points per game. Several factors seem to have combined com-bined In making It tougher than ever to break into the scoring column. For one thing, the rules committee provided the defense with one big break by its revised interpretation of the forward pass interference rule. Less Pass Interference Called Following New Rule on It The interpretation seemed innocuous innoc-uous enough for it simply pointed tout that in forward passing pl.iys tlie defense had an equal riht with the offense to seek possession of the ball and that no matter how much bodily contact wa.t involved no foul was to be called against the defending team if its player, or players, made a bona fide attempt at-tempt to catch the bait The result, re-sult, however, seems to show officials of-ficials have been much slower to call interference than they were a year ago. Another factor in reduced scoring scor-ing haj been the trend against the lateral pass and the so-called "rax- zle dazzle" type of offense. These built up huge scores when they clicked, but were so risky that most coaches decided that di.rre- , t Ion was the better part of vj.lor r;id. returned to more conservative tac tics. Had it not been for the southwest south-west and its spectacular passing offensives, this year's decline would have been much more marked. The 13 southwestern teams included In the compilation scored an average of 156.54 points per season and 19.66 points per game In 122 games. The next highest average was set in the south, where 38 teams scored an average of 124.32 points per season sea-son and 12.77 points per game. I Arkansas State Teachers Set Pace I At Scoring'With 337 Points I Scoring leadership of the entire country went to the unbeaten Arkansas Ar-kansas State Teachers outfit, which piled up 337 points. Marshall col-jlege col-jlege of West Virginia counted 297 land Detroit 253. On the opposite side of the fence, Colorado State scored only six points and the Uni-iversity Uni-iversity of Rochester only seven, i Defensively, the leaders were three 'eastern schools. Lafayette and Al-I Al-I bright permitted the opposition only six points and Villanova only sev-jen. sev-jen. Tail-ender In this respect was Wake Forest, which yielded 220 points. Suspicion that tie games were more frequent than usual was confirmed con-firmed by the survey, which showed a total of 134 draws. This com-, j pared with 100 a year ago. j j During the 16-year history of the compilation, the season of 1922 ranked at the top from a scoring standpoint. Eighty-three teams averaged 133 points and scored an average of 19 points per game that season. The all-time low was reached In 1934, when 1M teams scored an average of 104 2 point per season and 12.19 points per game. Herewith are tabulations covering cover-ing the 1937 scoring records: h o 7 1 f a " 4 if f S S INattonwM. 209 1S13 22.402 107 19 12 36 liy Motion. Stuthwrt . 13 122 2 01.1 13r4 I ( rt"ih ... 38 -.370 4.724 1'J1'12 1277 !iiov.crt ... 41 357 4.453 JU 61 12 47 . K'irhy mountain. . 14 111 1 400 1DOOO 121 Klt . . O 7.'i8 S 6':3 !Vi9 110 Fw wit.. 13 115 1.187 9131 10:,2 |