The Washington herald., 1906-10-29
Big FOOTBALL GAMES
Hard Contests Now Near for
Strong Teams.
FIGURING ON FORM OF RIVALS


on Vale and Harvard-YaIe's De-
fense Better Than Attack-Penn-
syIvAnin Is Weak in the Line.
Football has arrived at its most st-enu-
o1r period of the season, ana counting
the Haryard-Yale game on November q
as the close of the year. although Penn
sylvania plays Cornell on Thanksgiving
Day, and the Army meets the Navy on
the following Saturday. the season has
just four weeks longer to run.
There have been few football campaigns
that moved so rapidly, and none that
was as interesting. The season is well
az its height when the Wednesday games
are wiped off the boards. and such teams
as Princeton and Dartmouth, Yale and
West Point, and Harvard and Brown
come together. This is the time OF year
that every coach has to do close figuring,
not so much on his own team Us on the
strength Of his opponents. The elevens
are expected at this stage OF the season
to be pretty close TO the smoothness that
they carry gradually 10 the highest per
fection throughout tho harder games Of
November.
The finest comparison Obtaiuablc be
tween Yale and Harvard before they
meet on November Il is the West Point
contest. They do not seem 60 get much
thrown of form by hard tussles from
week to week, because there seems 10 be
something peculiarly adaptable in their
training system, or in the men Against
Yale, the soldiers will hattie next Sat
urday.
-4YaIe's Attack Not Strong.
Up TO date Yale has not shown d par
ticularly consistent attack, especially
where the attack on the old lines Of foot
ball Is strongly needed. That was shown
in the games with Pennsylvania State
pretty thoroughly. The coaches apparent
ly have had 20 take up such "A deal OF
time instructlng in the new game and
grounding the players in that style that
they have not been able TO drill In as
much Of the old football as is necessary.
The players do not seem 10 be able TO
make ground by plunging. At the same
time the capacity Of the Yale defense
has been thoroughly tested. and the alert
ness Of the Yale players has been tried,
and nothing has been found lacking
there. II the cadet team scores on Yale,
il viii be only as the result Of the eter-
nal vigilance in following the ball that
is developed nowhere as highly as At
West Point
OF course the old baseball proposition is
that good fielding Is a fine asset. but that
good hitting wins more games In foot
bali it is the same principle II takes q
good attack . score t0uchdowus, While p
fine defense simply plays a negatively
good game. What Yale will do IN the
line Of making an attack In the next two
weeks Is the important thing That is one
reason why scores never tell the tale. The
game against Springfield Training School.
in which Yale had trouble 10 make two
tOuchdowns, and against which team Har-
ward ran Up a points, apparently would
show that Harvard is So FAR ahead Of
Yale that the distance hardly can be
counted But that isn't 50. The Harvard
team Is merely lopsided on the side of
attack. The Yale team slips over 70 the
other side and is almost all defense.
But it is safe To say that Yale has the
more sensible plan. II is hard to pick up
defense in the latter half of the season.
and Harvard whose goal lire has been
crossed several times. win ind that out
Time and again smaller teams have been
able 20 tally against the Cambridge
eleven. The only thing that makes Yale
look really bad in the Springfield game
is the fact that the Y NJ c. A. lads dfd
not score on Harvard On the other
hand. it must be remembered that Spring
field had played Yale and then another
hard game before meeting the Crimson
All this helped Harvard in such a con-
test But, coming down 20 cases, the
comparative score IS 10 method of judg
ing, and it must be let 80 at that.
PrincetOn's Next Game.
Princeton meets Dartmouth next Satur-
day with clear-cut remembrance Of 4
defeat that the Hanover lads admins
tered last year 10 Capt. COoaey's eleven.
The Dartmouth team is good this year.
albeit not quite so good as it was last
year The coach at Hanover, Fred G.
Folsom, has been quoted as strong in pro-
test against the new rules, which he de-
clares are not worth while. II that is
true, there is trouble at the start for
Dartmouth. Any coach who is bucking
against the double problem OF developing
rules is apt 10 md that he will come out
at the small end of the horn. somewhat
disheveled, too. Dartmouth has some vet
erans, and in fact the team does net fall
SO far short OF last years eleven. In
John Glaze the Dartmouth men have a
good player in every way. He is likely
10 be able to score for the wearers Of the
green By a drop kick or long run, and
that Is 4 thing that only one team be
fore Cornell has been able 10 do with
Princeton this season.
Pennsy Bad or for Linemen.
Pennsylvania meets another tough op-
p0nent in Lafayette. The defeat Of the
RED and Blue at the hands of the In
dians on Saturday was severe blow to
the Philadelphians Lafayette is one Of
the strongest of the so-called minor
elevens with On attack that ought to do
things TO the somewhat porous line OF
the Red and Blue. 1t is strange that the
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