Evening star., 1914-11-29
SOLDIERS DISPLAY
THE BETTER GAME
Walter Camp Dissects Annual
Gridiron Battle From Ex-
pert's Standpoint.
ARMY SHOWS EVIDENCES
OF SUPERIOR INSTRUCTION
Middies Soft Line and Poor General
ship Fall Short in Factors in
Shut-Out by Army.
BY WALTER CAMP.
Special Dispatch to The star.

PHILADELPHIA, November
2S-The Army and Navy game
was not only interesting to the
crowd OF spectators who went
there partly for the game and
partly for social interests, but
especially to the foot ball observ-
e. who wished to see III this game
what almost always develops,
namely. certain conclusions about
attack and defense.
This comes from the TACT that ii
is the last game OF the year. and
consequently the stored up
knowledge gathered from the eN-
perience OF the other games OF the
season ought to be in evidence Ill
this final match.
Both teams are coached by men
who follow carefully the progress
of the season i'll other teams and
hence should make much OF that
knowledge. The Army was lar
above the Navy i'll this particular
point OF prohting by the lessons
of other teams. No spectator who
knew anything about the game
could help but see that the Navy
secondary defense was in false
positions to take care of the for
ward pass.
This weak defense to that form of
attack cost them the game last year,
and by that weakness it allowed the
Army to put itself i'll scoring position
this year.
Missed Passes Are Costly.
The Army. on the other hand. kept
its secondary defense in rather better
position, but for all that in the last
period it was not the Army's fault that
The Navy passes did not succeed, for
the recipient. three times out of four,
was not covered. Unfortunately for the
Navy, however, this same recipient, or
would-be recipient, of the pass muffed
the ball, or the passer threw it wildly,
SO that although the possibility was
there the play seldom came off.
To turn to another feature of the
Navy play, which should go on the
credit side of its ledger, it's ends
for the most part covered kicks well.
The weakness of the Annapolis team
under kick lay not in its ends, but in
the failure of the tackles to come down
The field and back them up. The end
would reach the man and strike him
and put him almost off his balance, but
there was no tackle following the end
10 take advantage of this, and conse-
luently on several occasions the Army
back would get run of several yards.
Next to these Weaknesses and having
4 very distinct bearing on the game,
was the inability OF the Navy backs to
catch punts, and during the first two
periods this took the heart out of the
team, as il always Will. When inemen
Charge to hurry the opposing punter
and then see the ball go sailing down
the field, only to be muffed by their
back, and recovered with gain of
forty or fifty yards by the opponents il
saps the courage and confidence of any
line.
Army Better Coached.
To turn to the Army. it showed a
nnsh of work in the line that spoke
of good coaching well as hard work
McEwan is a trst-class center, and the
punch d hole there, for McEwan is TOO
good. But there IL another side 10
this mans play which the spectators
might have missed. and this is his
cIeverness in opening holes and al
lowing his quick charging backfeld an
opportunity 10 slice through. He did
This well on many oCcas sbons today.
Nerillat's work in receiving the for
ward pass was just as good as las,
year. But sometimes the Navy run
uers got around him and sometimes
they cut in off tackle on account OF
his being swung out. on some oc-
casions he fought the interference well
but did not seem to be in quite as
good shape as he was last year. The
Army guards played stirring defen.
sive game, and Weyand did his tackle
job in good shape. As for the in
dlviduals in the Navy lineup, they
seemed to nave good moments, but in
terspersed with bad. Whether they wer.
oVeranNious or We're not in good con-
dition il is impossible to say, but theiI
line was badly pierced and while once
III while it would make an opening
for the runner, there was little of thai
tinality of Interference that enables tbs
runner 10 get clear through for g
gain. The Navys punting on the whole
was good. Its blocked kick. which cos
II safety, came idirectly from
the weakness already mentioned. o.
handling punts. but directly from poo,
2eneralship. After Navy had recovered
III" ball in the shadow of its goal, j
would have paid better, probably, t,
try one fake play and kick on the sec
ond down, for then the Seamen un.
doubtedly would have prevented thI
Army line from charging through ant
| blocking the punt.
Blunder Changes Game.
An instance of how the complexion
| of a game may be changed by a singl,
bIunder was shown at the very start
| The Army had kicked off to the Navy
5-yard line, and the Navy had run tn.
ball back to it's 20 yard line. Afte
trying Il couple of line plays he Nav,
put in beautiful punt. sending tn
ball clean down on exactly the righ
| spot. putting IL out of bounds on tn
| Army'S 21-yard line. Here was a gail
on the exchange of clean ifteeI
Continued on Third Page)