The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1915-11-04
Player With Good Too Not Hero He
Was Three Years Ago
OF Little Use
Today.
KICKS SELDOM TRIED
Only Resorted to In West During the
Last Minutes In Attempt to Tie
score-straieht Foot
ball Wins.

| ball Wins.
| Three years ago the football team
which went into game without the
service of stellar field goal kicker
was like a man with one leg, perfect
! ly proportioned in all except one limb,
but lacking one OF the chief acces-
series for physical wellbeing. Today,
especially in the west, the field goal
kicker is considered a minor aces
sorry by the average coach. He no
| longer hesitates between the man who
is a great aerial scorer and the man
who has everything else but ability
to kick. Ability to kick is relatively
no more important in winning posi-
ton on team than is stellar abil-
ity. in any other department.
Kick Saves Day for Illinois.
In view of the fact that two big
western games virtually were decided
by the aerial roulette Ohio-Illinois
tie contest and the Iowa-Northwestern
clash. In the former, Illinois was able
to tie with the Buckeyes only because
1t had man to call upon for field
goal when everything seemed lost; in
the latter the extraordinary ability of
! the booter overbalanced the rushing
ability of his opponents.
But the field goal kicking did not
really show the difference between the
teams or their equality. If Macomber.
for instance, had beaten Ohio with his
!! kick in the closing minutes of play,
the game might have been put down
as victory for the field goal. But
in trying It, Macomber merely put the
score where it belonged, for the two
teams We're perfectly matched and
| neither deserved the victory over the
other. Iowa's field goal victory like
wise was deserved. for the Hawkeyes.
although they could not score by the
touchdown route. had better success
in rushing the oval than did Northwest
ern, and on all ground play deserved
the victory.
Field Goals Less important.
But field goals are no longer as i'm
portant as they were three years ago,
and the coach does not consider star
at this department necessity. This
is due principally to two things, the
strengthening Of the rushing attack
by the rules, and the dimfnution of
the value of the field goal and the
lessening of the importance Of
kicker and his utilization in the west
only as last resort to win a closely
contested game.
With the touchdowns valued at six
points and the goal from touchdown
at one. the field goal kicking team has
to make three Of these scores to beat
the one touchdown and goal of the
eleven relying on the rushing
strength. Three field goals are not
easy to get. In order to get them
team must not only possess a toe wiz
ard but must have sufficient rushing
strength to put him into position
where his efforts can count. And the
team which can rush the ball to with
in twenty or twenty-five yards of an
opponents goal three times in one
game has enough rushing strength to
score by the touchdown route if the
players devote as much attention to
developing the field punch as they
must necessarily do to develop as drop
or place kick makers.
Prefer Rushing or Passing.
This has been shown a dozen times
in the west this year when team
inside an opponents twenty-yard line
with third or fourth down and even
eight or nine yards to go for first
down has resorted to rushing or to
the forward pass when apparently a
field goal was easy. This has hap
pened dozens OF times, virtually the
only exception coming when the end
OF the game approached with two
teams tied Or nearly SO. Then. of
conrse. even two points would be we'll
worth getting and sure three far
preferable to an uncertain six or
seven
Few Field Goals Attempted
OF the four teams engaged in Chi
cago games this year. only one has
tried for field goal early In the
game. This was Perdue. and is ex-
planned by the fact that Purdue had
field goal kicker Of far better than
the average ability in PultZ. North
western attempted a field goal against
Chicago but this came at the end OF
the third quarter. when IT looked as
II even a safety would decide the
issue. Chicago has tried for field
goal only once this year and this In
spite or the fact that Captain Russell
in a drop kicker OF rather more than
average ability.
In the east where defensive tactics
are relatively more important than
offensive. the drop kicker IN still an
important factor. But Cornell demon.
strated last week that superior
rushing team carries the edge over
kicking team even when that team
has a booter OF Nahan's rare ability.
Cornell won by rnshinz and her extra
three points were merely incidental
and had little bearing on the final re-
suit Cornell's touchdown was what