The sun., 1916-12-24
SHORT PERIOD CRY :
IS NOT BORNE OUT
Statistics Prove Harvard and
Yale Played Full Time
in Game. -
NEED NO RULE CHANGE
~ SOL METZGER, ?.
Coach Of washington ana Jenerssn
Football Team.

wv"
Coach Of washinGton ana JeRerssn
Football Team.
Statistics are not usually interesting
and they are too often neglected IN foot
ball. Fortunately the story about the
short second period In the Yale-Harvard-
game puts a little spice into football sta
%tistics. especially a. there has been some
talk since then OF substituting q certain r
number Of plays each quarter instead Of
a certain period Of time. a. Is now the
rule. '
such . step would be 90 radical that
there Is great doubt Of II receiving rec
o~snition II adopted. 1t would neces.
sarily change the eeneralship Of football.
as II would fail Of It's purpose to speed
up the game. Indeed there seems no log.
ical ground for II. because the one game
tYale-Harvard) which In supposed to be
the cause OF this talk was more rapidly
played than the other big Eastern COM
tests this fall. "a
Statistics prove that In II there were
175 plays. 81 in the first half to Sc in
the second. rather a startling compari-s
son when the kick about the short Sec
ond quarter is recalled. The Yale
Princeton game had 156 plays. the Penn
Cornell TAG and such epochal battles as
the Brown-Colgate and Harvard Brown
contests went to 129 and 1874 plays only.
1t Ia unfortunate that I do not have a
similar record OF the Pittsburg team in
its major games. Its high speed OF play
and the fact that II had little puntins to
do would place It near the top.
49, me- 1-. -
Tho strange thing about the figures
given above Is hat the Yale-Harvard
game was the most rapidly played in
spite OF the fact that these two teams
pnnted 81 times and attempted II for
ward passes, two styles OF play that I'M
questionably consume more time thar the
running attack. Indeed. Harvard used
the forward pass as much In It's Yale and
Brown games as Pennsylvania In It's Corr
nell game. though with far less effect.
The Crimson passes lacked solid plan
ming and trusted too much TO prayer to
make them successful. The fact that
some OF the Harvard passes were incom-
pleted because the bail vas passed from
a distance back OF the line short n the
necessary five yards is proof OF this.
Based on the records of the five games
here recorded the average number OF
runs. kicks and forward passes In a full
game is 1is. - to each half, n by
actual compilation the average number
OF plays actually run of in each half Of
these five games was exactly that NUM-
Der. Well trained football players there
fore do not tire after the first half. In
fact. big games usually prove the oppo-'
site X points are to be considered. The
better team OF two makes most Of Its
points in the second half. and in close
games the last quarter is the deciding
ono.
Accurately kept figures OF the play
or Washington and jefferson this past
fall in all games also proved this con-
clusively. This eleven scored 247 points
to 100 by opponents. Its best period was
me FOURTH. where II totalled 10 to 6s In
the first. n period which had everything
IN It's favor In the minor games, for after
IL was over institutions were frequent.
And ais the last period was It's strong
est defensive one. this in the face OF the
TACT mat the eleven averaged under 1875
pounds,