Evening star., 1916-12-08


The Princeton-Yale game is past his
tory but a criticism of the play by
Percy Haughton, coach of Hayward is
well worthy of consideration. Haugh-
ton does not spare Princeton in giving
his opinion of the contest, which is
deemed worth reprinting here:
1T is distastefu1 and perhaps unbe-
coming of me to criticise losing team
too harshly, but Princeton's perform
ance against Yale today was perhaps
worse than that which she showed at
Cambridge a week ago.
"In the Harvard game Princeton
made enough mistakes to lose any
championship game. and when Har-
ward made her costly fumbles in the,
backfeld. giving Princeton golden
opportunity to score, she again threw
away her chances by being penallZed
thus placing her outside of scoring dis-
tance
.In today's game against Yale she
seemed to not only play puerile 1901
ball, but to allow Yale to take full ad-
vantage of whatever openings were OF
fered. / recognize full well that
Princeon was playing against a rugged
Yale team, and in this respect. few of
the spectators in the modern stadiums
can appreciate f1erceness of play on the
field, in that they are SO far removed
that the players look more IKE MARION
cites than human beings.
NO doubt great deal of Princeton's
poor playing can be attributed to Yales
aggressive tactics, but In the finer
points of the game she seemed entirely
lacking. The judgment of her quarter
back seemed to be at fault on several
occasions. particularly in the third
quarter. when after getting cut of her
territory through the medium of a
splendid pass. she lost the ball on
downs at Yale's forty-vard line with
out attempting an open play of any
sort.
'1n another instance I consider
Princeton erred in not attempting
first down well in Yaie's territory in
the second period. IF l remember cor
rectly. the ball was about on YaIe's
20-yard line, fourth down and a scant
ward or so. Whereupon Tibbott, who
was known to be their best drop kick
er, was sent into the game and a goal
from the field was ATTEMPTED.
when a man of Tibbotts regulation
as drop kicker is called into the game
on an occasion of this sort it is dollars
to doughnuts that the defense viii lay
for the drop kick and disregard a quick
plunge inside of a tackle. This is ex-
actly what the Yale line did. in that
before the ball was snapped. there was
distinct spreading. and when the ball
was put in play the entire line ad-
vanced on Tibbott's kicking foot
Here was an excellent opportunity to
cross the defense. In other words, the
! strategy of modern foot ball under cir
cumstances of this kind calls often for
an apparently unorthodoX play. but
which. if successful. will reap a rich
harvest Again I hesitate to criticise
too severely princetons Judgment in
this matter for ore must remember
that the Quarterback can make one of
! three moves in situation of this sort
He can either rush or forward pass or
go for three points through the medium
of drop kick
| Thirdly. I criticise Princeton for not
mixing forward passing with their
rushing game in the early part of the
game. In this | feel that my criticism
! is just. because with the score 10 TO 0
against them and the whole Yale team
prepared for forward pass Prince
/ tons passing game was in the main
leminently successful Had she employ
! ed some of these tactics when the op-