Norwich bulletin., 1916-12-26

Statistics are not usually interesting and they are too often neglected in football. Fortunately, the story about the short second period in the Yale- Harvard game puts a little spice into football statistics. especially as there substituting a certain number of plays per quarter instead of a certain period of time, as is now the rule.
 Such a step would be so radical that there is great doubt of it receiving rec oginition if adopted. It would neces- sarily change the generalship of foot ball as it would fail of its purpose to speed up the bame. Indee5, there seems no logical ground for it because the one game CYale- -Harvard which is supposed to be the cause of this talk was more rapidly played than the other big Eastern contests this fall. Statistics prove that in it there were 175 plays, s9 in the first half. to s6 in the second, rather a startling compar- ison when the kick about the short second quarter is recalled. The Yale Princeton game had 156 plays the Penn-Cornell 146 and such epocal bat ties as the Brown and liar vard-Brown contests went to 129 and 134 plays only.
 It is unfortunate that I do not have a similar record of the Pittsburg team in it's major games. It's high speed of play and the fact that it had little bunting to do would place it near the top.
 The strange thing about the figures given above is that the Yale Harvard game was the most rapidly played in spite of the fact that these two teams punted 37 times and attempted IF for ward passes two styles of play that unquestionably costume more time than the running attack. Indeed, liar yard used the forward pass as much in it's Yale and Brown games as Penn sylvania in it Cornell fame, though
 with far less effect. The Crimson passes lacked solid planning and trust ed too much to prayer to make them ed too much to prayer to make them successful. The fact that some of the Harvard passes were incompleted be- cause the ball was passed from a dis tance back of the line short of the necessary five yards is proof of this Based on the records of the five
 games here recorded the average num-
 Der of runs, kicks and forward passes in full game is 14S, "A to each half
 and by actual compilation the average
 number of plays actually run off in each half half of these five mes was ex each half of these five games was ex- actly that number. Well trained foot
 ball players, therefore do not tire after the first half. In fact big games usually prove the opposite if points
 are to be considered. The best team
 Of two makes most of it's points in the
 second half and in close games the last quarter is the deciding one. Ac- curately kept figures of the play of Washington and Jefferson this past fall in all games also proved this con
 clusively. This eleven scored 24i points to 100 by opponents. Its best period was the fourth, where it total ed 73 to 68 in the first, a period which had everything in it's favor in the minor games, for after it was over substitutions were frequent. And also the last period was it's strongest de- fensive one, this in the fact of the fact that the eleven averaged nnder
 165 pounds.
 Football men have long known that superior weight is of advantage to a team. Even those who advocate the forward pass as play likely to off facts. The statistics of play in our big
 games rather clearly shows what deight advantage actually means, al else being equal.
 If player weighing from 10 to 2t pounds less than another is tackled when carving the ball by the heavier boy he is thrown backwards. Fort unately the rules give him the farth-
 est point forward, so he doesrl ot loss ground after being tackled. But wher | he tackles the heavier man in turr i the heavier man usually carries for
 Jad hi slength about two yards. be-
 fore he is downed. There are excep- tions to this, but all else but weigh being equal. that is the two players
 having equal speed and football knowl, edge-this must invariably be true. This two-yard loss, and it is a two yard loss in each play of the game
 becomes a tremendous thing to con. | jure with when we multiply it by the