The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-11-26
FORWARD PASS WILL BE BIC
 FACTOR IN SEASON OF 1920
Football Coaches Beginning to Realize That Open Attack Is Needed As Variation From Old Style Line
 Plunging Game of Past Year.

New York, Nov. 2G.-The success
 of football teams employing the open
 game skillfully and judiciously has
 been so marked this autumn the for ward pass will have a greater vogue in 1920 than at any other time since 1t sprang into being.
 The highways of the gridiron are
 strewn with the wrecks of e1evens
 that clung stubbornly to old ideas,
 that refused to recognize the bene- fits of the open game and banked
 their faith upon the smashing eff fleets of brawn alone.
 Recent developments in important games have shown there is a goou
 deal of humbug in the theory that the superman, with bu1gfng muscles and bulldog ferocity. YaIe's ill-starred
 policy led the Blue to crushing defeat
 in a year in which an eleven so rich
 in material as old Eli should have
 won the heights. Yale matched the
 sfnew and fighting spirit of an old~
 age system against a ntmp1e noodle
 and the up-to-the-ninute game, and
 Yale drew a fatal waIlop where the
 barber deftly trims the badger hair cut. Yale's belief that her br2wn would overcome anything a lighter foe had to offer was the veriest flapdoo" d1e.
 The failure of Syracuse against In diana, furthermore should serve as a red banner warning to other Eastern
 elevens that harbor the notion the open game is best employed as a last
 resort when other means of offense have failed.
 Had the Orange unbelted it's for | ward pass in the early milling f. l might have overthrown its western | adversaries. Instead, it withheld it's best blows till it had sunk up to the l pink lobes of it's ears in the bog. Even the forward pass and a wide open assault almost saved Syracuse'a bruised and battered face.
 With the growing use of the for ward pass the football folk already
 are, devoting much thought to the | rule that would limit the number of | times one team might try the over- i head attack in a single game. There | is growing dnager, they believe, that
 football may grow into an altogether 1 different game if too frequent usage
 of the forward pass is permitted. | It took a Western eleven, the team
 representing Northwesuer nCniversity | in it's game at Harrison with Rut-
 gers on Saturday, to show Eastern
 folk that her fears in this regard are
 well founded.
 l Northwestern employed the for l ward pass almost exclusively. It test I ed the Rutgers once or twice with
 straight football and gained nothing. 1 Then they opened wide their game
 and maintained throughout the re. | mainder of the afternoon a continu. | ous barrage of forward heaves Ii
 was not football, but a new game l a game much like basketball, minus I the baskets. Seven-eights of North
 westerns plays were forward passes, l some executed deftly for considera- | ble gains, but most of them inter- | cepted and converted into Rutgers | advances.
 Northwestern, of course, employed | the forward pass because it had | abandoned hope of penetrating the l Scarlet defence, by which it was out | weighed and outpIayed. But it's sys- | tenn of throw and catch and sprint
 removed the virile elements of line
 smashing and running without which | football would become quite tame | The forward pass may become a
 vital factor in shaping the outcome
 of the two important Eastern foot
 ball games remaining on the scherule. Penn and Cornell will play at Phila- | delphia on Thanksgiving Day and Penn has shown extraordinary skill | in the use of the aerial assault. With
 Bruner and Light to throw and the 1 Miller brothers to catch the bali Penn
 carries one of the best forward pass attacks in the East.
 | Cornell, of caurse, has fared poor | ly for weeks on the gridiron. In ma | terial it has been poor as Jobs cele- brated turkey. should cook CorneIPs s i holiday goose to nut brown taste. | The Army and Navy classic at the | Pclo Grounds should uncover some
 choice forward passing. Army invar- l iably goes to battle its traditional foe
 well armed with up to date methods l of nlaU