The Washington times., 1921-11-27
,NOTRE DAME y.
is EXPONENT
OF OPEN GAME
Paper Declares Western Eleven
Has Greatest Forward Pass
ing Attack in Country. &

CONTINUED from Page /, This Section.l
Of ths forward pass than by plays In
side Of tackle.
was talking to an old Yale man
the other day about the Princeton ale
game. After complimenting my team
on its game fight under great dis
advs RtnEeo,- he said "hes didn't. think
Princeton had much Of an offense."
why your attack consisted mostly Of
forward passes." he remarked. 1 ha(
to plead guilty to.this indictment. Perl
sonally. I don't care how a team of
SnihS gains ground a. long as IL keeps
going. In the last analysis. II is the
yardage that counts.
= Need Other Plays. too.
admit no team can go into a game
Ssainst a rival even. appreciably as
good and hope to win by forward pass
ing alone. There must. of course. be
a combination OF open and closed play.
and 1t must be SO adjusted that the
defense does not know wha; to expect.
) This h. the beauty of the Notre
Dame attack. which is built on a long
forward pass down the field. but
which 10 supplemented by very eff.
fectivs running game from the same
formation. Rockne combines a long
and short pass with the rushing game.
The long pass 10 the most dangerous.
II It IL recovered. It is sure to be q
long gain. II 1t is not completed only
a down IL lost. While IL 1t is recovered
by the other side 1t 10 just as good as
q punt. The team trying the long
pass. has everything to win and little
a. Ay<~Ax-
works on this theory. Nothing makes
a defense more uneasy than the, ex-
psctation Of q long pass down field
The backs and ends always have q
tendency to drop back with the re-
ceivers. II this IL the case, short,
quick pass near the line Of scrimmage
will always work. This In another pet
play OF Notre, Dame. and they have
gained nearly as much ground from
their short passes as they have from
the long ones. ~ 8
The combination Of a long and short
pass works very well together. You
may guard against one. but 1t ia diff
ficult to guard against both. There
are % many different possibilities and
30 many different zones the ball cam
be thrown in. I
The real success of any forward
pao0Jp <dtta&k lies III aIIOrOlnS the
passer adequate protection in making
the pass. The more time the passer
gets the more effective the play be,
comes, II the man throwing the ball
II hurried by the defense, the pass is
very apt to go Wild, and there is a
great deal more probability of its be-
ing recovered by the opponents. As
the fthrower In his anxiety to get the
ball Oft, thinks of very little else.
In the Reconsideration game, Gil.
roy intercepted one pass and nearly
got another. and In both instances
the Harvard mani throwing the ball
was hurried in making his pass to
such an extent that he had little II
any time to watch where he WA
throwing the ball.
One Of the strongest points in the
Notre Dame forward passing attack
consists In the protection given the
paSser. Rockne has worked this i'm
portant detail out to a fine point,
with the result that the man throw
ing tho ball has plenty OF time to
pick his man and throw II to him.
The Notre Dame center handles the
ball In a = rather unusual way and
makes all his passes with one hand.
have never seen this done by any
other team. The center keeps his
other, hand on the ground and uses
Il to charge with. There is no doubt
this helps his offensive charge and
does not seem to handicap his pass-
Ing.
fCopyright, 1881. Bell Syndicate, Ino.).