Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-12-02
BY II. c. BYRD.

| ELdoO IOOdy lldQ lICI1C PleIC lAl LAAC AOOO
ball sun. From out the great West
came a group of real he-men who daZ-
zled, bewildered and then crushed what
supposedly was the best the East had
to offer Tonight the foot ball sun of
the East has set. And, unless vast
comparative improvement is shown
over the performance of the Army
against Stanford, it is never due to
| rise again.
| To compare the Army eleven this
afternoon with Stanford is impossible
| The gulf between them was too broad
| to admit of any comparison. 1t is ut
| terly useless to tell the difference be-
tween the lark of the valley and the
eagle of tn crags. They are too far
apart. And so today. If the Army
represents Eastern foot ball against the
foot ball of the West, comparison is
hopeless. One was bad. very, very bad;
the other was good, very. very good.
Just where to begin and just where to
wind up in describing the Army's abso-
lutte failure against Stanford. of STAN
ford's brilliant achievement against
Army, whichever way one cares to look at
it, is hard in itself. The Army did so
many things that were not right and
Stanford so many things that were pro-
and what was best would fill more
space than usually is allotted to foot
ball game.
Is All Stanford.
A straightaway account of the game
probably would be so full of the word
Stanford that reading such a story
would get monotonous and everybody
thinks too much of the Army to tell in
entirety the story of what it did not do.
1t would hardly be possible to write
colorful account of the afternoon be-
cause in all probability the reader
would soon become color blind from
seeing the red of Stanford.
over on the Stanford side great
sheets of red cardboard were held aloft
over the head of a thousand or so
spectators, with enough white cards
mixed in to spell out the name OF
Stanford, and that red just about
blanketed the field, caught the imagi-
nations of New Workers and OF visitors,
who for the day are New Workers, and
held them enthralled with a picture of
foot ball as foot ball ought to be played.
It was thus from the beginning
to the end, and apparently all after
noon was without end, except for few
moments in the second quarter. The
game was not five minutes old before
the western eleven began to gain
ground so certainly that 1t was evil
dent the Army was against system
of play with which it could not cope.
Later events proved that early sum-
nation of the situation was correct
because as far as Army stopping Stan
ford was concerned the Army spent a
very ineffective and miserable after
noon.
Real Foot Ball.
But maybe this is placing too much
to the discredit of the Army ana not
enough of credit to Stanford. For in
order to make the Army look bad STAN
ford had to be good. What Stanford
accomplished in the afternoons play
was to demonstrate with surety what
deception, mixed with power, backed up
by good fundamental foot ball and
capable players, will do. Stanford had
all these things in plays, fundamentals,
and sheer physical power, and in the
quality of the men who made up It's
team, the far Western university was
far better than the Army or at any rate,
1t applied its strength more as one unit
than did the Army and thus as unit
was far more effective. Army's puntlng
was poor, very poor. Stanford's puntlng
was good. Army'S interference was
negligible when it started and when
the Stanford tackles got through with
it then it just wasn't at all. Stanford's
interference was beautiful and it had
plenty of time to get formed because
Army's tackles were completely an
initiated nearly all the time.
In fact the position play of the Army
tackles was the glaring weakness OF
the Army defense all afternoon, and
that despite the fact that Army is
supposed to have two fine players in
these positions. Sprague and Perry
simply kept themselves practically all
the time in the worst possible posi-
ton. And the way they tried to
charge only made them easier for the
Stanford ends and backs to handle.
No other big game of foot ball ever
saw two tackles so completely man
handled The tackles played and nearly
all the time charged the space between
the wing backs and the end and seldom
did they ever get across the line OF
scrimmage, and usually were put en-
tirely out of the play. Had it not
been for some almost Superhuman eff
forts on the part of one or two men,
bers of the Army secondary defense
Stanford would have added two or three
more touchdoWnS to its score.
Another Weakness.
The other glazing weakness Of the
Army defense against Stanford was in
the center of the line. The Army CEN
ter, Hail. and also the substitute who
took his place, tried to play something
| of a rowing game and slide with the
play. But the only trouble with that
idea was that when the Army center
slid with the play he usually found a
| Stanford back, needed three or four
minute clip through the space thus left
vacant. Whenever Hoffman, 200-pound
Stanford back, needed three of four
yards, and sometimes he got many more
than that, he simply called for fake
double pass from him to the back, the
back supposedly going on powerful
off-tackle play. The Army center would
drive over to help stop the tackle play
and Hoffman would slide through where
the Army center had left.
The outside tackle plays, coupled with
this fake and drive straight through
the gap left by the center, were Stan
ford's main ground-gaining mediums
In fact, with the exception of long