Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-10-08

r. ing so increasingly effective
4 as an offensive weapon that
it will not be very long be-
fore the offense will have such
an advantage over the defense
! that the rule makers may be COM
PEELED to pass legislation to help
the defense. Not only are teams
beginning to use the pass regular
ly but they are making it effective
as a scoring weapon instead of re-
garding it as an occasional ground
gaining play. su
The success now being attained with
the pass is due to its general Develop
ment, to the training of more accurate
passers and receivers, and to the build
ing Of more fundamentally sound pass
ing plays, and as these factors develop
even more efficiently, as they will, the
offense is likely to overmatch complete
~ the defense.
So far in recent years, it seems to
have been the aim of the Rules Com
nittee to make such changes as would
tend to help the offense, to build up
more scoring power, but the situation
be long before the committee will be
passing some kind of legislation to boil
ster up the defense.
Lou Little Speaks.
Last year when the Rules Committee
announced some changes calculated to
benefit the offense, Lou Little, coach
at Columbia University, was one man
who gave an opinion that had in 1t
moro wisdom than was credited at that
time.
Said Little:
ut seems to be that it is the defense
that begins to need help in foot ball
more than the offense does. With the
advantages the Rules Committee is CIV
ing to offensive foot ball it is difilcult
now to find a way to stop well bal
anced attack, and it win net be long
before stopping such an attack may be
next to impossible. predict that there
will be lot of clan1orine before long,
to which the Rules Committee will have
to listen, to do something to aid the
defense and forget about the offensc
xor awhile"
Hardly game is played in which the
forward pass does not play an impor-
tant part, perhaps tco important part.
One team may gain ground consistently
all during a game, may have the ball
near the goal line half a dozen times,
vet not score, and only to have the
opposing eleven get away with long
pass that in a twinkling changes the
whole aspect of the game. OF course,
that Is part of foot ball. but no game
is likely to continue to succeed If 1t IS
overbalanced. Too many home runs in
base ball kin the novelty of the home
run and too many touchdowns in foot
ball viii kill the thrill CT ground gain
ing, which is almost the whole Of the
gTidiron game.
Slows Up Game.
Another thing thar 100 much forward
passing is doing Is sl1wing up the game.
Frequently q large percentage of the
passes are incomplete, which means
that the ball must be brought back, with
the consequent delay. There are times,
when forward passes are frequent, when
it takes 10 minutes to get in or 8
minutes Of actual play.
A base ball game in which each team
scores or 10 runs, soon becomes
monotonous and usually is dubbed
rotten. by those that watch it. In the
big league parks fans seldom stay to
watch the finish of such a game. The
same thing is true of foot ball in a
slightly different sense, and too many
touchdowns will become just as monot-
onous and cause the same feeling to-
ward the game that too many runs
cause in base ball.
The rules committee will have to
. watch close. indeed, to see that 1t does
not create a situation in which the Of
fense will considerably overbalance the
defense, If it has not already done 50.
THE Virginia Polytechnic Institute
/ l. and University of Maryland GER
tainly picked anything but two soft
spots to start their seasons. The former
played North Carolina on October 4
and meets Vanderbilt this week, while
The latter met yale October and plays
North Carolina Saturday. Last week
North Carolina gave v. P /. drubbing,
and. If Vanderbilt lives up to what 1t
displayed against Minnesota, the Blacks
burg eleven Is in for another trim
ming. However, it often happens thai
a team that plays such foot ball as
Vandy played against Minnesota slumps
the following Saturday and takes a
beating from weaker opponent It is
possible that v. p. I. may benefit from
such a Vanderbilt slump. Maryland
evidently is due to face another power
full North Carolina eleven. Thc Tar
heels have another great scoring ma
chine They ran up more points on
" P. I. this year than they did last.
TYIRGINA has another hard Saturday
v in front of it, following its defeat
by Duke. The Cavaliers go UP TO
meet Pennsylvania. which gives them
two games Just about IS hard as those
played by Maryland and v. P. l. How
ever. it is unlikely that Virginia anti
cipated such defeat at the Nands OF
Duke when the game was scheduled.
One man who saw Virginia play Duke
expressed this opinion of Virginia:
"For the life of me I cannot under
stand how it happened. Virginia had
on the field just about as fine looking
. bunch Of men as ever saw in foot ball
uniforms and most Of the time they
seemed to hold their own. However,
Duke gained consistently on two or
three plays, which Virginia never was
. able to stop. But even with that 1t
does not seem TO me that Duke had