Evening star., 1932-11-28
DEFENSIVE CHANGE
HURT CADET CAUSE
New System Upset by Fast.
Charging Line, Two Great
Sets OF Backs.
BY LOU LITTLE,
Foot Ball Coach, Columbia.

Nj NotTe Dalne 5 decisive VIC
1. tory over Army here in
one Of the most significant
foot ball games played in the
East this season illustrates once
more how faulty can be popular
judgment when based upon one
early or midSeaSon contest.
The South Bend Irish, even though
defeated only by Pittsburgh this sea-
son, and that in the last period Of a
tough contest, went in against Army as
the underdog in the minds of many
people. Others, who knew something
about how things had been developing
out in South Bend In the last two or
three weeks, were not fooled
New York expected to see a fine
Notre Dame team and that expectation
was fully fulhlled-in my own case a
little more fully than had anticipated.
Even though not under rating the
Ramblers I had expected Army, con-
tinuing its defense of recent years
against Notre Dame, to have the edge.
Coach Hartley Anderson, however,
came up to the game with team that
was keenly on edge, mentally; with one
of the finest forward lines that has ever
played foot ball and with two complete
sets Of fast, rugged, smart backs VINO
NAV not match the 1880 Irish backf1eld
or the old four horsemen, but that
come close enough to them to satisfy
the average coach. Murphy, Sheeketskl,
Lukats, Banas, JaSkwhich, kohen,
Brancheau and Melinkovich are the
eight finest backs have happened 10
see on foot ball field last year or this.
THE result was a running attack
i which, between the 2o-yard lines,
was usually able to gain against an
Army team impervious to thrusts since
the Pitt game. With these backs driv-
ing through and into the secondary
inside and outside Of end, the Army
backs were given much trouble IN
handling the Irish overhead game,
which led to two of the touchdowns.
THE third touchdown was the product
of a beautiful punt by Banas that
rolled out of bounds at the Army's z
ward line. followed by Fields tumble
when he attempted to punt out.
There was a definite change IN the
ARMY defense over that of recent years
against Notre Dame and this may have
had something to do with the increased
ability of the South Bend running at
tack to gain, the points being more
than Notre Dame has scored against
Army since 1921.
Instead of setting up a 6-3-2 de-
fense. Army put up 6-2-2-l array
with the defensive backs against Notre
Danes strong side wide of the Army
rrpo the activities OF Lne
Arrny,s close defense, NoGre Dame very
often sent its No. i back wide to side-
swipe the Army end as he came across
the scrimmage line, with the quarter
back and fullback going to work on the
close defensive back. z
the result was that the South Bend
ers were going outside Tor good yard
age or sometimes cutting back for gains
when Army seemed well protected to
the outside. Except perhaps IN ITS
down-fleld blocking, this Notre Dame
team compared very well with the best
I have seen.
A RMY'S attack, fine, versatile OF
n fensive scheme, was unable to hit
its real stride at any time during
the day because OF the feroclty and
speed with which this Notre Dame line
being rushed in their passing and that.
more than any other reason, explained
the failure of the Cadet overhead game
to go. The passes to Vidal, kopcsak
and others were going wide, more often
than they were being knocked down.
Notre Dame used its square defensive
backfield and it sufhced, with the Army
throws not gcing too accurately.
In Krause and Kurth, Notre Dame
has two exceptional tackles thought
Krause, at left tackle, was the SUI
pcrior Saturday. I am told that IN
some other games, Kurth has out
sione him. Either is plenty good
enough.
Army, defensively, was certainly han
oicapped by the loss OF King at left
end. which may be one reason why
some of the Cadets line play failed to look
like quite as good as reported in earlier
contests. Sunnmerfelt, at guard, how
ever, continued to stand out as excep-
tional
/ believe Army can come back this
week against Navy. The Saturday re-
suit need not change the general opin-
ion that the Cadets have one OF the
finest teams in the East. Army met a
truly great team that was clicking on
that day. Additional interest, of course.
will attach to this weeks service
classic, because in Navy Army will
meet an attack basically like that OF
Notro Dame.
tCopyright. 1892. by, North American News
paper Alliance, 1nc)