The Washington times., 1935-11-13
Pass Has
On Grid
BIZ FRANK "BUCKo o'NEHL

By FRANK BUCK" O'NEILL
The forward pass is a great
play when it works.
Notre Dame demonstrated that
before the roaring thousands at
Columbus when it snatched vic
tory out of the ether against
Ohio State. Notre Dame at
tempted the same feat against
Northwestern, but the thrust
failed.
Figures show that a majority Of
forward passes fail, and that the
human element enters into the
aerial phases of football as
strongly as in any other depart
ment Of the game.
This is not at all surprising
if you analyze the pass from the
time the ball leaves the center
until the ball is caught down
field-or missed as it usually is.
With the passing back taking
the ball from the center, he is
forced by rule to fade back at
least five yards. The longer the
pass, the longer, as a rule, is the
fade back. The ends rush in to
hurry the passer" who is COM
mon game for the linemen.
Eodo RooL
His guard fade back to cover
the play, but this creates open
ings in the line of scrimmage, and
leave the tackles to cover the in
side area. This feature opens the
way for the defensive tackles.
The ends going down field have
to pass three waves of defense in
their journeys. The defensive
tackle takes a crack at them on
the line of Scrimmage, the rush
line backs force them out, and
the wing backs harry them and
retard their progress as much as
possible.
Naturally this interference
tends to destroy the timing of the
play as it is practiced during the
week, and timing is vital to for
ward passing. The passer may
lead the receiver just little too
far, due the harassing tactics Of
the defense. On the other hand,
the crashing ends may hurry the
passer so that he may lose his
complete control over the ball and
make a wobbly throw that will
fall short of the eligible.
Some interesting figures are
presented by a tabulation of some
of the antics of our very best
gridiron specialists on last Satur"
day. Taking some of the most
important games of the day, a
total of some 306 passes were
thrown. Out of these 101 were
completed.
Percentage of $3.50
This was a percentage of $3.50,
which is very high, but the fig
ures were taken from some of the
outstanding teams of the country,
and some of these figured in
games where one team was Pro-
tecting a scant lead late in the
game, freezing the ball and re-
fusing to gamble.
A total of 1885 yards were
gained, or on an average of four
and one-third yards per pass. The
average on the completed passes
was slightly more than 13 yards,
and some of these toSses were of
the shovel variety behind the line
of scrimmage in which the re-
ceiver was stopped at or about the
line of scrimmage.
A total Of So passes were inter.
cepted, or one pass in every six,
which is fair average, but not
altogether accurate in view of the
selected quality of the games re-
viewed.
The figures thus presented
would prove that there is still
something to be accomplished in
the matter of perfecting a for.
ward pass attack that cannot be
stopped. We saw how the St.
Mary's defense-St. Mary's of
TeXaS-againSt Catholic Univer-
sity broke up passes OF the conven-
tional type by dropping back the
short side end and throwing five
defenders into the backfield.
AS a rule, however, the coaches
hurl their ends over the neutral
zone and try with might and
main to hurry the paSser.
There's a lot of interest in the
games scheduled between Univer.
sity of Maryland and Mississippi
State College. The series is on a
home and home basis, with the
Terps visiting Starkville in '36
and State coming to College Park
in '37.