Junior Year Box Set

Fox Sports was covering local football on their regional networks, and we were selected as one of their games. Another of their games that interested me was between Springfield and Bloomington. They’d played early in the season, with Bloomington winning. I wished I’d seen the rematch, because it was reported to have been a great battle, with Springfield turning the tables with their defense.

When it was game time, Yuri and I walked out for the coin flip. The team insisted that he and I would be the captains for the rest of the year. I would be willing to bet that no other team in the state had a junior and a sophomore as their team captains; that was typically reserved for seniors. We met Beverly at the center of the field, and there wasn’t any trash talk. You could tell they were a well-coached team. This was how I thought football should be played. Granted, I enjoyed some good-natured trash talk; it fired me up. But if I had a choice, I’d rather not.

We won the toss and elected to defer to the second half. Beverly took the ball. As we awaited the kickoff, I looked around and savored the moment. Fans for both teams were on their feet to cheer their team on. Our fans had their cowbells ringing, and the cheerleaders and marching band had started the ‘Our House’ chant. This was why I played. It was this feeling, right now. I felt the hairs on my arms go up and got that queasy feeling of excitement. As our kicker ran up to the football, the noise hit a crescendo and then dropped off as it sailed through the air. I guess Derek felt it too because he boomed the kickoff through the end zone.

Our defense must have been feeling the excitement because they seemed to be nervous. Beverly took full advantage, marched down the field, and scored. I knew that Coach Zoon would get them settled down, and they would firm up. What surprised me was Beverly had opened up their playbook to accomplish the first score. They had actually passed the ball more than they ran it. Switching from a run-oriented offense to throwing the ball wasn’t easy. I wondered if they would continue.

We started on our own 20 after Ed downed the kickoff in the end zone. Coach Diamond had called the option as the first play. He knew I needed the contact to get settled.

“Down. Set. Hut HUT!”

The middle looked to be clogged, so I pulled the ball from Ty’s stomach and worked my way down the line to read where the defensive end was. Jim had worked on his footwork, and I saw him get into their defender and put him on his butt. That told me I would keep the ball, so I planted my foot and turned up the field. I knew that Ed would be a step behind me towards the sidelines. I focused on ball security and held it tight with two hands as I began to run upfield.

Their outside linebacker closed quickly, and I motioned to toss the ball to Ed. My move made the linebacker hesitate, so I tucked the ball under my arm and gave him a stiff-arm. That was when I exploded upfield. I suspect everyone thought I would toss the ball to Ed because they had to scramble to try to catch me. The crowd noise that erupted was almost palpable. I concentrated on what my speed trainer had taught me and ran with form. It was no contest as I sprinted eighty yards for the score to make it 7–all.

Beverly responded with another long drive and a score to go up 14–7. This was beginning to feel like it wouldn’t be the defensive struggle I had expected.

When we got the ball back, we switched to our passing game. Beverly played the Tampa Two defense. In a standard four-three defense (four linemen and three linebackers), the middle linebacker is responsible for covering the short underneath routes. In the Tampa 2, the middle linebacker drops into deep coverage in the middle, essentially converting a Cover 2 into a Cover 3. This puts three defenders deep to protect against the long pass. Every player was now responsible for a smaller area on the field, and the deep routes were now covered. The other two linebackers and the two cornerbacks had to cover more ground. The key to this defense was discipline and team speed. It was designed with the West Coast Offense in mind, which employed the short pass.

Teams that had an accurate quarterback could exploit the soft spots in this defense. While there are very few weaknesses to the Cover Two, all zone coverages have weak or soft spots. The Cover Two left open the deep post patterns, seam routes, medium-range hooks, and was vulnerable to teams that like to flood a zone. This was because of how much ground the safety had to cover. Deep passes could easily overload the area the safety was responsible for. It could be almost impossible to cover a deep half of the field if the opposing quarterback threw the deep ball well.