That gave the training staff a chance to look at me. It was decided that Mike would finish out the series. I watched from the sideline as Mike did a good job of getting a first down, but Springfield was too much for us right now. We ended up punting.
Our punt team did a good job of kicking it out of bounds, and Springfield got the ball on their 9 yard line. I was happy that Wolf and Jim were in front of me to keep their big offensive line tied up so I could do my thing. What I liked about defense was that you didn’t have to think as much. You made your read and then exploded to the ball. Their first play was a simple dive to test us out. I met their fullback in the hole, and you could hear a tremendous crack of pads as I stuffed him into the backfield. Tim had followed me into the hole. He had a clean shot at their tailback and took him down for a loss.
From there it turned into a battle. Tim and I were flying all over the field, making plays. It gave our defense the confidence to stay in the game. For the rest of the first half, we traded punts and played field-position ball. Towards the end of the first half, you could see that Springfield was tiring. At halftime, Coach pointed their conditioning out to the team. If we could hang with them for another quarter, we would own them in the fourth.
Part of the reason no one was doing much was that the field was an absolute disaster. It had turned into a mud pit, and it was getting hard to tell which team was which. It was a blast, but I felt miserable because it was so cold.
The opening of the second half found Springfield starting at their 20 yard line. Their tailback could be dangerous, but between the mud and our defense, we had contained him. On the first play they pitched the ball out to him, and he ran wide of the tackle. I followed him down the line, and when his hips turned upfield I planted my foot and then did my best to run through him. It was one of those perfect football moments when you lay a guy out. It was the perfect form tackle as I wrapped him up, lifted him off his feet, and buried him into the turf. I knew it had to hurt because I felt it.
When I bounced up, he didn’t move. I mean, not at all. I got scared when both training staffs rushed out onto the field. The stands were very quiet as they sent us to the sidelines. Moose got my attention.
“You didn’t do anything wrong,” he said, because he could see my expression. “It was a clean tackle. I wish you made that tackle every time.”
The crowd made some noise that brought my attention back to the field. Their tailback had sat up. When he was helped off the field, the crowd politely clapped.
I could see in their body language; the Springfield players were shaken. I was sure it was similar to our team seeing me carted off the field. We needed to bear down and play tough defense. Three plays later, we were on offense.
The next series completely surprised me. Coach Hope had decided to run the ball into the teeth of the Springfield defense. I guess he figured their confidence was shaken, and one of the huge defensive tackles had been kicked out of the game, so we should stick it to them. I got the guys in the huddle.
“Trap right on two.”
“Down, Set ... Hut, HUT!”
On the snap, you could tell that Springfield was off off-balance. No one ran inside on them. They thought it was a play-action pass because the linebackers took a step back. Their colossal defensive tackle just stood up when the guard in front of him let him go to block a linebacker. That was when our offside guard, who had pulled, put his pads under their tackle’s large meaty arm and put him on his rear. Bert led Jake into the hole and picked up the backside linebacker, giving Jake a crease. The strong safety did his job and tackled Jake, but only after an eight yard gain.
I looked over at the sideline as we lined up, and they called the same play. When that happened, I called out the signal to repeat the play.
“Orange, Ohh-raaange!”
“Down, Set ... Hut, HUT!”
This time their mammoth defensive tackle decided not to play nice. I think being put on his backside pissed him off. He tossed the pulling guard aside as if he were a rag doll. That meant that Bert had to block him. Bert distracted him long enough for Jake to reach the hole and stagger forward for the first down.
As they moved the chains, we lined up. Coach Diamond was calling the counter play.
“Orange Two, Orange Two!” I called.
“Down, Set ... Hut, HUT!”
The problem with running the counter against a team like Springfield is that they’re not fleet of foot. The counter works best with hard-pursuing teams. Jake got his lunch fed to him when he ran into the open arms of the backside defensive tackle.
I huddled everyone up to give Jake a moment to collect himself. Coach Hope saw what I was doing, and sent in Mike to play tailback. Ed really wasn’t an option in this situation. He was too small and would get killed. Plus, he’d been dinged-up on the opening kickoff.
There are moments in every team’s season that you can look back on and say, that was the turning point. This drive became our turning point. Our offensive line was seriously overmatched, but they were like a pack of terriers tearing into a mastiff. They had no quit in them. We pounded the ball down the field, and after eighteen plays we kicked a field goal to take a 3–0 lead.
Springfield made a valiant effort on the next series, but Tim and I were playing lights-out defense. We were not losing this game! Our determination rubbed off on everyone else, and we were able to stop them cold. We traded punts, and finally, we had the ball back to start the fourth quarter. As they changed ends, I went over and talked to Coach Hope.
“David, we’re going to finish them off this drive. I’m going to let you pass, but I want you to try and put the ball where only we can catch it. It’ll be easy for one of our guys to slip and cost us an interception.”
He was right. The field was in terrible shape, and guys were slipping even with the three-quarter inch spikes. I called a simple down-and-out for Bill.
“Down, Set ... Hut, Hut!”
As I was calling the snap count, I could see that Springfield was tired. I dropped back and immediately had one of the defensive linemen in my face. I decided that I was going to make them really tired! I started to scramble. I could hear the coaching staff screaming at me to get rid of the ball. I was going back and forth and giving ground as the four defensive linemen chased me.
When I thought I was going to get killed, I tossed the ball out of bounds towards our cheerleaders. Thankfully it was across the line of scrimmage or it would have been a penalty. Tracy snatched it out of the air like she was a receiver. I might need her to fill in for Bill.
I rushed up to the line of scrimmage. The Springfield linemen were done. They lumbered back and lined up. I about shit when I saw the play Coach Diamond had called. I had drawn it up as a playground-like play. This was going to either fail miserably or be a lot of fun.
“Bingo Special! Bingo Special!” I called out.
I dropped into the shotgun, and Wolf and Jake both lined up in the slot. Bill was two steps behind them. Ed was in the backfield with me to protect my backside. Springfield’s middle linebacker recognized the formation for what it was, an outside screen.
“SCREEN, SCREEN!” he called out as I called the snap count.
I acted as if I was looking downfield, and then turned to the screen with the ball at my shoulder. Wolf and Jake were getting overwhelmed as Springfield tried to blow up the play. I cocked my arm back to throw, but as I brought it forward I no longer had the ball. I had done a blind flip of the ball back to Ed. Ed can give me a serious run for my money as far as speed goes. He gathered the toss in and ran around the left end. The whole Springfield team had bought into the screen action, and he sprinted sixty yards to the end zone to give us 10–0 lead.