Lanny nodded. “It’s early for a perfect defense,” he replied. “They’ve got team-play, though, all right. They’re two or three weeks ahead of us on that. If we were to meet them next week they’d lick us about twenty to nothing.”
“Easy,” agreed Chester. “But we aren’t. And I’ll trust Dick to bring us around in plenty of time.”
“You really think he’s doing pretty well, do you?” asked Lanny anxiously.
“Dick? I certainly do! Don’t you?”
“Y-yes, only sometimes it seems to me that he’s a little too—too cautious—or something. We’re getting along awfully slowly, Chester.”
“Slow and sure,” replied the quarterback untroubledly. “These chaps will be in top-shape long before our game, if they don’t watch out. What do you think of that forward-pass formation of theirs?”
“I don’t know. It worked well enough, but it doesn’t seem to me that sending three or four men down the field that way to protect the catcher is a good scheme. It shows where the pass is going, in the first place, and gives the other fellow a chance to get there. Seems to me Weston’s scheme, which is about like ours, has it beat. I mean sending three or four men to different parts of the field and so keeping the other chaps guessing.”
“It worked pretty well, though,” mused Chester.
“Against a lighter team, yes. We could break it up without much trouble, I’ll bet. It stands to reason that if you see a bunch of fellows getting together——”
“Suppose, though, Springdale sent another man to another place and threw to him instead?”