The football season this fall at Brown has been almost unique in its variable-ness. The team has run through the entire scale of football standards, playing brilliantly for a few weeks, only to lapse into a slump. All of this is readily understood when a brief study of the eleven and its string of substitutes is thoroughly investigated.
The Brown team is essentially an inexperienced eleven, but six of the twenty men who have been playing with more or less regularity in the games this season ever having had any university experience. Pre-season indications of a weak line proved to be correct; the line was distinctly inferior to the backfield and caused the coaches a good deal of anxiety. Trivial injuries, added to the already rather ordinary line material, prevented the proper development of the same set of men and necessitated constant rearranging of the line-up. The offensive department of the eleven is strong; the backfield being fast and possessing power and drive. Gordon has showed much ability of late in drop-kicking and is a big asset to the scoring power of the machine. The coaches are much pleased by the spurt which the playing of the team has suddenly taken within the past two weeks, thereby wiping out to a considerable extent the rather poor showing the eleven made in New York against Cornell.
Beat Norwich Easily.
In the first game the Brown team showed unlimited promise, overwhelming, the Norwich eleven by the score of 24 to 0. The following Saturday the team continued their brilliant work, decisively defeating the Rhode Island Agricultural College, 20 to 0. However, weakness in the line was apparent, the secondary defence frequently stopping the opponents' backfield men from making long gains.
Appearing as a clever exponent of the open style game the eleven played a spectacular 0 to 0 tie game with Amherst a week later. Contrasted to the old fashioned game on which Amherst depended, the long forward passes of the Brown team stood out, a distinctive feature of a new style game which gave promise of future development. A lapse of two weeks preceded the disastrous game in New York when Cornell so easily defeated the Providence team by the score of 28 to 7. But there is something to be said for the team's showing in this contest. An inexperienced line was hardly capable of stopping the attacks of the heavy Cornell backfield, and the stage-fright incident to a big game proved a serious handicap. The attack of the light backfield was fairly good, while the forward passing game was played to more advantage than by any other team to date. The use of this latter phase of the game gave the team a 12 to 9 victory over Vermont on the following Saturday, but the eleven did not seem to have recovered from the effects of the Cornell game and loose play marked the game put up by Brown.
Line Strengthened.
Showing a decided reversal of form the team forced Yale to fight hard to nose out a 14 to 6 victory out of the game. The line showed unexpected strength and successfully withstood the attacks of the heavier team, and the backfield men frequently slipped through the Yale line for considerable gains. It was only in the last five minutes that Yale was able to force the ball across the line for a touchdown.
So the team comes to the Stadium today after a season marked by a changing standard in its play. If Brown plays the game of which it is capable the contest should prove a decidedly close one in which all the phases of the new style game will be utilized in the effort of the lighter team to score on the major eleven.
There are now thirty-nine men at Yale who have won their "Y"; fifteen in track, fourteen in football, eight in baseball, and seven in crew.
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TRIBUTE TO MAJ. HIGGINSON