The Unstoppable Play Essay, Research Paper

The Unstoppable Play

It’s Homecoming night, and the football team is scrambling on the wet locker room floor. The air is packed with steam from the hot showers colliding into the cool fall air. It smells like — well it smells like a football locker room. Talk of whose date is the hottest, and who played the best enraptures the ears of all within listening distance. Tonight we will have some fun.

For now the electrifying high school Dance far outweighs the thrilling victory over the homecoming competitors. Soon after the dance, when they start feeling their aches and pains, the football players will remember the game. They will remember what it took to get there, and what got them there. Ever since anyone could remember, Medicine Lodge Indians have been taught one lesson above all others. If executed correctly, “Shoot R 32 Veer” is the unstoppable play.

Many people may not know what the “Shoot R 32 Veer” is. It is a football play designed so intricately, that no matter what the defense does, they can not defend against it. It is based on the idea of the triple option. This is where the quarterback can hand the ball off to the fullback, he can pitch the ball to the tailback, or if he needs to he can keep it and run it himself.

First is ?The Handoff? to the fullback. After the ball is snapped, the fullback charges the line of scrimage. Hoping to blow through the defensive line, and crush into the linebackers, picking up at least five yards. It is the quarterback’s job to read the defensive tackle. If he goes out, he hands it off. If he goes in, he keeps it.

Assuming that the defense doesn’t want to take the five-yard pounding from the fullback. They will crash their tackle in. The quarterback then keeps the ball. By now, we have reached the second stage of the play. ?The Pitch” is intended to make the unblocked defensive end decide whether to go after the quarterback or to attempt to tackle the tailback after the pitch. Before the play starts, the quarterback calls, ?Down?, ordering his team to get into a stance. After one second, he calls ?Set,? putting the tailback into motion. When the taiback is directly behind the fullback, the quarterback says, ?Hut,? to begin the play. Then the tailback bellies (runs in a curved pattern) deep behind the fullback and the quarterback. After the fake to the fullback, he runs outside the end. This is where his next crucial read comes into play. If the end — or outside linebacker, whichever one is there — comes after the quarterback, he pitches it. The tailback then runs outside the wide receivers block down the sideline. If the defensive player goes after the tailback, the quarterback keeps it. He cuts inside, between the play side running back?s ?kick out? block (he blocks either the end or the outside linebacker out of the play) and the play side tackle?s ?seal block? (he makes contact with either the tackle or the inside linebacker, and slowly positions his butt as if it were a camera watching the back). With every other possible would-be tackler being blocked, there should be no chance of either of the quarterback or the tailback being tackled.

There are not many plays that can actually be called unstoppable, but the play that our coach has chosen as our ?Bread and Butter,? is definitely one of them. With a little bit of ?Buddy Taylor Football,? your team can also steamroll over opponents with this devastating play. One thing that I feel obligated to remind everyone is, that with the right team, any play is unstoppable.