“No, it’ll take a day or two to forget the others and remember ours.
There are two or three things I noticed about your playing this
afternoon, Thayer, and I want to speak of them while they’re fresh in
my mind. In the first place, you played too close to your guard on
defence as a general thing. Open up there and, above all, don’t play
between opponents. I mean by that, don’t try to get through on defence
between two men. Select one and play him. Usually it will be the outside
man, and your game is to put him against his inside man or side-step
him. As a general thing your position on defence is a foot or so outside
the opposing end player, although there are one or two formations when
that isn’t so. Another thing I noticed was that, while you watched the
ball well, you were liable to let the other man get the jump on you. As
soon as the ball is snapped, Thayer, get busy with your arms. There are
two main factors in the playing of a tackle position. One is head and
the other is arms. Use your head all the time and your arms most of the
time. As soon as the ball is snapped, out with your arms, Thayer. Lunge
against the opponent. Get him first and hold him off until you can see
where the ball’s going. Don’t try to break through blindly. Hold him at
arm’s length, keep your legs out of the way and then put him in or out,
as the case may be, and go through for the runner. If you can get your
arms on the other fellow _before_ the ball is snapped, do it, but don’t
try it too long before or you won’t be able to hold it. Try for the
neck and arm position. It’s the best. You can swing a man either way if
you have that. If he gets under your arms and boxes you don’t try to
push forward by main force, because you’ll be only wasting your
strength. Back away and get around him.