On the defense the positions of the backs should be carefully noted, shutting out in the course of this observation the attack until it reaches the line. Under modern conditions a team is heavily dependent upon its secondary defense. The backs must come up to the line fast, and their tackling must be deadly. If any of the defensive backs is being put out of the play it is well to note how and by whom, for the man who is doing it is playing sterling football for his team. But if a forward is doing the execution rather than a back, and if he is doing it before the attack reaches the line, then there is cause for finding the back wanting in one of his most important duties.

With the close offensive and defensive work of the backs fairly mastered, the onlooker should take up the kicking game, watching in order: the line, the protecting backs, the kicker, the defensive line, the defensive backs, and the work of the men down the field. It is a good plan in studying the line on kicks to begin with the center, then to take the guards, tackles and ends in pairs. In the case of the center his passing is of the utmost importance. If he is not sending the ball back with a single sweep, but is raising it slightly from the ground before sending it back, his team is in for trouble, for not only will the opposing team know when a kick is to be made, and when a short pass to a runner, in which case there will be no temptation to raise the ball before shooting it back, but the opposing center will try to spoil the pass, since the ball is in play the instant it leaves the ground. The center must block longest of any of the forwards, since through his position is the shortest path to the kicker, and if he lets a man through him now and then he is not playing up to standard. The guards block next longest to the center, and they too should prevent any man from coming through until the back is all but rid of the ball.

If men are coming through the line anywhere from tackle to tackle it means that the kicker is not getting the protection to which he is entitled and that a blocked kick need not be a surprising result. The tackles have more latitude in their protection of the kicker than the guards, and the tackle on the side of the line opposite to the kicker's foot may get away a little ahead of his mate. As a general rule they may start down the field the instant the ball has reached the kicker. The ends go down the instant the ball is snapped and therefore are not counted upon as protectors.

The protecting backs, two of whom are on the same side of the line as the punter's kicking foot, are supposed to care for men coming through the tackle positions or from end in an attempt to block the kick. Of course they must above all things stop any player who sifts through the line inside the tackles. This latter, however, is a situation that they will not have to confront if the forwards are doing their work. The protecting backs should spill their men completely, so that no man is leaping in the air, especially on the punter's kicking side, when he sends the ball away.

The next man to watch is the punter himself, who may be either a "one-step" or a "two-step" kicker, which means that he takes either one or two steps when he sends the ball away. This watching of steps, of course, does not apply to the kicker when he is making a short run to one side in order to gain a little time. As a rule, however, the kicker makes no adjustment of the ball in his hands, getting it into position to drop to his instep simply by turning the hands, drops it at once, takes one step with the foot with which he is not to kick, and then sends the ball away. The "two-step " kicker may get a great deal of distance, and be able to take enough room behind the scrimmage line to be sure of getting the ball away, but with close kicking once more in the game he will not be as valuable to his team as the "one-step" man.

The kicking system carefully observed, the spectator may turn to the defense against it, noting carefully whether the punter is outkicking his ends so that they are slow in getting to the catcher, or whether these down-field men have been held up on the way by clever blocking on the part of backs or ends of the receiving side. He should watch carefully to see whether the defensive ends are played back of the line against a palpable kick formation, or kept on the line to hurry the kicker, for this will be an indication of the general style adopted by the team. He is apt to find that a team that plays a "waiting end" defense on regular line plays, will play the ends back much of the time against a kick formation, no matter what the number of the down.

All these points settled, the man in the stand may profitably turn his attention to changes in the system of play from the normal - watching the formation of the backs, whether square, diagonal, "L" or any of the more common styles, and keeping an eye out for shifts in the line or back-field. In this, of course, he will have to keep an eye out for individual identification marks, but the matter will be greatly simplified if before the game he has made some study of the diagrams accompanying Chapter VI (Simple Attack And Defense - Standard Formations).

One of the most important points is the activity of the forwards in the interference. The spectator should strive to find out just which men and how many swing out of their places in the line to join the interference, and whether the tendency to use the forwards in this way is greater than the leaning toward sending them straight through to the secondary defense. It was a long time in the season of 1912 before even some of the experts realized that Yale was constantly seeking to use sometimes one guard, sometimes two in the interference, and the great mass of spectators never did know it.

It may be that the man who is watching the first big game will have a long wait before he has a chance to see the forward pass in action, and he may be fairly sure that it will not be used in defensive territory - but the principal thing of which to take note when it does appear, is whether the ball is thrown to a particular individual who has already taken his position, or whether sent away to a spot where a player is supposed to arrive simultaneously with the ball. The latter method is the greater "chance-taker," for there is considerable danger that the fling will be intercepted for a run, and the more risky method should be "covered" by some player who will be ready to make a tackle should a player of the opposing team snatch the ball in mid-career. The spectator may well approve a pass so covered, and condemn a pass left unprotected.