The morning came early, with Freddy tripping over Jackson and Kenny, landing heavily on them both. He apologised profusely, but that didn't really help the situation. And when Kenny kicked him off, a foot landed in Rudy's face, knocking him off his mattress, too.
'Ow! What the fuck?! Get your feet out of my face, Freddy!'
Shane jolted awake, flailing for a moment before he spilled off the couch and thudded onto the ground. In a moment, they were all wide awake and at each other's throats. Though it only took one ill-timed comment from Jackson—after Freddy complained about Kenny kicking him, which turned Rudy's ire on Kenny instead, who got mad and defended himself whilst Shane sat and watched with an expression so grouchy it looked wrong on him—when Jackson reminded everyone it was all Freddy's fault, then the collective anger fell upon the poor boy.
'I needed to pee!' Freddy whined.
Kenny looked as if he'd chase him to the toilet. Thankfully, cooler heads prevailed, and shortly after, when Tommy was cooking up a feast of bacon, eggs, and hashbrowns for everyone, their moods stayed pleasant.
After breakfast, the boys returned to the living room, continuing their domination of it, much to Chrissy's annoyance seeing as they were getting in the way of her morning cartoons. The problem was resolved when Mrs Woods took her out for a walk in the park, which had a high chance of ending with some ice cream just for the two girls.
Then, as Tommy and the boys set up to go over the Cobras' and Dons' game again—studying and reviewing it rather than just enjoying the spectacle—Mr Woods joined them. 'Was one hell of a game, don't you think, boys?' he said as he settled into place on the couch next to Shane.
'I expected higher scores,' Rudy answered.
'Really? Doesn't one of the teams—the Dons, yes?—don't they have the best defence in high school?'
'They do, Dad,' Tommy said, looking around. 'Maybe when we take a closer look we can figure out how they contained such a good offence and won the game off their defence.'
They took their viewing slow—they had all day, so why not—and watched through most of the first quarter before winding back to specific plays, going over them again.
For the Cobras' defence at the start of the game, nobody had much to say. The Dons' Receivers were clearly in a tough position, and they weren't given much help by their play-calling. The Cobras were faster, faster enough to overwhelm without committing excessive numbers. But still, Mr Woods and Tommy asked the boys how they think the best way to attack the Cobras would be.
'I'd be faster than them,' Kenny said, drawing a sigh from Tommy and a glare from Rudy. 'What? They're the ones being arrogant, not me. They don't think they need Safety help over the top. I'd hit them with a fake inside then burst right by over the top.'
'It could work,' Mr Woods said slowly, thinking it over. 'But that still puts you in a contest that I think favours the defence too much. You can't think of a better way to put the advantage firmly in your hands?'
'I think Kenny's right about the feints,' Shane said. 'You have to make them second-guess themselves. Their speed won't matter if you get the best position first, so make them believe you already have it.'
'Sounds better, but still something that comes down to if you're better than the man guarding you. You should always be looking for a situation where the difference in skill doesn't matter. Sometimes it's better to out-scheme your opponents rather than outplay them.'
There was silence for a long while as they thought about what else they could be missing. Freddy stared hard at the screen, wishing he knew more about football to comment. It was like trying to do a Rubik's Cube whilst only knowing the colours on half the squares. But that's what these study sessions were for, so he could see how the others thought through these puzzles, and learn from them.
'Um…' Jackson started, all eyes turning towards him. '…What if you used a trips formation?'
'Nice one, little bro.' Tommy reached over, ruffling his hair.
'I like that idea. I think it'd work, but WHY is the next question,' Mr Woods said, smiling broadly as he moved over to the screen.
Freddy raised his hand, feeling like he was back in a classroom. 'Uhh, what's trips?'
'It refers to a formation where you have three Wide Receivers bunched together on the same side of the field,' Shane explained. 'And I think it'd work because … it'd confuse the defence, and congest that side of the field, so their speed would be neutralised.'
'Right you are, Shane.' Mr Woods said. 'There would be an endless combination of routes you could run from such a formation, and each of them will keep the defenders on the back foot, taking away their best weapon. With how easily you could run them into one another's path, they'll be stopping and starting constantly, so they won't be able to get up to full speed until its too late. … In theory anyway.'
'So why didn't the Dons do that?' Kenny asked; he and Rudy both had deeply furrowed brows, like they were trying to fix these lessons into their memory word for word.
'Because they're too dumb,' Rudy answered, 'or because their Receivers aren't good enough.'
'It's more like they found a different weakness in the defence,' Tommy said, shooting a warning glare Rudy's way. 'A bigger one. We're only thinking about how to beat them in the air, obviously the Dons thought it better to beat them on the ground.'
There wasn't much else to learn from that said of the ball, even through the rest of the quarters, seeing as the Dons ran the ball for ninety percent of their game. Though the few passes they used to close out the game showed the value of Kenny's ideology. The Cobras isolated their DBs too easily, and that could lead to mismatches if you could simply be better than them.
Mr Woods particularly enjoyed the Dagger concept the Dons used to score late and tie up the game, sending it into OT. He mentioned how it was a blend of their ideas, using distraction and congestion to give themselves the superiority when it came to speed, if only for a few seconds, that's all the time they needed.
Though it was no surprise the bulk of their time was spent pouring over nearly every snap from the Cobras' offence going against the Dons' defence. On every passing play there were multiple points of interest they could explore, whether it was just watching Colby navigate in the pocket, to Lamar and Dominick's route running and how they utilised their inherent speed by bursting through zones, only to settle and drift right into the open spaces; it was a good showcase that utilising your speed wasn't always about going full throttle.
But the main event was Tyrese and Richaun's duel. Even when the ball didn't come their way, their battle still held the most interest and insight. Such ferocity was unmatched … but surely it could be replicated.
Back and forth Ty and Richaun battled, though surprisingly it was Tyrese getting the better of him quite handily in the beginning. In a vacuum, Tyrese was clearly the better player. If the pair were running drills with a machine tossing them the ball, Tyrese would've won every contest. … And then Richaun started winning.
It was … strange. On first glance, it was hard to tell how Richaun had gotten his advantage, if anything, with how seemingly sloppy his movements had been, he seemed to have gotten worse. Yet it worked.
Mr Woods's asked "how?".
'He's still just as quick and precise as before,' Shane said. 'At least his feet are. Maybe he's harder to follow and predict with those wild movements?'
'You're on the right track,' Mr Woods said, smiling. Though silent thought followed.
Eventually Tommy broke it by saying: 'Remember what we were talking about before with the Dons' offence.'
'Distraction?' Freddy said, tilting his head. 'The excessive movement of his flailing arms are distracting from what the defender should actually be focusing on which are his hips and feet?'
'You're getting closer, but there's still something you're missing,' Mr Woods said. 'Something else the defender has to be watchful of.'
Jackson blinked at the screen, his cone of focus expanding away from JUST Tyrese and Richaun. If they were only going against one another, Tyrese would always win. But they weren't. There was a QB involved in their duel no matter how isolated they were.
'The QB is helping confuse the defender as well,' Jackson said, eyes turning to him. Dad's smile widened into a grin.
'How?' Tommy asked.
'Because … they're syncing up pump-fakes with cuts and feints. In those moments, the defender loses sight of the QB for a second, and he doesn't know if the pass is coming or not. He has to make a choice. Either he hesitates, and the Receiver gets the step on him, or he jumps ahead and throws himself at the mercy of a fake.'
'Excellent,' Dad said, clapping his hands. He moved back to the couch, taking his seat again.
Richaun and Colby's strategy accentuated their strengths and enhanced them, With it, they tied the game again. Though their success didn't last long.
'All that work and the guy just fu… screws it up by moving back a bit,' Kenny said. He cleared his throat and glanced at Mr Woods. At least he'd caught himself before actually swearing.
'What he did was smart,' Mr Woods said, 'as simple as it seems. Though part of it does have to do with his unique abilities. All throughout the game, the Cobras have had the speed advantage, EXCEPT when it comes to this matchup. The defender couldn't back up as much if his speed couldn't make up for the ground he was giving up.'
'Now the question becomes, how do we beat this?' Tommy asked. 'In the game, we all know the Cobras move on and attack different defenders, but say that wasn't possible, how would YOU win in this scenario.'
Jackson stared at the screen. How would he beat Tyrese? If there was that much space between them, a Slant or Curl sounded like the best option, but he knew Tyrese would devour that. He'd jump forward, spring-boarding off his back foot, and easily intercept the pass. He'd do it so comfortably he wouldn't even need to throw himself out of position until he was certain it was an actual pass, meaning feints wouldn't work either.
Blowing by him was impossible. As was beating him in a jump-ball situation. Nobody could hang with Tyrese in the air, and Jackson didn't have the speed to get by him. So then how? He'd see every move, see the ball coming first, and would be all over any route.
Jackson glanced around. Kenny and Rudy were still stuck in thought, but they looked like smoke was about to pour from their ears. Freddy had already resigned himself to not finding the answer. Even Shane looked stumped, doing his best "Thinker" pose.
'How would you beat him, big bro?' Jackson asked.
Tommy turned to the screen. 'Phew… good question. I'd have to use my size. But let's say, for convenience's sake, I was my high school self in this situation … I'd …' He frowned, his brow taking on the same furrow as the boys'.
'Maybe it'd be easier to tell when you're standing across from him,' Shane said. 'Maybe there's something you can only see when you're looking at him face-to-face.'
'Maybe.' Tommy shrugged. 'Otherwise, I'm just thinking of getting a teammate to run across, so the defenders have to switch assignments mid route.'
'Would he even do that?' Freddy asked. 'This guy's really stubborn and arrogant, isn't he? Maybe he'd stick with you no matter what.'
'That'll be his downfall,' Kenny said, his voice on the verge of a snarl.
'If it isn't?' Rudy asked. Nobody answered. 'So what? This guy's unstoppable?'
'Not exactly,' Mr Woods said, scratching his chin, though it was unsure whether he was trying to convince himself or the boys. 'He was stopped a few times in this game.'
'Yeah but he still won,' Jackson said.
'True,' Tommy said, frowning, 'and the way he struggled in the second half wasn't exactly something we could, nor should, recreate.'
'Right you are, my boy. Best not to go over what this game devolves into near the end. Though I can say I've never seen anything like THAT before.'
'What are we supposed to do if THAT happens?' Freddy asked.
'Well you won't ever start playing like that, I hope,' Mr Woods answered. 'The offensive player started all that nonsense, and you can see while it worked at the start because it was so shocking it stunned the defence for a moment, they gathered themselves and beat him quite terribly afterwards.'
'Yeah, but he was pushed to such extreme lengths. I mean, that was the only way he could see himself beating that Tyrese guy. There's a reason he's the number two ranked Wide-Receiver in the nation,' Rudy said, as if that explained everything.
Was that how different things became at the top? But how could Richaun be ONLY number two? He was imposing his will upon the game completely, taking it over all by himself … how was that not something only the best of the best could do?
'Maybe we just shouldn't watch the rest of this at all,' Mr Woods said, looking at the screen as if they were watching an R-rated slasher. He probably thought watching the conclusion of Tyrese and Richaun's duel was even more detrimental to their mental well-being.
Rudy laughed, sitting back. 'I know you guys lost to that before,' he said, glancing between Jackson and Kenny, 'and yeah that sucks, but at least you lost to the number one guy, right? It's not good, but it's better than losing to some bum. He's beating EVERYONE like that, even the number two ranked guy in the nation. That's why he's number one, and his defence is number one. It'd be way worse to lose to some random shitter who didn't even make All-American, right?'
'Like how we were losing in JV?' Freddy asked.
'Okay yeah, but that's different. We're not getting EMBARRASSED.'
'There's nothing embarrassing in losing,' Mr Woods said. 'It's how you carry yourself throughout that's important. Everyone has to lose eventually, even the best.' He glanced at his watch, and his eyebrows almost climbed off his head. 'Hoo-boy look at the time. You boys should get on home, it's a school night after all.'
Jackson blinked. The boys checked their phones almost in sync, looking at the time. Kenny sighed. Fingers tapped away at screens, the digital clacking filled the phone as parents were messaged and rides were arranged.
Each boy left thanking Mr Woods for the generous hospitality, saying they'd see the other boys at school the next day. Shane added on that everyone should keep practising hard; Freddy thanked everyone profusely, not just Mr and Mrs Woods; Rudy promised that they'd make Nationals and beat the Dons next year, no matter what. Then there was Kenny.
As his father's car pulled into the drive, he turned to Jackson with a serious expression, despite the smile tugging at his lips.
'It'll be easy to beat him,' he said. Again, he didn't need to specify who he meant. ' 'Cause when we face him next, we'll do it together.'
Jackson grinned. 'Damn right.' The two bumped fists, and even shared a brief hug before Kenny stepped out and hurried over to the car.
Jackson closed the door once Mr Murata's car turned the corner and disappeared from view. It'd been a good day, a good weekend even. Not just with the film study, but it'd been great to have them all around. Who knew even Rudy could be tolerable after a while.
He smiled, returning to to his room, the living room once again in possession of his parent's and Chrissy. Dinner was just about ready, but he needed some quiet time to relax and recharge his social battery before then.
Flicking on his TV, he caught the beginning of another National tournament game. The Texas champs, the Longhorns, vs the Alabama representatives, the Patriots.
Jackson shrugged, settling back on his bed. The Longhorns, they were supposedly pretty good—he remembered how much of a statement they'd made at the gala—though like the Cobras, that weekend was only their first game in the tournament. Maybe they'd fall just like the Cobras.
It didn't take long for the game to capture his attention so much he was pinned in place against the headboard. It was an eye-opening experience. Somehow, the pregame hype the Longhorns had carried into the contest didn't do them justice.
No wonder Richaun Howard was ranked number two.