Gladiators of the Gridiron

‘Oh man… ha…hah… you really got us good, huh? You’re incredible.’ As he was still hunched over, hands on his knees, Justin grinned up at Ty. ‘Don’t worry though. I’ll get those points right back, just you watch.’

Ty scoffed, his lip curling up in disgust. ‘Good luck. Test me as much as you want, the result will ALWAYS be the same.’ Ty shoved the ball into Justin’s chest and walked off towards the bench.

Ty’s taunting penalty applied to the Dons’ point after attempt, pushing the kick 15 yards further out, and in the end, the kick sailed just right of the posts, a chorus of cheers and jeers came from the crowd.

‘Now then, Tyrese. I hoped you learned your lesson from that,’ Coach Long said, looking down at him as Ty sat on the bench.

‘That won’t happen again,’ Ty said.

“It wouldn’t matter if that jackass could kick straight.”

As Coach Long walked away, Bella moved over in front of Ty. ‘Nice going, dumbass. Can’t you keep your temper under control for five seconds?’

Ty glared up at her, though proving her wrong, he didn’t react and held back his venomous retort.

With a score of 0–6 in the Dons’ favour, the Lancers returned the kickoff out to their own 22-yard line. From there, the offence would begin their second drive, hoping to at least not give up a defensive touchdown in a single play.

As Ty expected, the QB was already fearful of him, and he’d have to wait a while before the ball was thrown his way again.

However, the rest of the defence was holding up stalwartly—nothing would pass them.

The Defensive Line would fake out blitzes before dropping back conservatively. The LBs played up close and tight over the middle of the field, denying everything short and helping to fill the box against the run.

The CBs held up their Receivers, forcing them towards the help through the middle, and a Safety over the top made sure that if anything would’ve slipped by, they couldn’t have gotten far.

With Justin being ignored by his QB, it didn’t take long for the Lancers to go three and out, and be forced to punt.

However, that didn’t mean Justin gave up. On every play he still ran his routes with full effort, battling his hardest against Ty’s fierce press, even if he was struggling to push past those long, spearing arms.

Even if things were futile, he was still hopeful.

The Lancers’ punt hung in the air for a long time, and with a dogged pursuit from their special teams unit, Chris had to take a fair catch instead of trying to make a return of any kind.

The Dons’ offence would take to the field for the first time, already with a touchdown for them on the scoreboard, and starting their drive from their own 37-yard line.

As Jay jogged out onto the field, Coach Norman and Coach Long called out to him.

‘Don’t get overwhelmed!’ Coach Long said.

‘Keep it short and snappy! Get the ball out fast!’ Coach Norman implored.

Jay gave both coaches a thumbs-up as he made his way out there. Even with the pregame info they had on the Lancers’ aggressive defence, when Jay saw them lined up in “cover zero” for the first play, he was surprised.

He dropped back into shotgun formation, standing beside Chris as he awaited the thrown snap from the Center. He turned to Chris, quietly telling him to stay back for blocking. Chris nodded in acknowledgement.

‘Benny.’ Jay turned his attention to their stocky TE now. ‘President.’ Benny looked back and nodded, he knew he’d have to “protect the president” now and also stay in for blocking.

‘Zero! Zero!’ Jay called out to the rest of the defence, yelling loud enough so that the Receivers spread out wide could hear him. Then, once all his preparations were made, he stared down the defence in front of him.

Cover zero was the term used for when the defence had no one left back to cover things over the top. Every single player on their side was pressed up close to the line of scrimmage, and everyone who wasn’t personally covering a Receiver would come blitzing at the QB.

This meant that no matter how many people the offence pulled back into protection, the defence would always have one more blitzer than there were blockers.

Jay wiped his hands off on his pants and readied himself.

‘Set.’ His eyes darted to Stephen who was staring back at him. The giant gave him a barely noticeable nod. ‘Hike!’

While cover zero meant the defence had an advantage in the blitz, it also meant that every matchup between a DB and a Receiver would be a strict one-on-one, and Jay knew he could always trust Stephen in such an instance.

Jay dropped back only a few steps, eyes instantly homing back in on Stephen as his trusty safety valve broke free over the middle of the field.

As Chris blocked one defender, another came racing past. Jay zipped the ball out just as the free rusher came crashing into his side. Jay was knocked to the ground, but Stephen made the catch! Though he was tripped up shortly afterwards for a gain of 9 yards overall.

Again, the Dons took their formation, and again the Lancers came out aggressively, though this time they did at least have one Safety back in the middle of the field.

This time, Jay handed the ball off to Chris after posturing to throw again. This “draw” play netted them several yards and earned them a first down thanks to the Lancers' over-eagerness to blitz, things were going well.

Jay set back to pass on the next play, and though the Lancers had once again lined up aggressively before the snap, after the ball was in Jay’s hands most of the defence had dropped back in coverage.

His eyes darted around but he couldn’t find any openings. A defender slipped around the edge of the offensive line, barrelling down on him. He had to throw the ball away or face a sack, and even though he got the ball out, throwing it well over Stephen’s head, out of reach of anyone, he was still hit and shoved to the ground again.

As Jay got up this time, he looked around for a flag for a late hit but found none. He took a deep breath and readied himself again.

The next pass, Stephen’s slant over the middle was covered well. Jay’s eyes quickly scanned the field, finding a CB bearing down on him rapidly. With a hop, he lobbed the ball over the frenzied CB’s head, finding Chris who had slipped out into the flat behind the blitzer.

For his efforts, Jay was once again knocked to the ground, and Chris was wrapped up in a strong tackle, taking him down for a gain of 5 yards.

Jay picked himself back up with a groan, his Linemen helping him up and patting him down. Still, the Lancers’ hounds were coming after him, posturing again to send everything after him.

He couldn’t trust his eyes though. His mind raced through the possibilities. “They’ll most likely back off and cover Stephen. If I force a pass there it could be picked off. But if I try to take my time and find the opening but they DO end up sending everyone, it’ll be a sack.”

He flexed his hands a few times, then wiped them off again. He’d call up another draw play in hopes they were too focused on a pass.

He handed the ball off to Chris again, who burst through the middle of the line of scrimmage and weaved his way towards the 1st down marker, but was ultimately tackled just short, barely a yard away from it.

The order came in from the sideline that they’d punt the ball away, and the special teams unit was sent out to replace the offence. The Dons’ first drive had stalled out rather quickly.

Jay scrunched up his face for a moment. He should’ve had that 1st down, and if they went for it on 4th and short, they’d have it. Though he kept that thought to himself.

‘Hey, good effort out there, boys. We’ll get them next time.’ Coach Long’s attempt at uplifting the offence’s spirits fell on deaf, uncaring ears.

The punt bounced through into the endzone for a touchback, and the Lancers would start their third drive from the 20-yard line.

‘This time I’ll get you. I almost had you last time,’ Justin said as he and Ty lined up against one another.

Ty couldn’t help but see his enemy as delusional and as such, gave him no response.

As the ball was snapped, this time, Ty noted how Justin’s hands shot up quickly, batting away Ty’s spear-like stab, which freed up the Receiver to get a cleaner break away from the line of scrimmage.

Still, Ty was glued to his hip, and no matter how much Justin shimmied or feinted, Ty continued to stick to him.

The pass ended up going in the opposite direction, over towards Deshaun’s zone further down the field. Deshaun batted the ball out of the air, grinning as he then shushed the crowd.

‘Aw come on! Throw it to Justin! Don’t throw it to that loser!’

‘Yeah! Justin’s the best! Give him the ball, you stupid thrower person!’

Justin’s cheer squad was growing restless the longer he was taken out of the game.

Next, the Lancers attempted a run along the right side. Justin faked a route for a split second before ramming into Ty with a solid block, and in at least a contest of strength, the taller boy could get the better of his opponent for once.

Even so, the run didn’t have much success, gaining three yards before it was snuffed out by the ever-vigilant JJ. There was no hope of the Lancers’ RB escaping his clutches.

That brought the Lancers to a rather long 3rd down and would give the Dons the perfect opportunity to surprise them by switching up their conservative “cover three” zone defence to something more aggressive.

Meanwhile, Justin approached his QB in the midst of their huddle. ‘Marvin, I’m here for you. Don’t worry about your first interception. I’ve got this one.’ He placed a hand on the older boy’s shoulder, flashing him a smile.

Marvin was a junior. He wore a compression sleeve over his throwing arm, from near his wrist to the middle of his bicep, the white fabric contrasting against his dark skin. His wide, grey eyes were even more colourless behind his lightly tinted visor. He was around the same height as Justin, with thicker arms. His tightly set jaw, however, said that he did not share in Justin’s confidence.

Nevertheless, he gave a short nod to his Receiver and the huddle broke apart.

Once the offence was in formation, Ty watched the WR and QB closely. Marvin seemed calm, and Justin was avoiding Ty’s gaze, constantly staring back at his teammate. When they met eyes, Justin flashed him a thumbs up.

‘Hey! Hound! Hound!’ Coach Hoang rolled along the sideline, shouting out orders for the defence—their formation switched accordingly.

JJ pressed up closer, but the staggered Safties came to be on the same level instead of having one short and one deep, though both were creeping over towards opposite sidelines.

Deshaun subtly shifted his feet as he stood opposite his Receiver. He was to be the “hound” that was unleashed after all, and would blitz the QB from his blindside.

‘…Set-hike!’

Ty feinted with his spear—Justin swatted air aside. He stumbled out of the gates, trying to skirt past Ty to the outside, then he spun inwards. Ty had his eyes on Marvin the whole time, who was staring back at the pair, completely unaware that Deshaun was speeding towards him from behind.

As Justin broke to the inside of the field, Marvin threw the ball, getting crunched in a tackle from behind just as the ball left his fingertips.

It was a desperate pass, and a wrong one. Ty had completely smothered Justin once again, and shut down his spinning attempt to work back into the middle of the field, picking this pass off was almost easier than his first interception that game.

The only thing that changed this time, was when Ty made the pick, Justin was already right behind him, and before Ty could even think of returning this one for a touchdown as well, he was already being dragged down to the ground.

‘Nooooooo!’ Ty could almost hear the hearts of those fangirls shattering. It brought a smile to his face.

‘Dammit!’ Justin punched his own hand in frustration as he got off Ty, though he quickly offered a hand to help the smaller boy up. ‘Ah, sorry, that was great defence though, I really thought I would’ve got you with that move.’

Ty ignored Justin’s hand and instead waited for one of his teammates to come over and help him up.

Justin retracted his hand awkwardly. ‘Oop, sorry. Uhh… heh, next time though, definitely next time.’ He still had a dumb grin on his face as he hurried off to go check on Marvin as the Lancers’ offence made its way off the field.

While Ty may not have gotten another touchdown, the Dons’ offence was already well within field goal range.

“Hopefully this time the kicker doesn’t fuck things up… IF it comes to that,” Ty thought.

‘Don’t forget about your play-action, now,’ Coach Norman reminded Jay as he took to the field again. ‘Keep those antsy bastards second-guessing, ya hear?’

Jay nodded. ‘Got it, Coach.’

And in the first play, that was exactly what Jay did. He faked another draw, and after Benny helped the Tackle he was lined up beside with a quick double team block against the pass rusher, he peeled out in his own quick route.

The pass was successful, and this time, Jay actually remained untouched, and Benny gained a quick 7 yards.

Next, they actually did hand the ball over to Chris, no draw play necessary as Jay gave the ball right to him for a run to the outside, though it only gained a couple of yards, leaving the Dons with a 3rd & 1.

Coach Norman managed to convince Coach Long to go for it all on this 3rd down, instead of trying a conservative but more likely to be successful run play that would just get the yards and gain a first down.

‘That’s what they expect, a run up the gut, everyone’ll be thinking that, Coach. That’s why we gotta throw it deep. Play-action, they’ll all buy it. Stephen’ll be open, I know it.’

Coach Long nodded. It was an unexpected plan. Going for the simple run might’ve been the “correct” thing to do, but that’s what would make the touchdown pass over the top so effective.

‘Let’s do it.’

Jay wiped his hands off. He was happy with the call, he knew it’d be one-on-one with Stephen; this should be a touchdown.

‘...Set… … …hike!’

Jay took the snap from under Center, turning and extending the ball out to Chris. Of course, it was a fake, and as the two passed each other by Jay quickly wheeled around, darting to the outside of the protective pocket and turning his attention downfield in the endzone to where he expected Stephen to be streaking towards.

What he didn’t expect, was to have the massive 230 pounds, 6-foot-tall, gorilla of a DE right in his face.

Jay’s eyes widened and his legs pumped faster, though there was no hope of him outrunning this freakish specimen. As he was crushed in a bear-hug tackle, Jay flung the ball downfield just before he crashed to the ground and was flattened under the defender.

The ball soared just over the reach of Stephens’ outstretched hand, while he was open within the endzone. It fell incomplete, and 4th down was upon the Dons.

As Jay tried to recover all the air that had just been squashed out of his lungs, his teammates helped him up, and he saw that Coach Long was once again signalling for them to come off the field instead of going for it on a 4th & 1.

Jay clenched his fists for a brief moment. They should’ve had that touchdown, now they had to settle for a field goal.

“Dude… you can make that pass… you have to…”

He sighed heavily as he sat down and watched the kicker line up his shot.

This time, thankfully, it split the middle of the uprights.

Their lead was pushed to a minimum of two possessions at 0–9 late into the 1st quarter.