Quarterback sneak, p.1
Quarterback Sneak, page 1
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1
Calling the Play
Chapter 2
A New Plan
Chapter 3
Playing Like a Team
Chapter 4
The Man in the Sunglasses
Chapter 5
Famous
Chapter 6
Trying to Look Good
Chapter 7
Bad Advice
Chapter 8
Turning it Around
CHAPTER 1
CALLING THE PLAY
Anton jogged out to the huddle.
His heart thumped in his chest as he ran, thinking about the situation.
The play Coach Benson had just given him called for him to get the ball.
It was the first game of the junior varsity season, and it was fourth down.
Anton’s team, the Giants, only had one more chance to make a play.
The Giants were trailing 23–19. They needed to score a touchdown to win the game.
There were only six seconds left on the game clock. The ball was 20 yards from the Dolphins’ goal line. Anton knew the Giants’ chances weren’t good.
Twenty yards. One play.
Anton liked the play the coach had called. It was 23 fake flat right.
Anton had to fake taking a handoff from his team’s quarterback, Malik.
Then Anton would scoot out of the backfield to the right.
Malik would fake a long pass down the middle, and then dump the ball off to Anton on the right side.
With blockers out in front of him, Anton would use his running ability to get the rest of the way to the goal.
The Dolphins had a very big, tough defensive line, but Anton wasn’t worried. He didn’t do his best running up the middle anyway.
He was better on the outside when they pitched him the ball.
Out there, he had some running room. Out there, he would be able to fake out the defense.
Anton was doing well in the game so far. He had scored two of his team’s touchdowns. Malik had scored the other one on a quarterback sneak.
As the Giants huddled, Anton whispered the play to Malik.
It was Malik’s job as quarterback to tell the rest of the team the play their coach had called.
“Got it, Malik?” Anton asked the quarterback.
But Malik wasn’t looking at him.
In fact, Malik’s eyes weren’t even on the field.
Malik was looking over to the sideline. Anton glanced over too. He saw that a tall, athletic man wearing sunglasses was standing there, watching the game.
Anton thought the guy looked familiar, but he wasn’t Malik’s dad. Anton wasn’t sure who he was.
The man was pointing toward Malik and jogging in place. It looked like he was pretending to run with the football.
Malik shook his head. Then he turned back to the huddle.
“Okay, guys,” he said. “This is it. Last play. Everybody make sure you get your blocks. Give it all you’ve got on this one!”
All the players nodded. “Yeah, let’s win this!” one of them shouted.
Malik stood up straight.
He looked over to the man on the sideline again.
Then he bent back down into the huddle. “Okay, here’s the play,” he said. “23 fake … ”
He paused. Then he started over. “No, no,” he said. “54 option right. On two.”
“What?” Anton yelled. “That’s not what the coach called!”
“That play won’t work,” Malik said. “We’re using the 54 option right instead.”
“You can’t change what the coach says,” Anton said. He looked around. The other players seemed nervous.
Malik didn’t listen. He started marching up to the line of scrimmage.
Anton knew he had to do something. “Time out!” he yelled to the referee.
CHAPTER 2
A NEW PLAN
Malik and Anton ran to the sideline. Coach Benson looked confused.
“What’s going on out there, boys?” the coach asked.
Anton waited to see if Malik was going to tell the coach what happened.
“Coach, I don’t think that’s the best play for us right now,” Malik said. “I think maybe we should run the option. That way, I can make something happen.”
“Malik, the play I called has a lot of options to it,” Coach Benson said. “The first option is to drop the ball to Anton. If he’s covered, you can throw to Jeff downfield.”
Malik crossed his arms.
“But Coach,” he said, “I know I can do this. Let me run the option, and I’ll get us the touchdown we need.”
Coach Benson frowned. Anton could tell he was angry.
“Malik, listen to me,” the coach said. “We’re going to run the play I called. The only way I want you to run with the ball is if everybody is covered. That’s your only option.”
Then Malik looked the coach right in the eye. “Okay, Coach,” Malik said. “We’ll do it your way. I got it.”
Anton and Malik headed back to the huddle.
On the way back, Anton saw Malik shoot a glance at the tall man on the sideline and give him a little wink.
The tall man waved back at Malik.
Once they reached the huddle, Malik quickly delivered the play call. “Okay, guys, here we go,” he said. “It’s 23 fake flat right, on two. Everybody make your blocks!”
The team broke the huddle and headed to the scrimmage line.
Malik moved in behind the center and started calling out the signals.
“Down! Set!” he yelled as the players got into position. “Hut! Hut!”
The center snapped the ball.
Malik faked the handoff to Anton, who turned and ran to the right side.
Malik hid the ball from defenders and dropped back into the pocket.
Anton looked back toward Malik, and saw him fake the long pass downfield.
The Dolphin defense was faked out. It worked!
Now Anton was all alone on the right. The play was setting up perfectly.
Malik looked at Anton.
The offensive line was holding off the big Dolphins defenders. Malik had plenty of time.
Malik faced Anton.
He raised his arm, cocked it back, and brought it forward.
Anton got ready to catch the pass.
But Malik didn’t release the ball.
Instead, he tucked it under his arm, turned, and headed toward the end zone.
“Yeah, Malik!” the tall man yelled from the sideline. “Go!”
Malik had some room on the left side, but not a lot. He ran the first five yards easily.
Then he faked out two Dolphins defenders and broke free near the 10-yard line.
From there, it was a race to the corner of the end zone.
Anton thought a Dolphins player was about to catch up to Malik. But Malik’s speed was too much for him.
He darted into the end zone, raising the ball above his head.
The Giants won. Most of the team ran over to Malik to celebrate.
But Anton stood still.
CHAPTER 3
PLAYING LIKE A TEAM
After the two teams shook hands, all of the Giants players gathered around Coach Benson.
“It’s great to start the season with a win, boys,” the coach said. “I’m very proud of how hard you worked in this game.”
All of the players cheered and gave each other high fives. The coach waited for a few moments to let them celebrate before he continued.
“We do have some things we need to work on, though,” Coach Benson said. “It takes time to play like a team. Football is the ultimate team sport, and we’ll get better as the season goes along.”
Anton thought he knew what Coach Benson meant.
When the coach talked about playing like a team, he was talking about Malik’s selfish play at the end of the game.
The more Anton thought about it, he realized the coach was probably right. After all, he and Malik hadn’t played together before.
Malik didn’t know Anton well enough to know that he could make great plays, too.
So Malik relied on what he did know, which was his own ability.
* * *
By the time the Giants returned to practice the following week, Anton had pretty much forgotten about Malik’s play.
When the Giants took the field for the second game of the season, the man in the sunglasses wasn’t there.
Anton felt great. He had the feeling they could win the game, if they could play together as a team.
Anton’s team was playing against the Jets. The Giants got the ball first.
On the first drive of the game, Malik ran all the plays exactly as the coach had called them.
Anton was surprised and happy to see that the teamwork was really paying off.
Malik handed off to Anton, pitched out to Carlos, passed the ball to Jeff, and the Giants moved the ball down the field with ease.
Finally, the team made it to the Jets’ 5-yard line.
Coach Benson called for an option play to the left side.
That meant that Malik would run along the line of scrimmage with the ball.
Anton would trail behind him.
If Malik saw a clear path to the end zone, he’d keep the ball.
If he got in trouble, he was supposed to pitch the ball to Anton.
Anton was worried. What if Malik didn’t run the play like he was supposed to?
Here we go again, Anton thought, suddenly
Malik called out the signals.
When the ball was snapped, Malik ran along the line of scrimmage. Anton was in great position behind him.
As they turned the corner toward the end zone, one of the Jets linebackers approached.
Malik tucked the ball down and turned up field.
Just as the linebacker was about to tackle him, Malik pitched the ball perfectly to Anton.
The linebacker tackled Malik, but the ball was already gone.
Anton had caught it easily.
With no defenders between him and the goal line, Anton cruised into the end zone for a touchdown.
CHAPTER 4
THE MAN IN THE SUNGLASSES
Anton flipped the ball to the referee and ran over to Malik, who was still sitting on the ground.
“Are you all right?” Anton asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Malik said. “Man, that guy nailed me. Oh, well. At least we scored a touchdown.”
“You played that perfectly,” Anton said. “He really thought you were keeping it. I did too.”
During the rest of the game, Malik shared the ball with his teammates.
He ran the ball a few times by himself, but only when the coach called for it or when it was Malik’s only option.
It was nearly a perfect game.
The Giants ended up winning 35–12.
They had won a game for the second week in a row.
“Boys, we made a lot of improvement this week,” Coach Benson said after the game. “Everyone did a great job blocking for each other. We really became a team out there.”
After the team meeting, Anton slapped hands with Malik.
“Good game,” Anton said.
It seemed like they were becoming friends, and he felt bad about thinking that Malik was a selfish player.
* * *
A week later, the Giants were getting ready to play the Cowboys in their third game of the season.
All of the Giants were on the field, stretching out and warming up.
Malik and Anton were joking around and throwing a football back and forth.
Suddenly, a voice rang out from the other sideline.
“Hey, Malik!” It was the man in the sunglasses.
Malik flipped the ball to Anton and ran over to him.
Malik seemed happy to see the man. The man put his arm around Malik’s shoulders. He whispered into Malik’s ear, and Malik nodded his head.
After a couple of minutes, Malik ran back to his teammates.
Anton knew the man looked familiar, but he couldn’t figure out who the guy was.
He didn’t have time to think about it, because the game was about to start.
The Cowboys got the ball first. They moved it quickly down the field and scored a touchdown.
When the Giants got the ball back, they needed to try to score right away.
On their first play, Coach Benson called for the option, which gave Malik a choice.
Malik chose to keep the ball instead of pitching it to Anton. He ran for five yards.
The second play was a running play for Anton, but he was stopped at the line of scrimmage. That made it third down.
Coach Benson called for a pass play.
Malik dropped back to throw the ball. He waited a split second, but instead of throwing the ball, he tucked it down and ran.
He sprinted around the right end, but was stopped short of a first down. The Giants had to punt.
When they came off the field, Coach Benson called Malik over.
“What happened there?” the coach asked. “We had receivers open. Why didn’t you throw the ball?”
“I didn’t see them,” Malik said. He walked away.
In the game against the Jets the week before, Malik had shared the ball. But this game was different.
Malik kept the ball on most of the option plays.
On almost all of the passing plays, he pulled the ball down and tried to run with it.
Still, the Giants scored. Malik was playing selfishly, but he was a good player, so he could get away with it.
With less than a minute to go, the Giants trailed 20–18. Malik had scored all three touchdowns.
With the ball on the Cowboys’ 12-yard line, the Giants still had a chance to win.
Coach Benson called for an option play.
As the team jogged up to the line of scrimmage, the man in the sunglasses called out, “Come on, Malik! Win this game! Show them what you can do!”
Suddenly, Anton had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.
CHAPTER 5
FAMOUS
Malik took the snap and headed to the right side. The offensive line kept the Cowboys’ defensive line under control.
Anton moved into position behind Malik, ready for the pitch.
Malik turned the corner and saw a linebacker, the player he had to beat.
Malik faked a pitchout to Anton, but it didn’t fool the linebacker. He kept heading toward Malik.
Still, Malik kept the ball. He tucked it under and tried to fake out the linebacker.
It didn’t work.
The linebacker squared his shoulders and wrapped his arms around Malik.
He slammed Malik to the ground.
The ball slid out from Malik’s hands and popped free.
Just like that, the Giants’ undefeated record was gone. The Cowboys had won the game.
As they jogged off the field, Malik shook his head.
“Why didn’t you pitch that to me?” Anton said. “That linebacker was on you.”
“I thought I could beat him,” Malik said. He shrugged. “I couldn’t.”
After the game, Coach Benson tried to boost his players’ spirits by reminding them of the team’s good moments.
Still, Anton could tell that the coach wasn’t happy with Malik.
After talking to the team, the coach pulled Malik to the side. He talked to him for a long time.
As Malik walked off the field, the tall man who’d been watching from the sideline headed over to him.
“Great game, Malik!” the man yelled. “Three touchdowns!”
“Yeah, but we lost the game,” Anton heard Malik say.
“Don’t worry about that,” the man said. “You did your part.”
Anton couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
The man seemed to be telling Malik that his personal statistics were more important than how the team did.
If Coach Benson heard that, Anton knew he wouldn’t be happy.
Anton walked home with his teammate Jeff, who played tight end. He told Jeff what he had heard. “Well, that’s not too surprising, is it?” Jeff said. “That guy’s always been like that.”
Anton stopped walking. “You mean you know who that guy is?” he asked.
“Of course,” said Jeff. “Don’t you?”
Anton shook his head. “I know he looks familiar,” he said.
“That’s Jerome Biggins. He used to play in the pros,” Jeff said.
“Oh! He’s the guy who was always doing those crazy touchdown dances and getting fined by the league and stuff, right?” Anton asked.
“Yeah, that’s the guy,” Jeff said.
“Why does he care about Malik’s statistics?” Anton asked, confused.
Jeff stopped and stared at him. “You mean you don’t know? Jerome Biggins is Malik’s uncle.”
CHAPTER 6
TRYING TO LOOK GOOD
Suddenly, Anton understood why Malik was playing selfishly. Malik’s uncle was a famous pro football player.
Malik was trying to show off.
But Anton was worried about his team. They had a record of two wins and one loss.
There were only six games left in the regular season. To make it to the playoffs, the Giants had to have at least six wins.
That meant they had to win four of the next six games to qualify.
Malik was a good player. But if he was going to keep playing selfishly, it was going to be tougher for the team to win.
And it might hurt their chances of making it to the playoffs.
Anton wasn’t sure how to handle the situation. He didn’t want to say anything to Malik, because Jerome Biggins was his uncle.
So Anton decided to talk to Coach Benson.
After the next practice, Anton walked over to the coach. “Coach, can I talk to you for a minute?” he asked.
