The guys lined up on the field, "Hut" Marvin hiked the ball and dropped back. Joel got off the line quickly, he faked a jab toward the outside causing Devin to shift toward the sideline, Joel quickly turned towards the inside to complete his slant route.
On the other side of the field, John was pressing Austin. He had seen how Austin could accelerate quickly and figured his best chance of stopping him would be to jam him right off the line. As soon as John saw Marvin move, he lurched forward to Austin, his arms outstretched.
John had his arms at Austin's chest level, ready to shove him backward, but that's not what happened. Austin has spent years going through receiver drills with his father, he's learned how to snap his head to look for the ball, how to secure passes and not fumble when hit, and how to get out of jams.
"Get off me," Austin said as he shoved his hand into John's elbow, he then shot through John's right side, not forgetting to press his left hand into John's back to slow him down. Austin was able to create a gap between him and John, leaving him with an endless amount of green field in front of him.
'He got through' Marvin thought as he saw the move Austin had made on John, Marvin threw the ball to Austin, replicating the same play as last time. The ball sped towards Austin's hands, falling in perfectly, Austin wasted no time and sped up towards the endzone.
"Let's gooo!!"Austin celebrated as he scored once again, he began running back to Joel and Marvin. "Don't forget about me now Marvin" Joel said with a chuckle, he wasn't serious about his words, he was perfectly fine with his son scoring continuously.
"Alright guys, one more defensive drive," Olivia said as Team Jordan lined up for their offensive drive. William was at quarterback, Devin was guarded by Joel, John was guarded by Austin and Marvin was in the center of the field, ready to blitz.
Joel was lined up a couple of yards from Devin, he knew that he had great hands, but his speed was still in question to Joel. Austin was lined up a couple of yards off his receiver as well, he was giving space to see how John moved.
"SETT...HUT" William hiked the ball, Devin and John took off running. John tried to make a move to get Austin off balance and lose him, but Austin remained stead in his stance. He wasn't getting baited by any of the fake jabs that Devin was making.
Devin saw that Austin wasn't getting faked out by his moves so he decided to switch his route, 'Let's do a comeback' Devin thought, he hoped his Grandpa would be able to get the ball quick enough to him for the route to work.
Devin's hope was delivered as the ball came zipping toward him when he turned his back. He didn't get a chance to turn upfield as Austin quickly tackled him, but Team Jordan still got a gain of ten yards.
Second down, Team Jordan had thirty yards to go to score a touchdown. They lined up again, "SETT...HUT" Williams said as he hiked the ball. Devin had the same route as the last play, Joel was lined up the same way as last time.
Austin got closer to John, but not close enough for John to put a hand on him off the release. John took off running, with Austin backpedaling as he watched his movements. John started breaking, his feet slowing down and stomping down on the ground. His shoulder dipped, as he began turning his torso around to look at William.
Austin saw what John was doing and ran towards him, it looked like John was running the same comeback route as last time, and this time he was prepared. As Austin quickly got closer to John, John immediately started driving forward, John had gotten Austin to bite on a fake, he wasn't running a comeback route.
Austin tried to reverse his direction as quickly as he could as he saw John was faking the comeback route, but unfortunately, Austin was carrying too much momentum, he slipped as he tried to run after John.
William saw his grandson wide open and launched the ball toward him, the pass was just as almost accurate as Marvin's passes. The ball went straight in a spiral, John stopped to secure the catch, he wasn't as good of a receiver as Austin to catch the ball in stride and the ball was already coming to the ground.
John secured the catch but due to his pause in catching the ball, Austin was able to recover from his slip and tackle John, five yards after he had made the catch. Team Jordan had gotten twenty yards, they weren't moving as fast as their previous games but they were still progressing at a fast speed.
Through all this Marvin had not gotten involved in any of the plays, he had remained still during the plays, but he didn't mind this. Marvin understood that his defensive skills were not good enough to be of any help, his mind wasn't even focused on the drive that Team Jordan was having, 'As long as the old doesn't run, I'm good" Marvin thought.
Team Jordan lined up again, Devin was much closer to William than the last two plays, causing Joel to shift closer to Marvin. Austin lined up closer to John, the last two plays he wasn't pressing John, and each time John had enough space to make a catch and gain his team yards.
Austin got closer so that he could get a hand on John and push him off balance and off his route. "SETT...HUT" William snapped the ball, Austin launched at John, shoving him backward. John was surprised by Austin's aggresivness, he got put flat on his butt in his surprise. The crowd grew louder when Austin put John down, "HE SAT YOU DOWN" someone yelled from the crowd.
Despite losing a receiver from the play, William wasn't stressed, the play wasn't designed for John as the last two had been, it was for Devin, and Devin was doing his best to get open. Devin was running an out route, it was one of the most difficult passes for a quarterback to make during a game.
It required precise precision and speed, it couldn't be too low or a defensive lineman would be able to tip it, but it couldn't be too high or your receiver wouldn't be able to catch it. Even without that it also had to be fast enough for the defender to not be able to make a play on it, but the quarterback had to time the receiver's cut to not throw it early before they turn.
When the ball was snapped, Devin jabbed a step towards the inside since Joel was on his outside, he wanted Joel to bite on the fake and give up his outside leverage. Joel did bite on the fake, but he didn't completely give up his outside leverage, but for Devin that was good enough.
Joel drove up forward, Joel close by his side, then he made his break and turned towards the sideline. He was just two yards away from the endzone, as long as he could stretch out his arms after the catch he would score.
William threw the ball, he could see that Joel was still close to Devin, so he threw the ball as close to the sidelines as he could, but he overshot it, the ball would be heading out of bounds before Devin could safely catch.
Joel could see the trajectory of the ball and slowed down, there was no reason to keep running since the ball would be heading out of bounds. Everyone on the field seemed to have a similar thought except for Devin, he kept on running and right before the ball went out of bounds he extended his left hand and caught the ball.
The crowd cheered as they saw the one-handed catch, it was a spectacular catch that was difficult to do even at the pro level. That wasn't the end of the play though, Devin was able to shift his momentum and get the ball across the endzone line. "Touchdown Team Jordan," the referee said.
The score was now tied, Devin headed back to William to plan for their defense, "Hey dude, sorry about that" Austin tried to apologize to John but he was simply ignored, John left him to plan a defensive stop with his team.
"Okay, tie game. What do you wanna do Marvin?" Joel asked Marvin, he wanted Marvin to be more involved in the decision process and he wanted to see how analytical Marvin was, 'He's definitely got the physical talent to be a quarterback but what about the mental' Joel thought.
Hearing Joel's question one thing ran through Marvin's mind, 'I'll just put the ball in your hand', but he didn't say this out loud. Joel needed an actual play and plan and Marvin thought about the simplest way for the team to score.
"Short ten-yard slants over the middle," Marvin said, he figured this would be a simple way to get into the endzone, 'Joel should be able to get open and Austin is definitely able to. Since all our plays have been long bombs, they'll probably be expecting that' Marvin thought.
"We both run slants? Yeah that should be able to work, Plus I don't think the old guy would be able to tackle me if I got too close" Austin said, he was confident in agility against William if he got too close to him. Joel agreed with the plan, he figured that either he or Austin would be able to get open.
Joel lined up, and Devin was giving him space, guarding him a couple of yards off the line. On the right side of Marvin was Austin., like Marvin had expected John was guarding him with a couple of yards between them, and old man William was in the middle of the field.
"Hut" Marvin hiked the ball, Joel had a great release off the line, and he quickly turned inside before Devin could start heading towards him. Marvin launched the ball right at Joel, who caught it in stride before being tackled by John, he gained fifteen yards.
Team Jordan was caught off guard by the fast play, they were expecting a deep play like Team Keppler had been doing in all their previous games. "Great pass," Joel said as he handed the ball back to Marvin, he was becoming more and more impressed with Marvin's passes, 'He's got great potential' Joel thought as he lined back up.
Marvin wasted no time after Austin and Joel had lined up, "Hut" he hiked the ball. Joel and Austin ran the same routes as they did last play, this time Marvin aimed his pass at Austin, it was a bullet that floated right above old man William's head.
Austin made the catch but wasn't able to turn up the field for much, it was just a seven-yard gain. Nothing was said between the guys as they lined up again, ready for Marvin to hike the ball. Team Jordan finally understood the play that Team Keppler was running, Marvin noticed that Devin and John had shifted towards the inside of Joel and Austin.
Marvin didn't mind this, he was still confident that he could fit the ball into someone's hands regardless of how tight the window was. "Hut" Marvin hiked the ball, Joel and Austin took off again, Joel had a good release like last time, but due to the inside leverage Devin had, he was able to still guard Joel tightly.
Austin was also guarded closely by John, Austin couldn't find a way to get John off him. This all didn't matter to Marvin, he threw the ball to Joel. The ball was high, Marvin wanted Joel to use his height advantage to catch it, Joel did but was tackled immediately, it was a gain of five yards.
Fourth down, this was the last chance Team Keppler would have to score or Team Jordan would get the ball and have another chance to score. "You guys still wanna run the same play again?" Joel asked as Marvin and Austin huddled around him.
"I'd rather run a go route," Austin said, he believed that he would be able to get John off him if he was given a second chance, Joel took a second to think of what route he would run, he wanted to score this drive and end the game.
"Marvin, I'll run a deep out route, you think you can throw that" Joel asked, he understood the difficulties of throwing an out route so he wasn't expecting Marvin to agree, but to his surprise, Marvin nodded yes. "You sure? alright then throw the ball in the top corner of the endzone" Joel said before breaking out of the huddle.
"COME ONE GUYS, LET'S WIN THIS" Olivia yelled as the guys lined up, "Hut" Marvin hiked the ball. Joel took off, he brushed off Devin as he sprinted for the endzone, as he got to the endzone, he faked a move to the inside trying to get Devin to bite on it.
Devin didn't bite on the fake, he maintained his coverage on Joel, even through the break Joel did to head out to the sideline. Devin was a step behind when Joel made his break, but Devin was still confident that he could make a play if the ball was thrown in his direction.
When Joel made his break, Marvin threw the ball, he saw the distance between Joel and Devin, so he decided to throw the ball as close to the corner of the endzone.
The ball flew through the air, it moved fast covering the thirteen yards in a short time. Devin saw the ball heading towards him, he jumped launching himself to close the distance between himself and the ball to deflect the pass.
In the air Devin stretched his fingertips, trying to affect the ball's trajectory in any way, but his effort was futile. Marvin's pass stretched right past Devin's fingers finding its way into Joel's Hands. Touchdown Team Keppler.
(A/N: Sorry for the late update, I was so tired yesterday, hope you enjoy this one. Please leave a comment about what you think, or maybe a review or power stone, whichever you decide. As usual, I hope you have a nice day or night)