Two Minute Drill (Bases Loaded Jam Series #2)

Ch. 68: Trick Play (Brett/Gordon/Kendra/Scout)

Gordon

Thursday night before the game, my teammate Albert and I were in our hotel room watching some TV to relax myself when I receive a text message from Duncan Elliott.

Coach Hernandez wants to see us at this location in thirty.

I start wondering who Coach Hernandez was and immediately it hit me that he was our special teams coach. Why would Coach Hernandez want to discuss special teams with me when I'm not part of special teams?

"You okay?" Albert asked me as he saw my concentration.

"Yeah," I say as I got up and put a shirt on. "Meeting with the coach. I'll be back."

I reached the lobby and waited outside. Duncan then texted me the address to the location. I quickly call an Uber driver, an elderly black man who struck me as odd that he was still up at this hour.

I tell him the address although he thought it was odd. He drove me to the location, a local high school right about 15 or so miles from the city. Once I got out of the car, I walked towards the lights that were on showing the football field. It was an old dirt road football field that looked like it hadn't been used in a long time. The grass was nearly as high as the front of my shoes and the bleachers that overlooked it were old silvery ones that were in need of some new coat of paint.

I glance out and saw some men that I recognized as the special teams unit. Coach Hernandez, who was short, bald, and wearing a white shirt with "Bobcats" in red approached me.

"Glad you could make it," he said. "I was wondering where you were."

"What's going on?" I asked.

"I like to see if you could help us with something on special teams."

"You mean like holding the ball on kicks?"

Coach Hernandez laughed. "No, I mean for something that we might need to use in the game." He pulled out a phone and handed it to me. "Watch this."

I pressed play to watch the video clip. It was a game between the Cowboys and Washington from earlier in the season. Washington was lining up for a field goal. When the ball was snapped, the kicker kicked it and the field goal attempt was good.

"So?" I asked.

"Watch the next clip," Coach Hernandez told me as he moved to show me another video. It was the same situation except Dallas was playing Miami. The Dolphins were lining up for a field goal and they would make the kick. "See anything unusual?"

I shook my head. "No!"

"Watch Dallas' defense. They get bunched up at the line and have everyone move to the kicker like a blitz that they don't have anyone back in case the kick fall shorts on the long ones."

He flipped to the next clip. It was the same situation as this time, Dallas was playing the Rams. The kicker for the Rams missed a long kick, but I started to see what Coach Hernandez was saying. The Cowboys' players, although they were engaged with the offensive line, were in the act of conceding the kick. It was strange because the goal for special teams was always to try and block the field goal.

"Okay," I said. "What's the point of this?"

"You can understand why Dallas does this. They think they can get away with this because they already have a big lead. Yet, what they see as a way for them to show off their blocking, I see as a trick play waiting to happen."

My eyes widened. Did Coach Hernandez say trick play? Like he was going to pull off a trick play in this game with special teams? All of a sudden, I was engaged.