The Extra Yard (20 page)

Teddy just stood there, feeling his head start to spin, wanting to go sit down on the bench. He didn't know what to say, or what he was supposed to do next. All he knew was that the game was starting in a few minutes, with or without his dad, a game his team needed to win, even if Teddy had already lost something before it began.

His dad had left him.

Again.

T
eddy's mom told him to just try to clear his head and go win the game; that was the most important thing right now.

“Not for him,” Teddy said.

“Just control what
you
can control,” she said.

Then she added, “Love you.”

“Love you, too.”

He walked over to where Coach Gilbert and Jack and Gus were waiting for him, thinking that he really shouldn't be surprised. He should have expected this all along.

Coach Gilbert put an arm around him. “Listen, I know how disappointed you must be. I'm a little disappointed in him too, not gonna lie. I just want you to know that I've got your back today. So do your teammates.”

“So do I,” Jack said.

“So do I,” Gus Morales said. “We still got this, right?”

“Oh, we got this all right,” Teddy said.

He wished he were as sure of that as he sounded.

Jared Stadler, the Giants' quarterback, had the best arm Teddy had seen on an opposing quarterback all season and was showing it off on his team's first drive of the game. Jared threw on all but two of the plays and missed only one open receiver. He finally hit his slot guy for a twenty-yard touchdown pass and followed that by connecting with his tight end for the conversion. It was 7–0, Giants. The whole drive had taken just three minutes.

“Okay, now it's our turn,” Coach Gilbert said to Teddy. “We don't have to get even all at once. Let's just run out stuff, mix it up with runs and passes like we have all season.”

“Okay,” Teddy said.

“You okay?”

“Please don't keep asking me that the whole game, Coach.”

Teddy didn't throw his first pass until Jake and Brian had gotten the Wildcats two first downs pounding the middle of the Giants' line. They were at the Giants' forty-eight by then. But Teddy overthrew Mike O'Keeffe on first down, before doing the same to Gus on second, even though Gus nearly made an impossible catch on the left sideline.

Coach Gilbert, calling all the plays now, tried to fool the Giants on third-and-ten with a draw to Jake. But they didn't fool the Giants' middle linebacker, who stopped Jake at the line for no gain. Gregg Leonard punted the ball away. The Giants took over on their twenty-five. On first down Jared Stadler threw the ball as far as he could down the middle of the field to his fastest wide receiver. Gregg read the play perfectly and came over to help out on the coverage. He timed his jump perfectly but couldn't get high enough to get two hands on the ball. He ended up tipping the ball forward. It fell right into the hands of the Giants' receiver, like the play had been designed that way. The kid ran the rest of the way untouched. Max Conte broke up the conversion pass to the same kid. But it was still 13–0, Giants. The first quarter was only half over, and Teddy felt as if he hadn't even been in the game yet.

“They're gonna score every time they have the ball,” Teddy said to Jack.

“You know,” Jack said, “that hardly ever happens in football.”

“First time for everything.”

“Tell me something,” Jack said.

“What?”

“What's your absolute favorite pass play?”

“That crossing pattern, off the option, the one we used to beat Brenham.”

“Go tell Coach you want to run that on first down.”

“So now you're the new offensive coordinator?” Teddy said.

Jack grinned at him, then shrugged. “Well,” he said, “somebody's gotta be.”

•  •  •

Teddy told Coach what Jack had said, and what he wanted to run.

“Go for it,” Coach said. “What's your second favorite pattern?”

“Curl to Mike.”

“Run that after you hit Gus. If this is gonna be a shoot-out, I guess we need to start firing back.”

Teddy made the throw to Gus. He hit Mike on the curl.
Now
he was in the game. Coach let him keep throwing. There was a screen to Jake. A pass in the right flat to Brian. He hit Nate over the middle for ten more yards, before they ran a neat pick play to Gus. Nate ran into Gus's area as if he were the intended receiver again, even waving for the ball. Gus snuck right in behind him. Teddy hit him in stride. The field opened up as if half the Giants' defense had gone home, and Gus was a streak all the way to the end zone. Jake ran behind Charlie Lyons for the conversion. It was 13–7.

When Teddy got to the sideline, Jack threw him a serious high five.

“Don't hurt yourself,” Teddy said.

“Oh, you got this all right,” Jack said.

“
We
got it.”

The Wildcats went on a long drive just before halftime, one of their longest of the year, starting at their own eight yard line and eating up nearly six minutes of clock. When they finally ended up with a first-and-goal from the Giants' eight, Teddy decided to fake it to Jake on the off-tackle play Coach had sent in, run the naked bootleg his dad liked so much to perfection, and beat everybody to the end zone. It was 13-all. He didn't have to like his dad today. It didn't mean he couldn't like his plays.

Their outside linebacker made a terrific play in front of Mike to knock down the conversion pass. The score was still 13-all, which was what it was when the half ended. They were either two quarters away from keeping their perfect season going, or they were two quarters away from going home. Both teams knew the league had decided no ties today. They'd play until they had a winner.

At halftime Cassie came down behind their bench. She was the one waving Teddy over. Once he got to her, she didn't waste any time getting to
it.

“I heard,” she said.

“I figure by now even people on Mars have heard.”

“You good?” she said.

“I'm good.”

“I know you're
playing
good,” she said. “But how are you?”

“Cass, can we talk about this after the game, please?” he said. “I know you're being my friend. But I've already figured out I don't miss him and I don't need him to win this game.”

She smiled. “Then go kick some butt,” she said.

She turned to leave.

“Cass?” he said.

She turned back around.

“Thanks,” he said.

“For what?”

“For being here.”

“Where else am I gonna be, you big dummy?” she said, and went to join her friends.

Teddy went and got a drink before taking a seat, alone, at the end of the bench. He knew he had been kidding Cassie, and kidding himself. He
did
miss having his dad on the sideline. Just as a coach, not anything else. His dad still saw things that nobody else saw, in the Wildcats' offense and the other team's defense. He still had the feel for the game that Coach Gilbert talked about.

But that didn't matter if you weren't
at
the game, if you had more important things to do on the day of a game like this for your son's team.

A team he said was his, too.

R
ight before the third quarter began, Coach Gilbert came and sat down next to Teddy.

“How we lookin'?” he said.

“I'm not ready for the season to end.”

“Now that is amazing, like we are reading each other's minds! Because I feel the exact same way.”

“We don't have to win a whole game now,” Teddy said. “Just a half.”

“Exactly,” Coach said. “We've been the best team in this league all year. No reason why we can't be that for the next hour or so.”

Max and Andre and Gregg, the three best players on the defense, came walking over to stand in front of them. Max did the talking. That figured. He was the one who did the most talking when the other team had the ball.

“We're not letting that quarterback beat us,” Max said.

“That sounds like an
excellent
strategy!” Teddy said.

“What I'm saying,” Max said, “is that they're not getting another score. That means you only have to get us one.”

Teddy stood up. So did Coach. Somehow, in that moment, the whole team gathered around them. Teddy put his right hand in the air. The other guys did the same.

“Wildcats!” he yelled.

“Wildcats!”
they all yelled back, like they wanted to be heard on Mars.

The game slowed down then, as if the stakes today, what they were all playing for, had hit them even harder than when the game had started. It was as if the offensive players had started to worry that one mistake might cost their team its season. More than once Teddy couldn't help himself: he wondered what the game plan would be if his dad were here, wondered if he'd be taking more chances.

The Wildcats got past midfield just one time in the third quarter. The Giants didn't get past midfield until halfway through the fourth quarter. The Wildcats had to punt the ball away with six minutes to go, deep into Giants' territory. Jared completed a couple of passes, but then Max Conte blew past everybody and sacked him on third down. Jared, who also punted for his team, had to kick the ball away.

Three minutes left. There was an officials' time-out because of a problem with the game clock. Coach Gilbert came over and put an arm around Teddy's shoulders.

“This is all we could have asked for,” Coach said, “a chance to be the team with the ball last and win the game.”

Teddy took a deep breath. “Then let us try to win it,” he said.

“What do you mean?”

“Stop calling the game like you're afraid to lose,” Teddy said.

Coach took his arm away and got in front of Teddy. But he was smiling.

“Is that what you think I've been doing?”

“Yes.”

Coach took a deep breath and let it out. “Even I forget sometimes that it's your game to win or lose, not mine.”

“Put the game in my hands,” Teddy said.

“I knew another quarterback who used to tell our coach the same thing.”

“I can do this,” Teddy said. “
We
can do this.”

The scoreboard operator fixed the clock problem. One of the refs came over and said, “Good to go, Dick.”

“Slant to Gus,” Coach said to Teddy. “Screen to Jake after that. Post to Gus after that.”

Teddy nodded. “I won't let you down.”

“Haven't yet, kid,” Coach Gilbert said, and gave him a shove toward the field.

The slant got them eight yards. The screen got them five more. First down. Gus put a sweet move on the kid covering him, got an inside shoulder on him, got into the clear. Teddy threw him a smoking-hot ball. Gus covered up before he got hit. They were at the Giants' twenty, clock running.
Fine with me,
Teddy thought.
Let it run
.

He shot a quick look at the sideline. Coach Gilbert just stood there with his arms folded in front of him. Jake was next to him but made no move to bring in the next play. Coach unfolded his arms now and pointed at Teddy.

Like he was telling him,
Your call
.

He knelt in the huddle, looked up at the guys, and said, “Reverse pitch.”

“Oh baby,” Gus said.

The play called for a fake handoff to Brian, which Teddy knew had to be stellar, as both of them moved to their right. Then Teddy would pull the ball back and pitch it to Gus, coming behind them, running the other way.

Gus was at full speed when he caught the ball. As soon as he was outside the line, he read the blocking and the defense perfectly and made a sharp inside cut. One of the Giants' safeties finally brought him down at the ten yard line.

Now Coach ran Jake into the game. When he got to the huddle, Teddy said, “Got a play for me?”

“Nope. Coach just told me to tell you it's all you now. ‘Your game,' is what he said.”

Teddy nodded, leaned into the huddle, and said, “Fake reverse.”

It was basically the same play. Only instead of pitching the ball to Gus, Teddy was going to keep it and try to get to the outside, maybe all the way to the pylon.

“It's like we're playing behind your house,” Gus said.

“Yeah,” Teddy said. “Fun, huh?”

This time Teddy's best fake was to Gus. Then he pulled the ball down, and the Giants didn't put him down until he was at the three yard line. Coach called time.

Fifty seconds left.

Teddy ran to the sideline. When he got there, Jack handed him his water bottle. Coach waited until Teddy took a quick drink before he said, “You can tell me what you want to run,” he said, “or I can be surprised along with everybody else.”

Teddy told him the play he wanted to call. He was the quarterback of the Wildcats now, as much as he'd ever been. But he wanted Coach to know he still had a ton of tight end in him.

“Love it,” Coach said.

“Me too,” Jack said.

Teddy tossed his bottle back to Jack. He ran back onto the field, got in the huddle, and told the guys what they were running. He took the snap from Charlie and rolled to his right.

But then, at the last second, he pitched the ball to Jake, who had the only blocker he needed out in front of him:

Teddy Madden.

The only Greenacres kid with a chance to break up the play was their left outside linebacker. Teddy lowered his shoulder and bounced the kid halfway out of the end zone. Jake could have walked in behind him for the score. Wildcats 19, Giants 13. Teddy threw a perfect fade, just over the defense, to Gus in the right corner. Now it was 20–13.

Jared completed one pass to midfield, just to make the last half minute interesting. After that Gus, put in by Coach as an extra defensive back, intercepted a heave deep down the middle of the field. Teddy came back out to kneel one time. They were more a team today than they'd ever been, even if they were down a former assistant coach. Now they were in the championship game.