章 113: Until the Last
If a comeback was going to start, it'd have to start right away. But Kenny was at a loss for what they could do. These cheating bastards were hounding them every step of the way, trying to break free felt like trying to shake starving dogs off his legs.
'Let's go, Titans!'
He looked to where the voice had come from, and saw Shane by the Titans' bench.
"Why am I worried about a double team from these bitches? What have you been practising for, idiot?" Kenny knew what to do. He looked at Pete and gave a thumbs up.
The ball was snapped. Kenny shot towards the inside, running straight into one of his two defenders. He met them head-on, then shoved them back, before turning and bolting the other way. He brushed aside Edgar's cloying arms, and rounded past him to the outside. He looked over his shoulder, found the ball floating towards him, and jumped up, catching it as he spun in midair. He landed smoothly before being shoved out.
'YES!' Jackson leapt from his seat then winced and quickly sat back down.
'Hey, don't forget you're still hurt too,' Tommy said.
'Sorry. But, didn't you see that? It was amazing!'
'Haha, yeah, and I think I've seen that before from someone else. Something Kenny's been practising?'
'Yeah! This is the first time I've seen him pull it off like that. He looked just like Shane.'
The Titans' drive was effectively jump-started after the play. On the next one, Tyreek's replacement came down to watch over Kenny more closely. Again, it was practically a triple-team now.
But this opened more space for the rest of the Titans. It was Freddy who capitalised on the open space on the other side of the field for an 8-yard gain.
Then Isaac got a handoff stretching to the outside, with Nick setting a solid block and sealing the edge for him, Isaac was able to scamper upfield for another 5 yards and a first down.
With momentum on their side, the Titans were hard to stop. When the Coyotes pulled their Zone away from Kenny, he made them pay for it with big catches. But if they put too much attention on him, the rest of the team was left open. Freddy and Lonnie continued to chip away at the defence relentlessly.
And Isaac was like a wrecking ball. Whenever the Titans were in a short-yardage situation, they gave the ball to him. Whether it was charging up the gut to smash in for another two or three yards, or it was stretching the field to the outside, he got them the yards they needed and then some.
As the Titans drew near the goal line, and the Coyotes' defence grew more desperate, it was Isaac who got the call. He was given the ball on another run up the middle. He put his head down and shot through the defence like a cannonball, diving into the endzone for the Titans' first score.
The Titans' section of the crowd, which had filled out more by now, cheered loudly to combat the boos coming from the Coyotes' fans.
Now that they'd done the hard work and scored a touchdown, the Titans had another choice to make. And the burden of responsibility for the extra point was placed on Clayton and his tree-trunk-like legs.
He ran into the kick and hammered it with all his might … and the ball bounced off the left upright so hard that the post was still wobbling a minute later.
The crowd cheered and laughed again, but the Titans got around Clayton quickly.
'Sorry you've got to do this. If I wasn't hurt I would've…' Nick trailed off.
'Nah, don't worry 'bout it. That's on me. But it don't matter, we're still gon' win,' Clayton said with an easygoing smile.
Nick shared his smile.
The Coyotes weren't about to stop fighting, however. If the Titans weren't letting anything deep get by them, that was fine with the Coyotes now. Spider turned his catapult arm into a javelin, and started slinging bullets to his Receivers underneath, hitting them with blinding speed right on their chests.
Terry bulldozed his way through the smaller defenders underneath. He'd secured prime position before Spider threw the ball, and together, the two methodically drove downfield one catch at a time, dragging things out as they sought to hammer the final nail into the Titans' coffin.
As the Coyotes neared the red zone, Lonnie dropped lower in his Zone and almost picked off a pass intended for Terry, putting a temporary halt to the Coyotes' momentum.
On second down, the Coyotes tried the ground, handing the ball off to their RB. As the Coyote broke through the wall of Linemen, Isaac rushed down. A heavy CRACK rang throughout the field and Isaac ended up flat on his back, the RB rolling over the top of him before coming to rest on the turf.
A yellow flag lay crumpled on the ground not far from the collision. The players and their audience held their breath as the officials met to deliberate the foul.
The head official soon turned to address the stands. 'Personal Foul: leading with the helmet, offence, number 22…'
The crowd burst into boos. Coach Kelly was irate, stomping up and down the sideline as he screamed at the officials. 'My boy was just lowering his shoulder! The fucking defender hit him! How are you gonna call that bullshit on us!?'
An official came over to explain that they saw it as the Coyotes player who initiated the contact, and play resumed after the 15-yard penalty against the Coyotes.
'Why are you running it? Just throw the ball to me,' Terry grunted. He looked past his thick brow at Lonnie standing out amongst the Titans' huddle. 'That stickman can't stop me.'
'Fine. Go long,' Spider said.
Terry chuckled as he moved away from the huddle.
After the snap, Terry made a beeline for Lonnie, running straight down the centre of the field.
Spider trusted that no one could beat Terry in the air, and threw the ball deep. Lonnie watched it all the way, backpedalling until he was in the perfect position. Then, just before he was going to jump at the ball, Terry bowled right into him and knocked him over. Terry caught the pass and rumbled into the endzone before anyone could catch up to him, but back with Lonnie, there was another pesky little flag.
This touchdown was revoked, and the play was called back as Terry was penalised for Offensive Pass Interference. (OPI)
The two penalties pushed the Coyotes out of field goal range, and their drive never recovered. They soon had to punt the ball back to the Titans, and Spider stalked to the bench with death in his eyes.
The Titans resiliently marched down the field. Following Kenny's lead, they scrapped and fought for every yard they could, fighting through tackles, dragging Coyotes along with them as they willed themselves closer and closer to the end zone.
Kenny was giving the Coyotes' defence the biggest headaches. He was in his groove. If Edgar played up close, he didn't have an answer for that sweeping, special play to the outside, but if he hung back to cut off that floater of a pass over the top, then Kenny could adapt and break the route off early into a Curl instead.
There didn't seem to be a way to stop or even slow Kenny down without holding him, and the officials had finally found their whistles, calling a lot more holding penalties against ALL Coyotes' defenders now.
The Titans soon found themselves in the red zone, just 13 yards out from another touchdown.
Freddy was called over to the skinny side of the field before the snap, but then Pete motioned him back across to the far side. As Freddy was jogging across the Titans snapped the ball. Pete whirled around, handing it off to Freddy who sprinted away and darted to the outside behind a solid block from Nick.
Freddy arched his back, and dove into the end zone for the score, untouched throughout his run.
After the successful Jet Sweep, Coach Otsen brought Nick and Clayton over to the sideline. It looked like he and Nick gave Clayton some advice, talking him through the kicking process.
When Nick and Clayton returned to the others, they spoke briefly to their teammates before setting up in kicking formation.
They went for the kick, they snapped the ball, Pete caught it … and then he stood up instead of planting it in the ground. It was a fake. He spun around, eyes searching for Lonnie who broke away from his block and darted into an open corner of the end zone. Pete lobbed the ball over and Lonnie caught it easily, there wasn't a single Coyote near him, they had been stunned by the Titans' tricks.
Instead of risking another kick for 1 point with Clayton, the Titans' trick play earned them 2 extra points after the touchdown, bringing the score up to 20–14.
'What are those idiots doing?!' Spider was fuming on the sideline. He glared at every Coyote defender like he was trying to make their heads explode.
Clayton's kickoff was low and short, giving the Coyotes good field position to start their drive, but this did nothing to calm Spider's rage.
Spider stomped onto the field and Terry hurried to his side as they led the offence on. 'Don't worry about it, Spider, just get the ball to me—'
'Shut up!' A long, wiry arm yanked Terry down by the collar. Spider got right in his face. 'Get behind me and use your empty head for once. Block everything in front of you. We're going to run the ball down their throats and end this game. NOW!'
No one argued with Spider, and, his plan seemed to work. With Terry playing FB, the HB followed his blocks and tore chunks of yardage from the Titans' defence.
Whilst going intentionally slow, the Coyotes worked their way downfield 4 or 5 yards, and 40 seconds at a time.
Time ran lower and lower as the clock dwindled, and the Titans were forced to call timeout lest they let the game end right in front of them.
Coach Otsen and Carson spent the majority of the timeout conferring with one another before they turned and explained their plan to the players.
The five Linemen would push tighter together, blocking off the inside, whilst Isaac and Pete would have to play lower as well, and even Lonnie would start closer to the Line of Scrimmage to have more of an impact on the run.
The Titans needed some adjusting to the new strategy, and on the first play after the timeout, the Coyotes still forced their way forward for another first down, but thankfully the two-minute warning was there to give the Titans another reprieve and a chance to think things over.
After the two-minute warning, the Titans fared much better. Terry ran into a stonewall of bodies, and when the HB found no holes to slip through, he tried to escape to the outside, but ran straight into Isaac's waiting arms.
The Titans called another timeout.
The next play had a similar result. This time, the Titans spread their line out, and when the Coyotes' HB tried to slip through the middle, Pete met him with a crunching tackle and the play only gained 1 yard.
The Titans used their last timeout.
It was down to this last defensive stand. The Coyotes were in a tough situation, still needing a lot of yards for their first down. But if they could just get that first down, they'd be able to run out the rest of the clock and the Titans wouldn't be able to do anything to stop them.
However, Coach Kelly saw the distance as too much to cover on the ground, and he thought this play was too important to take the ball out of Spider's hands. So they faked a handoff instead.
They went with a Play-Action pass. The Titans scrambled back into their zones and gave their all to cover absolutely everything they could. They blanketed the Receivers that entered their zones. But Terry was steamrolling straight towards Nick's little pocket of the field.
Nick turned and ran early to keep in front of the charging beast. Spider watched closely, fingers twitching. He was waiting for the moment when Nick's body would give up on him and Terry would break away cleanly.
Clayton fought around the edge of the O-Line, curving around it. His blocker shoved him deep behind the line.
Spider stepped forward calmly. His eyes lit up. The window opened. He pulled his arm back, it was like a trebuchet locked and loaded.
Clayton stretched out, arching forward, he lunged out and swiped at Spider's hand right as he went to heave the ball downfield. Spider's hand came away empty, arm snapping forward rapidly but without its all-important missle.
The ball tumbled free to the ground, and Clayton dove on it, a couple of Coyotes flopped on top of him. He spread himself over the ball and curled around it, hugging it tight against his body. That ball was his—that ball belonged to the Titans!
Spider stared at his hand, then at the Linemen Clayton had beaten to get around and knock the ball loose. Spider clenched his fist so tight his nails came away bloody, but then he lowered his fist and relaxed. He crept back to the sideline, passing Edgar on the way. The two stared at one another; Edgar blinked first, then looked at Kenny—he couldn't allow the Coyotes to lose, not again.
The Titans didn't waste any time getting into the flow of their offence, they had no time to waste. The first play went towards Kenny, of course, but as he leaked out for that patented double-team breaker, Edgar caught up with him and yanked him from the air before he could complete the catch.
Kenny hit the ground hard, but a flag fell into place shortly after—DPI.
Kenny popped right up with a big grin, clapping in Edgar's face.
On the next play, Edgar didn't give Kenny any space, and Kenny ended up sandwiched between his two defenders, knocking knees with them both.
Kenny grimaced, but couldn't break away from the two. However, he didn't need to. On the other side of the field, Freddy found an open space and caught a pass for 6 yards before sprinting out of bounds to stop the clock.
'Get away from me! Go stop the others!' Edgar shoved away his help. 'I can handle this fuck myself.'
Kenny grinned. 'You sure about that?'
After the Coyotes zone spread back out, and Edgar resolved to stop Kenny one-on-one, Kenny ripped away from Edgar's grasp, a yellow flag fluttering behind them, and managed to get open for a 15-yard catch down the sideline.
The Titans ignored the flag and kept the ball rolling, each play bringing them closer to the endzone, but also bringing the clock closer to zero.
'Just stop them!' Coach Kelly screamed from the sidelines.
The Titans burst into the red zone with under thirty seconds left. They flipped the ball out wide to Isaac, he slipped as he turned to dart up into the end zone. He was so close! Less than five yards out, and then he was speared into the ground by Trent.
The clock was running and Coach Otsen was screaming for Pete.
Pete sprinted over as if his life depended on it—it might've—and Coach Otsen pulled him close so he could hear his orders over the deafening crowd.
With a shove, Pete raced back to the team and called the huddle together. His focus was on Nick as he divulged the plan, and the Titans scrambled into position. The clock kept tick-tick-ticking.
'DON'T GIVE THEM AN INCH!' Coach Kelly yelled.
'Don't fall now Titans!' Tommy screamed.
Jackson sat in silence, hands over his mouth as his eyes darted between the clock and the Titans.
7…6…5…4—they got the snap off!
The field exploded into chaos as the Coyotes rushed forward. Edgar pushed and shoved Kenny, but dared not hold him else Coach Kelly would rip his hands off.
Trent was all over Lonnie, and that tatted-up, rabid dog came screaming around the corner of the wall of blockers.
Pete flipped the ball out. It floated through the air. A short, wide pass. All eyes were on it. Everyone saw as it landed right in Nick's lap, who stood in the end zone with not a soul around him.
The clock struck zero as the officials signalled the touchdown. No one had even seen Nick slip away from the chaos and walk into the open field.
The Titans and their fans exploded with cheers, and the players swarmed around Nick, some almost jumping on top of him before they remembered his sore leg at the last second.
The home crowd was locked in devastated silence.
The game was tied … but the Titans still had their extra point.
As the world remembered this fact, the crowd picked up their chanting again. The air was full of howling cries for "DE-FENCE!" as the Titans and Coyotes took their positions. This time, the Titans stayed in their usual offensive formation; there would be no fake field goals.
The earth was shaking from the noise—shaking with anticipation—as Pete motioned Freddy across the back of the formation again.
'SWEEP SWEEP!' Everyone from the Coyotes' bench shouted.
Immediately after the snap, Pete whirled and handed the ball to Freddy, and Freddy burst around the edge as fast as he could. A Coyote launched into him like a missle bringing him to the ground … but Freddy didn't have the ball.
As everyone on the field shifted towards the direction of Freddy's Jet Sweep, there were only two players who went against the grain—Pete and Isaac. Pete still had the ball in hand, and following Isaac's—in the end unnecessary—lead, he ran into the end zone.
The two-point conversion was successful. The score was 20–22. Time was up. The game was over. The Titans had won.
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