Chapter 52

The first play was a short pass to J.J., who stiff-armed his way past the first two defenders and managed to pick up seven yards. A subsequent run gave them the first down and put them near midfield. Another run after that, and Patton started to feel like he had control of this game. Each play brought them a modest but respectable number of yards, and he wasn’t letting DeShawn get too close to the ball. His confidence, however, might have been a bit premature. On second and four, one of the huge defensive ends broke through Patton’s blockers and very narrowly missed dragging Patton to the ground. He hurried to dodge the tackle, and saw a lane open ahead of him. He ran without thinking, losing track of DeShawn for the first time.

He made it to the thirty-five yard line before DeShawn wrapped his arms around him and pulled him to the grass, landing on top of Patton with their facemasks nearly touching.

“You should be careful, Patton. Don’t want to get injured, do you?”