Fourth Down and Long

Fourth Down and Long is the one hundred and twenty-third episode of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

The 2nd Zeo Serial Short aired before a later airing of the episode.

Synopsis
Rocky must drop kick Rita and Zedd to save the Rangers from Centiback, a monster who changes people into footballs.

Plot
Rocky's friend Alan accidentally causes a smokescreen in science class by reading the instructions incorrectly. Mr. Wilton threatens to kick him off the football team if he doesn't shape up. As a result, Rocky thinks Alan may be having the same trouble as his uncle, famous football player Joe Haley, who is visiting Angel Grove. Bulk and Skull have been assigned to guard him.

On the moon, Zedd has taken an interest in football and is practicing with Goldar and Rito; he is actually quite good. Finster enters the throne room, presenting a magical centipede that can become a monster given something to catalyze with; he bumbles into their practice, dropping the centipede on the football. To Zedd's surprise, the two items merge into a new monster named Centiback. Impressed at the idea of having their own running back (which is a football player position on the field, for those who don't know the rules of the game), Rito asks Centiback to toss his ball to him. Rito catches it and does a Touchdown dance. He then vanishes in a flash of light. Rita searches the smoke on the floor to find Rito was turned into a football by Centiback; "He's finally useful". Goldar tosses the football to Zedd, who comments "they don't make them like this anymore - real monster skin." He tosses it back to the ground, where Rita changes Rito back. Dazed by being tossed around, Rito can only ask "anyone get the number of that bus?"

At the football field, Bulk and Skull meet up with Joe and ask him for his autograph. Seeing as they had tickets, they tell him to just write on the back. But as he was doing so, Centiback appears and throws a ball at Skull, turning him into a football as Alan and Rocky see the whole thing. Centiback turned Bulk into a football as well as Alan and Rocky show up before Centiback threw another ball which Alan catches. Muttering 'uh-oh', Alan is turned into a football. As Rocky knelt down to it, Joe comes to his nephew's defense, intercepting Centiback's next ball and sacrificing himself into being turned into a football. Angered that his friends and uncle had been turned into footballs, Rocky morphs and informs Zordon to get the other Rangers. As the other Rangers appear, Tengas show up as Centiback's backup players as he started fighting, football style, turning Tommy, Kimberly, Adam, Billy and Aisha into footballs as well. With no choice, Rocky teleports back to the Command Center as Centiback and the Tengas grab the human turned footballs.

At the Command Center, Rocky discovers the footballs Centiback throw emit energy waves and the only way to reverse them is assistance from Ninjor and some reversal buckets. After Ninjor shows up after Zordon unintentionally said his name, they head up to the mountains where Centiback brought the footballs and a snowstorm is due to arrive which will interfere with the buckets. Centiback tossed a ball which Rocky caught with his bucket and tossed it to a row of football made from Alan, Joe, Bulk and Skull. After they turn back to normal, Zordon teleports them back to the football field. After Centiback tossed another ball, Ninjor catches it with his own bucket and tossed it to a row of footballs made from the other Rangers, who turn back to normal as well.

Rita and Zedd soon make Centiback grow as the snow storm starts and the Rangers combine their Zords as Ninjor grows. As soon as Centiback is defeated, Rita and Zedd argue about Centiback's defeat before Finster tried to calm them down. But because he made the monster, they alongside Goldar start blaming him. At Ernie's cafe, Jerome Stone reprimands Bulk and Skull for 'not' being at the football field and revokes their right to be on celebrity duty. He soon tells them to return the football he had in his hands back to the field which Bulk and Skull mistake for one of Centiback's ball and knock into a bowl of fruit salad, which lands on Bulk's crotch. Alan and Joe soon meet up with Rocky and his Ranger friends where they reveal that Alan is dyslexic like Joe.

Sometime later, Centiback is somehow revived and starts making football formations in front of Rita and Zedd, much to the latter's annoyance.

Cast

 * Jason David Frank as Tommy Oliver (Mighty Morphin White Ranger)
 * Steve Cardenas as Rocky DeSantos (Mighty Morphin Red Ranger)
 * Karan Ashley as Aisha Campbell (Mighty Morphin Yellow Ranger)
 * Johnny Yong Bosch as Adam Park (Mighty Morphin Black Ranger)
 * David Yost as Billy Cranston (Mighty Morphin Blue Ranger)
 * Amy Jo Johnson as Kimberly Ann Hart (Mighty Morphin Pink Ranger)
 * Paul Schrier as Farkas "Bulk" Bulkmeier
 * Jason Narvy as Eugene "Skull" Skullovitch
 * Gregg Bullock as Lt. Jerome Stone
 * Robert Zachar as Mr. Wilton
 * ??? as Joe Haley
 * ??? as Alan
 * David Fielding as Zordon (face)
 * Robert L. Manahan as Zordon (voice)
 * Sandi Sellner as Alpha 5
 * Richard Steven Horvitz as Alpha 5 (voice)
 * Kim Strauss as Ninjor (voice)
 * Carla Perez as Rita Repulsa
 * Barbara Goodson as Rita Repulsa (voice)
 * Ed Neil as Lord Zedd
 * Robert Axelrod as Lord Zedd (voice) and Finster (voice)
 * Danny Wayne Stallcup as Goldar
 * Kerrigan Mahan as Goldar (voice)
 * Bob Papenbrook as Rito Revolto (voice)
 * Brad Orchard as Centiback (voice)
 * Tony Oliver as Saba (voice)

Errors

 * Tommy summons the White Ninja Falconzord for the battle against giant Centiback, however it never battles Centiback.
 * In The Great Bookala Escape, Billy said it never snowed in Angel Grove, but yet in this episode it was snowing by the time the Rangers summoned their Zords (Although it may be that they were some distance from the city during this fight, as it was never expressly stated how close they were to the city).