Raiders Shine; Crimson Slow

HAMILTON, N.Y.--As might be expected in a 20-point thrashing, almost everything Colgate tried to do on Saturday worked, while Harvard seemed three drives behind with its adjustments.

Colgate quarterback Ryan Vena killed the Crimson defense with his legs as well as his arm. Vena ran the option with almost surgical precision, amassing 97 yards on the ground to complement his 254 yards in the air.

Harvard cornerbacks and linebackers routinely made poor decisions at the corner of the field, and Vena's confidence and athleticism made Harvard pay for misplays.

"They run the option very well," said junior inside linebacker Isaiah Kacyvenski. "They had the wide receiver blocking back on our corner. When we tried to adjust, they just read the linebacker [and contained him]."

The Red Raiders, on the other hand, had an air of confidence and poise.

"We just wanted to pound it at them," Vena said. "We wanted to take it at them and see if they could stop us."

Wilske Stands Out

Among the most encouraging signs offensively for the Crimson against Colgate may be the play of sophomore flanker Josh Wilske. The relative newcomer to the receiving core beat out senior veteran Jake Heller for the starting spot in spring practice, then came out and took on most of the receiving workload on Saturday.

Wilske finished with five catches for 77 yards, tops for Harvard. He made several nice grabs on crossing routes, and showed good presence and confidence in traffic.

"I'm still very confident in our passing game," said junior quarterback Rich Linden. "This is [Wilske's] second game, but we still consider his a veteran receiver."

Patterson Absent

The inability of the Crimson to get junior wideout Terence Patterson involved in the offense was a huge part of the complete offensive meltdown on Saturday that produced not a single drive of 50 yards on the day.

Last season, despite being largely overshadowed by the outstanding then-senior tandem of Colby Skelton and Jared Chupaila--who are numbers one and four on Harvard's all-time receptions list, respectively--Patterson was likely the most dangerous big-play threat on offense.

Last season the 6'0, 195-pound receiver caught 45 balls for 455 yards, and was involved in the offense in several ways, including a 62-yard reverse that accounted for one of his four touchdowns on the year. Patterson also completed one-of-two pass attempts for 34 yards.

Despite making five grabs on Saturday, Patterson was largely a non-factor. He was usually hit by a host of defenders as soon as the ball arrived, and had only 18 yards on four catches through the first three quarters, while the game was still in doubt. The Crimson was able to do little in the way of setting up interior screens or the like to get Patterson the ball in the broken field.

Harvard did attempt a wide-receiver reverse against Colgate, but defenders in the backfield did not allow the play to develop, and Paterson took a loss on the play.

Clutch Performance

Much has rightfully been made of the two pivotal Colgate drives to start the fourth quarter. In those drives--down only six points at the time--the Crimson allowed first downs on back-to-back third-and-17 and third-and-10 situations on a Colgate touchdown drive, then went in reverse on offense, losing 11 yards on three plays before snapping over the punter's head on fourth, resulting in a loss of yards.

The meltdown was complete. Colgate had the ball deep in Harvard territory with a comfortable two-touchdown lead, and the game, was, for all intents and purposes, in the record books.

But the two key third-down conversions, while clearly crucial, were merely symptomatic of the problem that plagued the defense throughout the day--an inability to hold on third and long.

The Colgate offense clearly was not running on all cylinders. Harvard forced the Raiders into third-and-four or more or nine separate occasions. Behind the athletic Vena, Colgate converted on seven of nine third downs, and earned a first down on both of the failed conversions after converting on fourth down.

"We were sloppy today," Vena said. "But we made some huge third-down conversions. When it came down to it, we got it done when we needed to."

"They seemeed to deliver in the crunch," said Harvard Coach Tim Murphy. "They wore us down and just poured it on in the fourth quarter."

Heavy Workload

Sophomore tailback Chuck Nwokocha got a rude introduction to the rigors of carrying virtually a team's entire load out of the tailback position.

Nwokocha, kindly listed at 5'6 in the media guide, is blessed with speed and exceptional balance. The tailback has improved his running noticeably from limited action last year, and appears to have put last year's troubles holding on to the football behind him.

Nwokocha looked confident and aggressive at the corner of the Colgate defense, slipping through holes that a less-nimble back would have missed.

There, are, however, limitations to Nwokocha's abilities. His diminutive stature makes getting tough yards up the middle a difficult proposition. Ordinarily, tough yardage might be the domain of the fullback, or at least an experienced fullback in the backfield could be used to blow open holes for the tailback.

However, since junior fullback Damon Jones was lost for the season, Harvard is left without an experienced ball-carrier at the fullback position, and much of the ball-carrying load from that position, has been dumped on Nwokocha at tailback.

Nwokocha's numbers from Saturday may be less than stellar, but this is more a manifestation of Harvard's losing the battle at line of scrimmage and of injuries forcing an unaccustomed workload on the running back than of poor play.

Blind-sided

Whether he is ready for it or not, sophomore left tackle Mike Clare may find himself in the spotlight frequently this year. Clare is forced into the nearly impossible task of replacing Matt Birk '98--a sixth round pick of the Minnesota Vikings--at what is probably the most crucial and visible non-skill position on the football field.

Charged with protecting quarterback Rich Linden's blind side, missed blocks at his position could result in his field general being carried off the field on a stretcher.

On Saturday, Colgate sophomore defensive end Ahmad Russel owned his matchup with Clare. Russell entered the backfield unimpeded on more and more pass plays as the game proceeded.

His combination of strength and quickness allowed him to fly by the sluggish Clare to collect one sack and force a linden fumble, though he hurried Linden and generally disrupted play development in the backfield all day long.

"We didn't have an answer for [Russell] on the end today," Murphy said.

If Russell isn't merely a momentary blip of athleticism at right end, Harvard will have to look long and hard at ways to assist Clare and hold back the floodgates of would be assassins behind Linden.

Shock Therapy

This team has come to expect success quite quickly for a team that has seen only one winning season since 1987.

When healthy, the 1998 Crimson squad clearly contains the weapons and depth to win, but recent injuries will force the team to deal with adversity. In addition to serious injuries to all three of Harvard's top running backs, Linden and Patterson have suffered injuries causing both to miss practice time--though both played Saturday--and Kacyvenski has been stricken with food poisoning and could not hold down food Friday or Saturday before the game.

"We're dying," said Kacyvenski of the team's troubled opening. "We just need a win."