Goin' Bohlen: The Crimson Coulda Been a Contender

NEW HAVEN, Conn.--It was a coulda shoulda woulda Game that closed out a coulda shoulda woulda season.

Yale's 24-21 win over Harvard in the waning seconds of The Game yesterday clinched a share of the Ivy championship for the Bulldogs (9-1, 6-1 Ivy) and added insult and injury to the Crimson's (5-5, 3-4) season of misfortune.

Harvard coulda been the spoiler.

Yale entered The Game tied for first in the Ivy while Harvard entered in fifth. A Harvard win, and Yale's season was spoiled.

For a while, it looked like it would happen. Harvard was up 7-3 at halftime and went to the locker room with fleeting satisfaction.

In the third quarter, with Yale senior quarterback Joe Walland driving his team down the field, the Harvard defense gave Harvard even more hope for an upset.

Crimson sophomore safety Shawn Parker blocked a 37-yard field goal attempt by Yale junior placekicker Mike Murawczyk and Harvard junior safety Mike Brooks picked up the loose ball and rumbled for a 66-yard score and a 14-3 lead.

But as the clouds began to roll in over the Yale Bowl, Harvard's fortunes began to gray.

Joe Walland began to shake off the tonsillitis symptoms that had caused a 103.1-degree fever Friday night and led two touchdown drives to put the Bulldogs ahead, 17-14.

On the next possession, however, Harvard found its good fortunes again when a Yale 15-yard personal foul penalty gave the Crimson first-and-10 at the Yale 48. A 30-yard strike from freshman running back Brent Chalmers to classmate Kyle Cremarosa on a halfback pass set up an 18-yard touchdown scamper for Jones.

Harvard, sitting on a four-point lead, held Yale to a three-and-out and ran off four minutes of clock time on the Crimson's next possession before punting.

Walland, starting on his own 19, moved the ball to the Harvard 40 before Crimson senior cornerback Kane Waller picked off a pass to the sideline.

At that point, Harvard had the ball with 4:51 on the clock and a four-point lead. A three-and-out was the last thing the Crimson needed and exactly the thing the Crimson got.

Harvard shoulda been the spoiler.

Yale's winning touchdown pass, shouldn't have counted.

Eli star wideout Eric Johnson "caught" a four-yard pass from Walland for the touchdown with 29 seconds left to put Yale up by the final 24-21 margin.

Walland threw the ball low, at the "A" of the painted "YALE" in the end zone. Johnson got both hands on the ball and pulled it in before falling on it.

The zebras ruled the play a touchdown.

"Maybe I'm looking at it through rose-colored glasses, but I thought the ball hit the ground," Harvard Coach Tim Murphy said.

But Johnson, with a smirk on his face and a knowing look in his eye, said otherwise.

"I caught it," Johnson said. "I caught that ball."

Yale Coach Jack Siedlecki agreed.

"He's got the greatest hands of any receiver I've ever coached," Siedlecki said. "That was an amazing catch."

Standing behind the DirecTV broadcasters in the press box, I was one of the few to see the instant replay soon after it happened.

The ball hit the ground before Johnson pulled it in. The pass was incomplete, the touchdown invalid.

Harvard woulda been the spoiler.

If the referees had made the correct call, it would have been third-and-goal at the four. Who knows what the strong Harvard defense could have done?

If the Crimson had done something more than a three-and-out with the ball after Waller's interception, it would have eaten more of the clock and kept the Elis from the time they needed to score.

If Harvard senior placekicker Mike Giampaolo had made a 24-yard field goal with 12:39 left in the second quarter, the final score would have been 24-24, sending Yale to a second-place Ivy finish behind Brown (9-1, 5-1), which beat Columbia 23-6.

If Harvard senior running back and all-time career rushing leader Chris Menick had not been on crutches with a knee injury, the outcome would definitely have been different.

Harvard coulda been undefeated this year.

Harvard's five losses this season came by a total of 18 points.

18 points. That's six field goals. Or three touchdowns without the extra points. Get those points back, and you've got yourself an undefeated season.

Harvard shoulda been undefeated this year.

With a strong senior class, including several Harvard record holders like Menick, linebacker Isaiah Kacyvenski and wide receiver Terence Patterson, Harvard had the institutional memory from its 1997 Ivy championship campaign, the hunger boiling over from last year's disappointing 4-6 (3-4 Ivy) finish and the desire to win one more for the departing players.

But the chips just didn't fall for the Crimson. The players made the big plays to keep Harvard in the games, but they just couldn't make the plays that would have won them.

Harvard woulda been undefeated this year.

In the third week of the season, Harvard lost to Colgate, 24-21, on a last-minute field goal. One more Harvard offensive score and the game would have been at least a tie.

The very next week, Harvard lost to Cornell, 24-23. Giampaolo had a 40-yard field goal attempt blocked in the final minutes. Had that kick been good, it coulda been another Harvard win.

In Week Eight, Harvard fell by a touchdown to Brown, 17-10, on a mistake-filled afternoon. Wilford threw four interceptions for four of the six Crimson turnovers on the day. If two of those interceptions had turned into a touchdown and a field goal, game over, Harvard wins.

Against Penn, the Crimson defense gave up a 50-yard bomb on fourth-and-10 to fall 21-17. If the defense had shut Penn quarterback Gavin Hoffman down, it would have been another notch on the Crimson's belt.

And then, yesterday, The Game.

"It hurts a lot more to lose this game than the other ones," Harvard captain Chris Eitzmann said.

It was a fitting end to the season, even if it wasn't the one the Crimson wanted. And although they lost this game and the others, throughout them all, the Heartbreak Kids showed a lot of heart.