Football Can Win Close Ones

Last week, the No. 15 Harvard football team was a second away from a field goal that could end its run at a perfect season and an Ivy title. With the clock running out just before Dartmouth quarterback Dan Shula could spike the ball, the Crimson escaped Hanover with a 13-12 victory, its second one-point win this season.

Harvard has had a number of convincing victories this season when its offensive juggernaut was both in sync and able to convert on opportunities in the red zone. The Crimson’s 35-0 trouncing of Holy Cross and its 41-14 demolishing of Northeastern proved that Harvard was capable of blowing teams away.

But perhaps the Crimson’s two most impressive wins on the year have come in its most contested games—the one-point squeakers over the Big Green and Brown.

“Good teams win close games and naturally those aren’t going to be the last for sure,” Harvard coach Tim Murphy said.

Harvard’s ability to pull out the close games over weaker opponents is something that it failed to do last year when it lost back-to-back games to Dartmouth and Columbia without an injured Ryan Fitzpatrick. Those two losses ended both the Crimson’s quest for an undefeated season and hopes of an Ivy championship.

PAINED PUNTER

Junior punter Mike King, who missed last week’s game against Dartmouth with a sprained deltoid ligament in his left ankle, is still questionable for this week. King had performed exceptionally for the Crimson through the first six games, averaging 36.1 yards per punt, including nine punts inside the 20.

King’s replacement, sophomore Clem McDavid, fared equally as well in his first career start last weekend, punting seven times with an average of 36.6 yards-per-punt and three punts inside the 20.

While McDavid has seen the majority of action in practice, King could be ready for a return as soon as Saturday.

RED ZONE RECAP

One of Harvard’s greatest strengths all season has been its ability to put points on the board once it gets within striking distance. The Crimson’s powerful ground game, anchored by sophomore running back Clifton Dawson, accumulated 14 rushing TDs through the first six games. The threat of Dawson, along with the consistency of freshman place kicker Matt Schindel, made Harvard difficult to keep off the board once inside the red zone.

But last week, with the Big Green keying against the run, the Crimson faltered.

“I think the thing that we didn’t do as good of job as we’ve done in previous games was in the red zone,” Murphy said. “We had gone 12 straight jobs the previous two games with maybe not touchdowns, but at least points. And in the [Dartmough game] we went two for four.”

With Dawson’s status still questionable for Saturday due to a muscle strain in his side and junior fullback Kelly Widman done for the season, Harvard’s goal line offense may need to come up with new answers to pound the ball into the endzone.

—Staff writer David H. Stearns can be reached at stearns@fas.harvard.edu.