No Mistakes, No More Losing Streak

EASTON, Pa.—Of all the numbers that the Crimson put up in Saturday’s 24-17 win at Lafayette, the zero had the greatest value.

Zero as in, zero interceptions for quarterback Liam O’Hagan for the first game this season. After four games in which he threw one, two, three, and three picks, the sophomore starter finally put up the mistake-free performance that the team had been looking for.

And while Harvard’s difficulties on special teams emerged once again—sophomore Steven Williams fumbled his third kick return in the past two games, leading to Lafayette’s second touchdown—it ended up being the sole blemish on the Crimson’s stat sheet.

“That’s the whole key to the game, obviously,” Harvard coach Tim Murphy said of his team’s improved ball security. “If we have a day like we have in the past, it’s a different story.”

The results were perceptible in both field position and time of possession. In last week’s ugly loss to Cornell, the Big Red had an average field position nearly at midfield thanks in large part to five Crimson turnovers.

This week, the Leopards had an average start on their own 32-yard line, and held the ball for 23:27 as opposed to Harvard’s 36:33.

“We don’t have, quite honestly, as much team speed or game-breakers as we did three weeks ago or a year ago,” Murphy said. “So therefore we just don’t have much margin for error.”

The biggest change, though, came from the quarterback position. O’Hagan still had moments that surely made his coaches grip their clipboards in white-knuckled terror. When he dropped back to pass on a third-and-long conversion attempt, you could practically see the Lafayette defensive backs licking their chops with anticipation.

“We watched this quarterback on film throw picks right in people’s chests,” said Lafayette linebacker Maurice Bennett. “We’re thinking to ourselves all week, ‘Can we get one?’”

In Harvard’s opening series of the second half, for example, O’Hagan’s attempt on second-and-19 was easily batted away at the line of scrimmage. His subsequent try to wide receiver Joe Murt on third-and-19 was nearly intercepted.

But O’Hagan was also more judicious in his decisions, taking time to scramble out while he waited for receivers and looking less panicked than he had in previous weeks.

“We got nothing,” Bennett said. “We watched him on film, and from week to week you could see that the guy was getting better. This week he probably had his best effort.”

It helped that O’Hagan’s young receiving corps finally has a few more game experiences under its collective belt, and it showed in O’Hagan’s 20-yard touchdown pass to freshman Alex Breaux to put the Crimson up 21-17 in the third quarter.

More telling, though, were two completions on Harvard’s final drive of the game. Facing second-and-19 on its own 43 after a personal foul, up by four with a good seven minutes remaining in the second half, the Crimson needed to pad its lead with a field goal at minimum.

In an earlier game, O’Hagan would have found a burgundy shirt. Instead, he found Murt across the middle for 12 yards and Breaux leaping above his defender for a 19-yard completion to give Harvard a first down on the Lafayette 26 and an eventual field goal.

“Last week I learned a lot of things,” O’Hagan said. “Either throwing the ball away, my guy or no guy...I just grew up, you know, on the week. The whole week, Coach Murphy was just preaching, ‘Be smart, be poised’.”

O’Hagan wasn’t glamorous, but he was effective, finding five different receivers for 17 completions, 207 yards, and three touchdowns.

And most importantly, no interceptions.

—Staff writer Lisa J. Kennelly can be reached at kennell@fas.harvard.edu.