THE GAME '08: Clash of the Titans

A matchup of two archrivals in the final game of the season to determine the league’s champion would be highly anticipated at any school. But at Harvard Stadium tomorrow, it won’t just be about football. It will also be the 125th anniversary of a cultural tradition—The Game.

And with Harvard (8-1, 5-1 Ivy) seeking its first back-to-back titles since 1982-83 and Yale (5-4, 4-2) looking to avenge a painful 37-6 loss to end its 2007 season, it’s sure to be a dogfight.

The two teams’ pathways have been incredibly different this season. As Harvard has progressed from an 18-point comeback in its season opener to subsequent Ivy League blowouts and nailbiters, it has relied on a steady dose of passing along with a sprinkling of big defensive plays. Its style has been doing just enough to achieve the victory rather than dominating from start to finish. And in the past few weeks, things have begun to slip for the Crimson.

“We’re not a dominant team,” Harvard coach Tim Murphy said following the Penn game. “We’re a team that finds a way to win.”

Contrast Harvard’s pattern with Yale’s steady improvement since its disappointing Ivy opener, a 17-14 loss to Cornell. The Bulldogs enter Cambridge on the heels of their two best victories of the year, a surprise 13-3 win over previously league-leading Brown and a decisive 14-0 shutout of Princeton last week.

The Bulldogs come to Cambridge ranked in the top three in the league in rushing, passing, scoring, and total defense, while the Crimson is in the top three of each of the corresponding offensive categories. Yale is allowing only 10.6 points per game and will look to slow down a Crimson scoring attack that is putting up 29.3 points per game.

Something’s going to have to give.

The most crucial matchup happens when the vaunted Crimson offense takes the field. Senior quarterback Chris Pizzotti ripped apart an unprepared Bulldog secondary last year—a mistake Yale coach Jack Siedlecki is unlikely to repeat.

The Crimson’s ability to move the ball down the field and put points on the board will be key, as the Bulldogs, fearsome against both the run and the pass, have allowed just one touchdown in their past 19 quarters of play. Captain and star linebacker Bobby Abare leads a Yale squad full of speed, size, and athleticism in the front seven, as well as the secondary.

“Abare’s the guy that makes them go,” Murphy said. “By virtue of how productive he is as a player, how inspirational he is as a captain and as a defensive playmaker, I think everybody around him…[walks] a little bit taller.”

To begin attacking the problem of the league’s staunchest defense, Pizzotti will need to use a mix of young receivers and junior Matt Luft—as well as his height advantage—while keeping the D honest with occasional runs.

The duo of junior Ben Jenkins and sophomore Gino Gordon has yet to establish itself against a legitimate league defense, and it seems unlikely that this will be the week for it.

“This is definitely a different defense from a year ago, markedly better, and maybe one of the two best defenses I’ve seen in my 15 years in the league,” Harvard coach Tim Murphy says.

On the other side of the ball, sophomore quarterback Brook Hart took over the starting job four games ago and has been fairly consistent, but the effectiveness of the passing attack pales in comparison to the run game.

Although senior running back Mike McLeod’s play took a turn for the worse to start the fall, Yale has continued to give him the ball, and his play has steadily improved. The senior ran for a season-high 138 yards last week, and so clamping down on the run game will remain Harvard’s main defensive focus.

“I have a lot of respect for [Brook Hart], being only a sophomore, he has very little experience,” senior corner Andrew Berry says. “We want to put the pressure on him to beat us. That’s what our focus is, stop the run early on and force them to put the ball in the air.”

With both squads so evenly matched, it may be the perennial x-factors that determine the outcome of this year’s game—special teams and turnovers.

Yale leads the league in interceptions and is one of three Ivy teams to have returned a punt for a touchdown this season. Meanwhile, barring last weekend’s performance, Harvard has struggled with special teams, while falling just short of the Bulldogs in turnover margin.

But when it comes down to it, there’s no predicting what will happen in the 125th edition of The Game. With Harvard having won six of the last seven matchups and Yale having been embarrassed in last year’s Game, revenge may play a big role in this season’s outcome.

“The Yale kids have had to live with that loss for a year,” Murphy said. “They’ve had it shoved down their throat since the day after the game, for 12 months by the media, by the alumni, by the coaching staff. I know one thing. This may be as hungry a Yale team as we’ve ever seen, so we’d better be hungrier.”

The Crimson players have wisely stuck with the company line, repeating that this weekend’s contest is just another game. But tomorrow afternoon, as the school’s third Ivy championship in the past five years hangs in the balance, their intensity will indicate that it is much, much more—after all, it’s The Game.