SIDEBAR: Special Teams Needs Fixing

With a team that boasts the best defense and best total offense in the Ivy League, it’s hard to find anything wrong with Harvard’s football squad. Saturday’s game was no different as senior quarterback Chris Pizzotti led the Crimson offense, going 25-for-40 for 376 yards, and the defense managed three interceptions and forced two fumbles, one of which was returned for a touchdown.

But what Saturday’s game also exposed was Harvard’s only question mark: special teams. A snap over the punter’s head resulted in a quick Lions touchdown, another punt was returned by Columbia’s Austin Knowlin for a touchdown, and junior Patrick Long missed an extra point and a field goal.

And the Crimson’s special teams troubles are not a recent phenomenon. Harvard entered the contest ranked last in the Ivies in kick returns and punt returns, as well as seventh in net punting. In week two against Brown, a missed extra point at the end of the Crimson’s first touchdown drive forced Harvard to have to go for two late in the game.

“You miss an extra point, you can’t do that against a very good football team like Brown and expect to survive it,” Harvard coach Tim Murphy said after that loss.

“That missed extra point was huge,” Brown coach Phil Estes said. “You say to yourself ‘that will come back to haunt them.’”

With 20-20 hindsight, that 24-22 loss to the Bears could be the difference-maker in terms of a Crimson Ivy championship repeat—though Brown’s loss to Yale Saturday affords Harvard a shot at a share of the title.

But going into the home stretch of the Ivy schedule, the Crimson will have to perfect its special teams play for its final contests at Penn and against Yale at home.

The Quakers’ top returner, defensive back Chris Wynn, averages about 20 punt return yards per game and 50 kick return yards per game, and Penn leads the league in both average punt return and average kickoff return.

The Bulldogs’ Gio Christodoulou has 170 punt return yards—including a 71-yard touchdown return—on top of 174 yards of kickoff returns, and Yale is third in the league in average punt return.

By comparison, Knowlin has just 103 punt return yards and averages about 45 kickoff yards per game. But Knowlin’s punt return on Saturday made easy work of Harvard’s special teams coverage.

“Coach called the return, and the hawks on the outside were covered up pretty good,” Knowlin said. “David Brekke came down and got a good block after I made my one cut, and then it pretty much opened up, and it was just me and the punter.”

And sitting at 1-7 on the season, Columbia poses hardly the kind of threat that Penn and Yale—both 5-3—pose. The Crimson can’t afford to allow a botched punt, a punt return for a touchdown, or missed extra points when going up against the Quakers or the Bulldogs and hope to come away with wins in both games.

So while the 42-28 drubbing of Columbia—and the 13-3 Bulldog win over the Bears, for that matter—come as sweet relief for a Harvard team that hasn’t had any win come easy, the satisfaction can’t last long, as the Crimson must turn right around to prepare for its next opponents.

“We’ll play the two best defensive teams along with us the next two weeks,” Murphy said. “So right now, we got a lot guys dinged up, very physical football game. We’re going to enjoy this for about six hours and then regroup tomorrow. But it’s just going to be one day at a time, complete focus on Penn, because Penn on the road is a very tough team to play.”

—Staff writer Dixon McPhillips can be reached at fmcphill@fas.harvard.edu.