Harvard Looks to Spoil Yale's Shot at the Ivy Title

After seeing its championship hopes vanish with a pair of heartbreaking losses to Brown and Pennsylvania, Harvard heads into the 116th playing of The Game with the chance to do the same to Yale and spoil its bid for the Ivy title.

Harvard (5-4, 3-3 Ivy) officially bowed out of the Ivy race with a 21-17 last minute loss to Penn on Saturday, while Yale (8-1, 5-1 Ivy) kept its hopes alive with a dramatic, 23-21 win over Princeton.

With the victory, Yale remains locked in a first-place tie with Brown heading into the final week of the season.

"We know that we can win this thing," Yale junior free safety Than Merrill said. "We're on a roll and next week...we're going to continue to roll."

With an offense that averages 33 points per game--second only to Brown in the Ivy League--Yale's confidence is well founded.

However, after registering one of its worst offensive performances against the Tigers, the second worst defense in the league, the Elis may be in for a rude awakening when they take the field against Harvard's number one ranked defense.

The Crimson defense has allowed Ivy opponents to score an average of only 16 points per game, effectively nullifying the opposition's rush, holding running backs to an average of just 51 yards per game on the ground.

More importantly, the senior-laden Crimson defensive line has shown no signs of cracking under the pressure of must win games against the Ivy's best offenses down the stretch.

With its title hopes on the line over the past three weeks, the Crimson defense has held its opponents to an average of only 21 yards rushing per game, surrendering only 64 yards on 77 attempts, an average of less than a yard per carry.

Holding Brown to 30 yards on the ground two weeks ago and limiting Penn to 19 yards, Harvard has shown that it can stop the first and third ranked offenses in the Ivy with ease--at least on the ground.

Yale's number two-ranked offensive attack should find similar difficulties running the ball, despite boasting the Ivy's third best tailback, Rashad Bartholomew.

With 810 total yards rushing, Bartholomew has been a workhorse for the Bulldogs out of the backfield, leading the Ivy with 10 rushing touchdowns.

More dangerous than Bartholomew, however, will be the scrambling of senior quarterback Joe Walland.

He has burned team's all year when they allow him room in the pocket gaining 360 yards on the ground and four rushing touchdowns--tops among Ivy quarterbacks.

Walland's ability to scramble out of the backfield when under pressure may present a new challenge to a Harvard defense that hasn't seen a mobile quarterback as prolific as Walland all season.

"Yale's got a good rushing attack, but they have a different approach than we do," Harvard senior running back Chris Menick said. "I mean our quarterback's a good runner too, but their quarterback is a great runner. They can get to you and burn you with either the quarterback or the running back."

The biggest danger is that Walland's ability to scramble against the pass rush will force the Crimson to slacken its secondary coverage and allow Walland a field day through the air.

Up until this week, the Crimson has been able to play the pass an almost every single series, knowing that the only the most arrogant offensive coordinators would choose to run the ball against the best defensive line in the league.

Yet even anticipating the pass and helping the corners out with extra coverage, the Crimson's pass defense has shown gapping holes at times this season.

Harvard's zone coverage has allowed receivers to slip between into the holes all year, and the Crimson cornerbacks' fear of getting beat deep has allowed opposing wideouts too much room in front playing man-to-man defense.

Weaknesses in the secondary have permitted quarterbacks to nickel-and-dime their way to victory, gaining five to ten yards at a time and slowly working their way downfield.

With Harvard's defensive troubles against the pass, opposing teams have racked up an average of 243 yards through the air against the Crimson each game.

Even more troubling, the Harvard secondary has had its worst performances in games where the Crimson has effectively neutralized the rush.

In last weeks outing against Penn, Harvard surrendered 348 passing yards, despite knowing that Penn would be forced to throw the ball with its top rusher injured on the sideline.

With the Crimson secondary now facing the uncertainty of a quarterback who proved that he could run the ball for more than a 100 yards against Princeton last week, Walland may have the green light to throw bombs at will and nullify an advantage Harvard may gain by stopping the rush.

Walland has already thrown for over 2,000 yards this season and has racked up 17 touchdowns passing in the process.

More importantly, Walland has made smart decisions all season. Choosing to run the ball instead of deciding to throw potentially errant passes when under pressure, Walland has only thrown three interceptions all season. Harvard threw four interceptions against last week alone.

A major reason for Walland's favorable touchdowns-to-interceptions ratio is the Elis plethora of equally capable receivers.

Harvard, on the other hand, has been forced to rely on senior wideout Terrence Patterson more than it should some days. Yale has been able to spread the ball around to a multitude of targets and has five receivers that average more than 20 yards per game.

The problem with relying on a single receiver too much is reflected in the scores. Despite Patterson's three best performances of the season against Colgate (90 yards), Cornell (77 yards), and Brown (90 yards), Harvard lost all three.

With eight touchdowns and 614 yards on 46 receptions, junior wideout Eric Johnson still has more yards receiving this season than any of Harvard's receivers, but by no stretch of the imagination is he Yale's only threat.

Equally dangerous downfield are senior wideout Jake Fuller and junior wideout Tommy McNamara.

Fuller, a big play specialist, has tallied 417 yards receiving while averaging 19 yards per catch. McNamara has been equally impressive with 365 yards on 33 receptions.

Rounding out the Bulldogs' passing attack out of the backfield, sophomore running back James Keppel has been Walland's go to receiver when under pressure all season. Keppel is averaging 41 yards per game and has notched 336 yards on 31 receptions this season.

Faced with threats from every conceivable avenue of attack, Harvard's defense doesn't match up well against Yale's multidimensional offense.

Faced with having to defend against both a well-balanced passing and running game, Harvard may be faced with a challenge reminiscent of that faced by Dartmouth against Harvard earlier this season.

On the strength of senior quarterback Brad Wilford's record setting 398 yard passing performance and the devastating ground attack of Menick, Harvard's all-time leading rusher, the Crimson demolished Dartmouth, 63-21.

If the Harvard defense is unable to rise to the occasion against the unique threats posed by Walland and the Bulldog passing game, there will be even more pressure on Wilford and the Crimson receivers to step up and help out the defense.

Unfortunately, for the past two weeks, the Crimson defense has carried the team while the offense has sputtered.

Between the third quarter of the Brown game two weeks ago and the fourth quarter of the Penn game last week, Harvard has failed to put a single point on the board.

Although all parts of the offense have suffered and it would be unfair to point the finger at anyone specifically, every good offense starts with strong pass protection and the offensive line will have to plug its holes if Harvard is going to have a chance against Yale.

The Crimson has surrendered nine sacks in its past two outings and its inability to protect Wilford is at least partially responsible for the eight Crimson interceptions in the same timeframe.

"Absolutely, we need to concentrate on putting pressure on the quarterback because he'll make bad decisions," Yale junior linebacker Peter Mazza said. "It's important to get turnovers."

Although Wilford showed signs of brilliance earlier this season, the first year starting quarterback has faltered down the stretch. His offensive woes culminated against Penn where he passed for only 130 yards with 3 interceptions--his worst performance of the season.

"I wasn't pleased with my play these past two games, especially with the turnovers," Wilford said. "But I'm not going to reinvent my game over the next week. It's just been bad decisions and some bad luck...I've pondered all those losses over and over in my head and I just can't put my finger on what went wrong."

If Wilford falters again against the Bulldogs, Harvard's hopes may rest exclusively on Menick, the Ivy's second leading rusher.

Menick has gained 969 yards this season and is averaging more than five yards per carry, but he may not be 100-percent for The Game.

Spraining his MCL against Penn, Menick was forced to sit on the sidelines for the remainder of the game, and initial reports stated that the injury would prematurely end Menick's career.

Despite the injury, Menick is expected to play against Yale, and whether or not he can play up to his potential may prove the deciding factor in the game.

"The knee is good and I'll be ready to go on Saturday," Menick said. "It didn't really hurt, but the doctor said to stay off it for the week and not risk injuring it any further."

A healthy Menick may make this game a lot closer than it would appear just looking at the raw scores and standings.

With the exception of the Crimson's recent offensive woes, both Harvard and Yale have played exceptionally well all season and are statistically very similar.

The difference between the two teams has been Harvard's inability to squeak out narrow victories in close contests, and Yale's ability to somehow hold on to slim leads.

"We've been disappointed losing some close games that we should have won," Wilford said. "We want to end the year on a good note in the Yale game."

With a couple of lucky bounces either way, it could have been Harvard heading into Saturday looking to claim the Ivy title.

Both Harvard and Yale have been involved in some of the tightest Ivy contests of the season, but the Crimson and the Bulldogs have both emerged from those encounters facing very different fates.

While the Bulldogs have narrowly escaped defeat on all but one occasion this season, the Crimson have come almost invariably resurfaced from its hard fought Ivy matches worse for wear.

Harvard has not lost a game all season by more than a touchdown, and in the Crimson's four losses this season, the opposing teams' average margin of victory was less than four points.

Every game Harvard lost this season could have just as easily been a victory. The Crimson was tied or ahead in the fourth quarter in each game it lost and only let the game slip through its hands in the final minutes.

On the hand, Yale has found a way to survive games it shouldn't have won all season, hanging on by a thread to early leads and somehow finding a way to win.

Despite pounding its opponents by a combined total of 241-70 through the first three quarters of play, Yale has been outscored down the stretch in the fourth quarter of Ivy match ups 43-55.

"We've had some problems this season playing ahead," Mazza said. "We get up by a bunch of touchdowns and then we go and give up some points."

Nevertheless, the Elis seem to have found the most outlandish ways to win those close games, despite their fourth quarter woes.

Harvard's last minute collapse against Penn and Yale's uncanny ability to survive Princeton this past week epitomize the differences in the two teams' seasons.

Taking the lead, 17-14 on a 42-yard field goal by senior Mike Giampaolo and appearing to seal the deal on senior linebacker Jeff Svicarovich's interception with less than three minutes remaining in the fourth, Harvard somehow found a way to lose.

Trying only to run out the clock with just 2:19 left in the game, Harvard fumbled the ball deep inside Penn territory when senior quarterback Brad Wilford went one way and freshman running back Brent Chalmers went the other way on a routine handoff.

Despite Harvard's inability to hold onto the ball on offense, however, the Crimson defense appeared to have stopped Penn on its last chance drive.

Facing 4-and-10 from midfield with a minute left in the half, it looked as though Penn's day was done. But true to form, Harvard would once again prove that no matter what the odds, there always enough time on the clock to lose the game.

Scrambling out of the pocket, the Harvard pass rush forced senior quarterback Gavin Hoffman to throw up a desperation Hail Mary pass in the end zone.

Leaping over senior cornerback Kane Waller, Penn wideout Brandon Carson brought down Hoffman's bomb, and with the touchdown, brought Harvard's title hopes crashing back to reality.

On the other hand, Yale appears to be living under a charmed sky, outlasting Princeton this past week by virtue of a number of lucky bounces.

Leading 23-9, Yale's defense took a vacation in the final minutes of the game, surrendering a pair of touchdowns in the final four minutes that should have tied the game.

Characteristic of the Bulldogs' luck all season, however, the extra point, that would have pulled Princeton to within seven, failed and the two-point conversion, that would have sent the game to overtime, never materialized.

Despite the apparent mismatch between the Harvard defense and the Bulldogs' multifaceted offense, Saturday's match up isn't going to be won by the team that stacks up better against the other heading into The Game.

"Are chance are pretty good, but it's always a toss up because it's a game of emotion," said Yale junior free safety Than Miller. "It doesn't matter what team's more skilled."

With 116 years of tradition behind The Game, single season records invariably give way to the raw emotion of the moment and Saturday should be no different.

The winner is going to be the team that wants it more.

And in the tradition of America's greatest intercollegiate rivalry, it shouldn't happen any other way.

With an offense that averages 33 points per game--second only to Brown in the Ivy League--Yale's confidence is well founded.

However, after registering one of its worst offensive performances against the Tigers, the second worst defense in the league, the Elis may be in for a rude awakening when they take the field against Harvard's number one ranked defense.

The Crimson defense has allowed Ivy opponents to score an average of only 16 points per game, effectively nullifying the opposition's rush, holding running backs to an average of just 51 yards per game on the ground.

More importantly, the senior-laden Crimson defensive line has shown no signs of cracking under the pressure of must win games against the Ivy's best offenses down the stretch.

With its title hopes on the line over the past three weeks, the Crimson defense has held its opponents to an average of only 21 yards rushing per game, surrendering only 64 yards on 77 attempts, an average of less than a yard per carry.

Holding Brown to 30 yards on the ground two weeks ago and limiting Penn to 19 yards, Harvard has shown that it can stop the first and third ranked offenses in the Ivy with ease--at least on the ground.

Yale's number two-ranked offensive attack should find similar difficulties running the ball, despite boasting the Ivy's third best tailback, Rashad Bartholomew.

With 810 total yards rushing, Bartholomew has been a workhorse for the Bulldogs out of the backfield, leading the Ivy with 10 rushing touchdowns.

More dangerous than Bartholomew, however, will be the scrambling of senior quarterback Joe Walland.

He has burned team's all year when they allow him room in the pocket gaining 360 yards on the ground and four rushing touchdowns--tops among Ivy quarterbacks.

Walland's ability to scramble out of the backfield when under pressure may present a new challenge to a Harvard defense that hasn't seen a mobile quarterback as prolific as Walland all season.

"Yale's got a good rushing attack, but they have a different approach than we do," Harvard senior running back Chris Menick said. "I mean our quarterback's a good runner too, but their quarterback is a great runner. They can get to you and burn you with either the quarterback or the running back."

The biggest danger is that Walland's ability to scramble against the pass rush will force the Crimson to slacken its secondary coverage and allow Walland a field day through the air.

Up until this week, the Crimson has been able to play the pass an almost every single series, knowing that the only the most arrogant offensive coordinators would choose to run the ball against the best defensive line in the league.

Yet even anticipating the pass and helping the corners out with extra coverage, the Crimson's pass defense has shown gapping holes at times this season.

Harvard's zone coverage has allowed receivers to slip between into the holes all year, and the Crimson cornerbacks' fear of getting beat deep has allowed opposing wideouts too much room in front playing man-to-man defense.

Weaknesses in the secondary have permitted quarterbacks to nickel-and-dime their way to victory, gaining five to ten yards at a time and slowly working their way downfield.

With Harvard's defensive troubles against the pass, opposing teams have racked up an average of 243 yards through the air against the Crimson each game.

Even more troubling, the Harvard secondary has had its worst performances in games where the Crimson has effectively neutralized the rush.

In last weeks outing against Penn, Harvard surrendered 348 passing yards, despite knowing that Penn would be forced to throw the ball with its top rusher injured on the sideline.

With the Crimson secondary now facing the uncertainty of a quarterback who proved that he could run the ball for more than a 100 yards against Princeton last week, Walland may have the green light to throw bombs at will and nullify an advantage Harvard may gain by stopping the rush.

Walland has already thrown for over 2,000 yards this season and has racked up 17 touchdowns passing in the process.

More importantly, Walland has made smart decisions all season. Choosing to run the ball instead of deciding to throw potentially errant passes when under pressure, Walland has only thrown three interceptions all season. Harvard threw four interceptions against last week alone.

A major reason for Walland's favorable touchdowns-to-interceptions ratio is the Elis plethora of equally capable receivers.

Harvard, on the other hand, has been forced to rely on senior wideout Terrence Patterson more than it should some days. Yale has been able to spread the ball around to a multitude of targets and has five receivers that average more than 20 yards per game.

The problem with relying on a single receiver too much is reflected in the scores. Despite Patterson's three best performances of the season against Colgate (90 yards), Cornell (77 yards), and Brown (90 yards), Harvard lost all three.

With eight touchdowns and 614 yards on 46 receptions, junior wideout Eric Johnson still has more yards receiving this season than any of Harvard's receivers, but by no stretch of the imagination is he Yale's only threat.

Equally dangerous downfield are senior wideout Jake Fuller and junior wideout Tommy McNamara.

Fuller, a big play specialist, has tallied 417 yards receiving while averaging 19 yards per catch. McNamara has been equally impressive with 365 yards on 33 receptions.

Rounding out the Bulldogs' passing attack out of the backfield, sophomore running back James Keppel has been Walland's go to receiver when under pressure all season. Keppel is averaging 41 yards per game and has notched 336 yards on 31 receptions this season.

Faced with threats from every conceivable avenue of attack, Harvard's defense doesn't match up well against Yale's multidimensional offense.

Faced with having to defend against both a well-balanced passing and running game, Harvard may be faced with a challenge reminiscent of that faced by Dartmouth against Harvard earlier this season.

On the strength of senior quarterback Brad Wilford's record setting 398 yard passing performance and the devastating ground attack of Menick, Harvard's all-time leading rusher, the Crimson demolished Dartmouth, 63-21.

If the Harvard defense is unable to rise to the occasion against the unique threats posed by Walland and the Bulldog passing game, there will be even more pressure on Wilford and the Crimson receivers to step up and help out the defense.

Unfortunately, for the past two weeks, the Crimson defense has carried the team while the offense has sputtered.

Between the third quarter of the Brown game two weeks ago and the fourth quarter of the Penn game last week, Harvard has failed to put a single point on the board.

Although all parts of the offense have suffered and it would be unfair to point the finger at anyone specifically, every good offense starts with strong pass protection and the offensive line will have to plug its holes if Harvard is going to have a chance against Yale.

The Crimson has surrendered nine sacks in its past two outings and its inability to protect Wilford is at least partially responsible for the eight Crimson interceptions in the same timeframe.

"Absolutely, we need to concentrate on putting pressure on the quarterback because he'll make bad decisions," Yale junior linebacker Peter Mazza said. "It's important to get turnovers."

Although Wilford showed signs of brilliance earlier this season, the first year starting quarterback has faltered down the stretch. His offensive woes culminated against Penn where he passed for only 130 yards with 3 interceptions--his worst performance of the season.

"I wasn't pleased with my play these past two games, especially with the turnovers," Wilford said. "But I'm not going to reinvent my game over the next week. It's just been bad decisions and some bad luck...I've pondered all those losses over and over in my head and I just can't put my finger on what went wrong."

If Wilford falters again against the Bulldogs, Harvard's hopes may rest exclusively on Menick, the Ivy's second leading rusher.

Menick has gained 969 yards this season and is averaging more than five yards per carry, but he may not be 100-percent for The Game.

Spraining his MCL against Penn, Menick was forced to sit on the sidelines for the remainder of the game, and initial reports stated that the injury would prematurely end Menick's career.

Despite the injury, Menick is expected to play against Yale, and whether or not he can play up to his potential may prove the deciding factor in the game.

"The knee is good and I'll be ready to go on Saturday," Menick said. "It didn't really hurt, but the doctor said to stay off it for the week and not risk injuring it any further."

A healthy Menick may make this game a lot closer than it would appear just looking at the raw scores and standings.

With the exception of the Crimson's recent offensive woes, both Harvard and Yale have played exceptionally well all season and are statistically very similar.

The difference between the two teams has been Harvard's inability to squeak out narrow victories in close contests, and Yale's ability to somehow hold on to slim leads.

"We've been disappointed losing some close games that we should have won," Wilford said. "We want to end the year on a good note in the Yale game."

With a couple of lucky bounces either way, it could have been Harvard heading into Saturday looking to claim the Ivy title.

Both Harvard and Yale have been involved in some of the tightest Ivy contests of the season, but the Crimson and the Bulldogs have both emerged from those encounters facing very different fates.

While the Bulldogs have narrowly escaped defeat on all but one occasion this season, the Crimson have come almost invariably resurfaced from its hard fought Ivy matches worse for wear.

Harvard has not lost a game all season by more than a touchdown, and in the Crimson's four losses this season, the opposing teams' average margin of victory was less than four points.

Every game Harvard lost this season could have just as easily been a victory. The Crimson was tied or ahead in the fourth quarter in each game it lost and only let the game slip through its hands in the final minutes.

On the hand, Yale has found a way to survive games it shouldn't have won all season, hanging on by a thread to early leads and somehow finding a way to win.

Despite pounding its opponents by a combined total of 241-70 through the first three quarters of play, Yale has been outscored down the stretch in the fourth quarter of Ivy match ups 43-55.

"We've had some problems this season playing ahead," Mazza said. "We get up by a bunch of touchdowns and then we go and give up some points."

Nevertheless, the Elis seem to have found the most outlandish ways to win those close games, despite their fourth quarter woes.

Harvard's last minute collapse against Penn and Yale's uncanny ability to survive Princeton this past week epitomize the differences in the two teams' seasons.

Taking the lead, 17-14 on a 42-yard field goal by senior Mike Giampaolo and appearing to seal the deal on senior linebacker Jeff Svicarovich's interception with less than three minutes remaining in the fourth, Harvard somehow found a way to lose.

Trying only to run out the clock with just 2:19 left in the game, Harvard fumbled the ball deep inside Penn territory when senior quarterback Brad Wilford went one way and freshman running back Brent Chalmers went the other way on a routine handoff.

Despite Harvard's inability to hold onto the ball on offense, however, the Crimson defense appeared to have stopped Penn on its last chance drive.

Facing 4-and-10 from midfield with a minute left in the half, it looked as though Penn's day was done. But true to form, Harvard would once again prove that no matter what the odds, there always enough time on the clock to lose the game.

Scrambling out of the pocket, the Harvard pass rush forced senior quarterback Gavin Hoffman to throw up a desperation Hail Mary pass in the end zone.

Leaping over senior cornerback Kane Waller, Penn wideout Brandon Carson brought down Hoffman's bomb, and with the touchdown, brought Harvard's title hopes crashing back to reality.

On the other hand, Yale appears to be living under a charmed sky, outlasting Princeton this past week by virtue of a number of lucky bounces.

Leading 23-9, Yale's defense took a vacation in the final minutes of the game, surrendering a pair of touchdowns in the final four minutes that should have tied the game.

Characteristic of the Bulldogs' luck all season, however, the extra point, that would have pulled Princeton to within seven, failed and the two-point conversion, that would have sent the game to overtime, never materialized.

Despite the apparent mismatch between the Harvard defense and the Bulldogs' multifaceted offense, Saturday's match up isn't going to be won by the team that stacks up better against the other heading into The Game.

"Are chance are pretty good, but it's always a toss up because it's a game of emotion," said Yale junior free safety Than Miller. "It doesn't matter what team's more skilled."

With 116 years of tradition behind The Game, single season records invariably give way to the raw emotion of the moment and Saturday should be no different.

The winner is going to be the team that wants it more.

And in the tradition of America's greatest intercollegiate rivalry, it shouldn't happen any other way.