Mounting Injuries Hamstring Offense

ITHACA, N.Y.—Midway through the first half, injured wide receiver Corey Mazza, dressed in warm-ups and a baseball cap, jokingly asked staff physician Dr. Mark Steiner if he could go into the game. He bounced up and down as if to show how his injured ankle was ready to go.

Then, on the field, sophomore quarterback Liam O’Hagan threw one of his interceptions, and the joke got a lot less funny.

The lack of depth at wide receiver is catching up to the Crimson, and the 27-13 final score didn’t reveal the half of it. To date, the Crimson has amassed 942 total receiving yards. Two players who didn’t even dress on Saturday account for 418 of them.

The Crimson began the season starting two of the top wide receivers in school history in Mazza and senior Rodney Byrnes. Then Byrnes went down on the first play of the season with a pulled hamstring. Mazza injured his ankle in the fourth quarter against Brown. Senior Ryan Tyler, the former running back who finally got his chance to shine, was listed as “questionable” to start this week and did not play.

Left to fill their place is a list of names that leave public-address announcers scrambling for their roster sheets. Junior Danny Brown, sophomores Joe Murt and Matt Lagace, and freshman Alex Breaux have been lining up out wide for Harvard.

Against a Cornell unit that came into the game ranking dead last in the Ivy League in pass-defense efficiency, the backups were unable to get open for quarterbacks O’Hagan and Richard Irvin.

The result? Less than 100 yards passing for the first time this season, for a team that came into Saturday averaging 282.2 yards passing per game.

“We did not play well as an offensive unit,” Harvard coach Tim Murphy stated simply.

The return dates for the top three receivers remain uncertain, though Mazza could play as early as next week.

RE-POSITIONED

If the Crimson can take anything away from Saturday’s defeat, it might be continued confidence in the ability of its defense. Harvard recorded two fumbles, two interceptions, and two sacks, and held the Big Red to 254 yards of offense.

Cornell had the repeated benefit of short field position, however, and four of the Big Red’s scoring drives started either in Crimson territory or at midfield.

“The field position aspect of [the turnovers] has just killed us,” Murphy said.

“If the offense isn’t firing, then we need to step it up even more,” said captain defensive end Erik Grimm, “and we didn’t do that.”

MAYBE NEXT YEAR

After two straight weeks of sub-par rushing performances—39 yards this week after 59 yards against Lehigh—sophomore running back Clifton Dawson’s chances at the Payton Award, given to the best offensive player in Division I-AA, have gone from slim to none.

Saturday, the All-American back carried the ball 24 times and had a late touchdown, but was driven back from the line of scrimmage time and again by a stingy Cornell defense that has always seemed to have Dawson’s number.

“If anybody lets up, along any of the cracks, he’s such a good back he’ll find it,” said Big Red coach Jim Knowles. “So we really sold pursuit on him, and getting 11 helmets to the ball.”

Though Harvard continued to hand off to Dawson in the hopes that he would break off one of his characteristic 70-yard runs, the junior’s longest run of the day was just 10 yards.

“We struggled at times to get the ball back to the line of scrimmage on our running game, and that’s kind of precedent-setting for us,” Murphy said.

Fellow Ivy running back and Payton candidate Nick Hartigan of Brown turned in another solid performance, setting the school career rushing record with 124 yards and a touchdown in a 37-14 win over Fordham.

FOURTH AND FOUR

Harvard lost in Ithaca for the first time since a 28-27 defeat in October of 1995...The win over the No. 20 Crimson was the first time the Big Red has beaten a ranked team since joining Division I-AA in 1982...Cornell quarterback Ryan Kuhn’s 21-yard strike to wide receiver Brian Romney was his first passing touchdown of the season...Sophomore Harvard kicker Matt Schindel had his second extra-point attempt of the game blocked. He is now 7-of-9 on the year.

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