Slip ’N Slide

Top three wide receivers injured—strike one. Defenses shutting down your star running back—strike two. Eleven turnovers in the past two games—strike three, you’re out.

With Harvard’s offense striking out for the past two games, the team direly needs a drastic change—and a win.

Tomorrow the Crimson is looking to break its two-game losing streak, but with the defense it is up against, it will be no easy task.

Harvard (2-2, 1-1 Ivy League) plays Lafayette, the defending Patriot League champions, in a showdown of two teams heading in opposite directions.

The Leopards sit atop the Patriot League standings, boasting a 2-0 mark in the league and a 5-1 record overall. Led by senior linebacker Maurice Bennett, Lafayette’s experienced defense has been the main reason for Lafayette’s early season success.

“We’re the same defense as [Harvard] saw last year,” said Lafayette head coach Frank Tavani, “but with a year more experience.”

With the core of the defense returning, the Leopards have dominated their opponents. Lafayette posts a top-six ranking in four main Division I-AA defensive categories, including a fifth-ranked scoring defense—allowing only 11.3 points per game.

Anchoring this defensive charge is Bennett, a 2004 All-Patriot League honoree and candidate for the Buchanan Award, which is given to the Division I-AA defensive player of the year. Before last Saturday’s victory over Columbia, Bennett tore through the previous offenses, accumulating a staggering 40 tackles in only three games.

And the Crimson offense that will line up against this vaunted defense has its back against the wall. Harvard comes off a five-turnover performance in last week’s loss to Cornell, and, more surprisingly, All-American junior running back Clifton Dawson was held to only 39 yards rushing.

“There’s a lot more pressure on our young quarterback and there’s a lot more pressure on the running back,” Harvard coach Tim Murphy said. “We always set up the run with the pass and now, for the first time, that’s more difficult.”

Harvard would like it to all come as easy as it did last year, when Dawson rushed for three touchdowns and the Crimson defeated Lafayette 38-23. But the tables have turned.

Instead of an experienced Ryan Fitzpatrick at quarterback, inexperienced sophomore Liam O’Hagan is now at the helm. And with O’Hagan’s three top receiving threats—senior Rodney Byrnes, junior Corey Mazza, and senior Ryan Tyler—all inactive due to injuries, defenses are beginning to crowd the box with seven- or eight-man fronts to shut down Crimson’s main offensive threat—Dawson.

Tavani knows it will not be that easy.

“You can’t stop [Dawson], everyone has got to try to slow [him down],” Tavani said. “He can tear you up very quickly.”

If trends from the past two games continue, however, Dawson won’t have the opportunity to break open a big gain because Harvard won’t have the ball. Since starting the season with only four turnovers in two games, Harvard has gone downhill, giving away a whopping 11 turnovers during its two-game losing streak.

“The biggest way you adjust your offense is you realize...you have to make less mistakes,” Murphy said, “And the biggest mistakes are turnovers.”

The abundance of turnovers has forced the Crimson to rely on a solid defense.

However, Lafayette brings with it a strong running game led by junior tailback Jonathan Hurt, who is coming off a 149-yard, two-touchdown performance in the Leopards’ 14-7 win over Columbia last week.

Hurt’s name is added to the list of stellar running backs the Crimson has faced this season. Brown’s Nick Hartigan and Cornell’s Luke Siwula both gained nearly 100-yards apiece and Siwula added a 28-yard touchdown run.

Combining Hurt’s performances with its outstanding defensive play, the Leopards are on the fast track to repeating as Patriot League champions. A victory over Harvard can solidify Lafayette’s at-large credentials to get in the Division I-AA playoffs, even if the team later loses the automatic bid that goes to the Patriot League champion.

But being the best comes at a price, as the Crimson has seen this year. Teams are gunning to dethrone the king, and, as a result, play their best football against the league champions.

“We’re wearing the targets on our backs,” Tavani said. “No one is going to give us anything.”

Harvard’s defense will attempt to get what it can from the Leopards, but it will not be easy. The Crimson’s defense will be tried like last week, with Lafayette playing much like Cornell. The Leopards’ strength on offense, like the Big Red’s, resides in the team’s running game. Harvard will have to step up to the challenge.

“[We must] push harder,” Murphy said. “We cannot accept losing.”

A third straight loss would be strike three on Harvard’s season.