Harvard Defense Delivers Knock Out Punch

It always happens so fast.

One second, Harvard’s opponent is driving. This week, it was Lafayette, which opened the fourth quarter at the Crimson’s 22-yard line. Down 21-3, a touchdown would have made things interesting with plenty of time left.

But against the Harvard defense, that was never a real possibility. On 3rd and eight, running back Ross Scheuerman neared the first down marker, but a measurement wouldn’t be necessary. Waiting for Scheuerman in the flat, senior Brian Owusu put his head in the running’s back chest, popping the football free.

Sophomore linebacker Eric Medes was there to land on it, and Harvard’s offense needed just over a minute to move the ball 81 yards the other way. Sophomore Andrew Fischer’s 50-yard touchdown catch-and-run gave the Crimson a 28-3 lead. The Leopards were done.

The 35-16 win was Harvard’s 15th straight at home, though it feels like it’s been 150 games since the Crimson have let a home game slip away. They always seem to go the same way: just when an opponent shows a breath of life, the Harvard defense steps on its neck.

This week, it was Owusu’s forced fumble. Last week against Cornell, a pair of sacks set up an impossible 4th and 27 on the Big Red’s final drive. Senior Jaron Wilson had the honor of performing the execution ceremony in Week Two, when his pick-six separated Harvard from Brown. I could go on and on.

The Harvard defense leads the Ivy League in both interceptions and forced fumbles. And the Crimson D isn’t content to just fall on the ball. Defenders have tallied 146 yards on their nine interceptions. That’s nearly as many as every other Ivy team combined. For comparison, Cornell’s running attack on offense has only tallied 173 yards thus far.

It’s easy to write about the interceptions and the subsequent returns. Connor Sheehan’s 35-yard interception return across midfield Saturday is the stuff of a sportswriter’s dreams. But that’s not when Harvard’s defense is at its best.

The Crimson is at its best when nothing happens—when the defensive backs stay with their receivers and the defensive linemen fill their gaps. They aren’t the flashy plays, but they’re suffocating. Ask Scheuerman how it feels to get stuffed for two yards or fewer a dozen times. The pile of plays for no gain might not impress fans, but it infuriates opponents.

And it forces risky choices. Eventually, teams like Lafayette try a deep pass or try to gain an extra yard on a run, giving the Crimson the chance it’s been waiting for—the opportunity to deal the knockout blow. When given the chance, Harvard has consistently landed that knockdown punch.

Well, except for once. Every player of the Crimson football team already knows what I’m talking about.

Oct. 20, 2012.

Harvard led Princeton 34-10 with 12 minutes left in the game. But then the Crimson special teams gave up a 59-yard kickoff return. The special teams also let the Tigers block both a Harvard punt and field goal attempt.

The Crimson offense failed to score a touchdown on first, second, and third and goal. It came up a yard short on a crucial 3rd and seven.

Meanwhile, the Harvard defense gave up 251 yards in the fourth quarter, not including two successful two-point conversions. Princeton had seven plays of 15 yards or more along the way. The most painful for the Crimson was the last one, a 36-yard touchdown pass with eight seconds left that put the Tigers up for the first time, 39-34. That only came after an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty turned a seven-yard sack into an eight-yard gain and a first down.

So many chances to land the knockout, but Harvard whiffed on each of them, costing it a chance at an Ivy title.

Since then, the Crimson has been on a mission. Each of its wins has come by double digits as Harvard has rarely missed a chance to stomp on an opponent’s neck. But Saturday, when Princeton comes to town, we will finally find out if things are truly different this year.

—Staff writer Jacob D. H. Feldman can be reached at jacob.feldman@thecrimson.com.