NOTEBOOK: Discipline Lacking in Win

On a day when both the offense and defense put forth strong showings, Harvard’s efforts were marred by an ugly string of penalties. In what head coach Tim Murphy called the worst game of infractions he had ever seen, the Crimson incurred 14 flags for 98 yards.

The defense had trouble with Columbia’s hard count, jumping offsides five times. But the defense could not be held solely responsible for the outpouring of yellow towels as the offense had nine flags of its own, four of which were on false start calls.

One key offensive penalty came on a pass floated to senior wide receiver Corey Mazza in the endzone. Mazza was called for offensive pass interference, and instead of the drive ending in seven on the board, Harvard settled on junior Matt Schindel’s 36-yard field goal.

The squad was averaging less than six penalties a game before Saturday, although it now has 22 more than its opponents for an extra loss of 140 yards.

“If that had been in the context of a championship-caliber game against the very best teams in our league—that was a good team but there are better—then that could have cost us the game,” Murphy said.

SEARCH AND D-STROY

Meanwhile, the Crimson defensive line continued to display its dominance.

The best front four in the Ivy League showed the Lions that it meant business. Coming into the game averaging an allowance of 62 yards on the ground, the line allowed 20 yards of forward progress.

But with four sacks and a stopped reverse among several carries for a loss, Columbia’s net rushing yardage bottomed out at minus-14 yards for the day. It was the Harvard rush defense’s best performance of the season.

“Part of the reason they were offsides a couple times was they’re a lot more aggressive,” Columbia offensive tackle Matt Barsamian said. “That’s the best front four we’re going to face all season. They have four guys that can pretty much do anything they want in a lot of situations.”

The Lions took some responsibility for the minimal output. Columbia went to the air 52 times, but to the ground only 21. Harvard’s line also contributed a strong effort to the pass defense. Averaging just under five and a half sacks per game coming in, the defense got to Lions quarterback Craig Hormann four times for a loss of 28 yards and hit or hurried him a handful of other times.

DROP ZONE

After a strong weekend against Dartmouth last weekend, the secondary fell back into a slump.

Instead of relying on seasoned starters at the safety position, Murphy mixed things up, at times sending four cornerbacks in.

“Corners are better athletes than safeties, and that’s all it was,” Murphy said. “On run downs, we had our safeties in, on passing downs, we had some of our corners in playing safety. At times, it was very beneficial, and other times, you could tell those guys were a little bit new.”

The Columbia passing attack managed 320 yards for the day, a number that would have been higher but for the numerous passes dropped by Lion receivers.

Junior wide receiver Tim Paulin saw the ball slip through his hands in the corner of the endzone late in the game. The catch would have put Columbia within striking distance at 21-14. Instead the drive led to a missed field goal.

“I can’t go out there and catch it for ‘em,” Lions coach Norries Wilson joked. “I wish I could. I don’t run as fast as I used to. Yelling and screaming doesn’t stop the drops.”

The drops would have made the struggling secondary look even worse than it already did.

FOURTH DOWNS

Junior Matt Schindel broke Harvard’s career field goal record on a fourth-quarter 36-yarder. The score put him ahead of Mike Giampaolo’s ’84 mark of 27…With his 29-yard scoring grab in the second quarter, Mazza tacked a seventh game onto his streak of consecutive games with a touchdown…Senior tailback Clifton Dawson’s 120 yards on the ground were enough to boost him over 1,000 for the fourth straight season…The win was the Crimson’s 400th at Harvard Stadium. It was also the team’s 1,200 varsity football game…After Yale inched out Brown in a 27-24 win, Harvard remains tied with Princeton for second in the Ancient Eight.

—Staff writer Madeleine I. Shapiro can be reached at mshapiro@fas.harvard.edu.