NOTEBOOK: Run Game Still Needs Tuning

PRINCETON, N.J.—With just four weeks remaining in the season and sitting in third place behind league-leading Brown and Penn, Harvard football still has some kinks to work out if it has any hope of an Ivy title repeat.

The team can start with its run game.

Last week against Lehigh, the Crimson was held to just 66 rushing yards. And on Saturday, Princeton was able to hold Harvard to just 88 net rushing yards. Numbers like those are a far cry from the 188- and 142-yard days that the Crimson posted in its prior two games.

“Princeton’s defense played really well,” senior quarterback Chris Pizzotti said. “[They] played very physical, it was tough to run the ball. They made us kind of be one-dimensional.”

Part of the problem has been the loss of junior Cheng Ho and sophomore Gino Gordon to injuries over the last couple of weeks. Gordon returned this week and received more carries for more success as the game wore on Saturday, including the game-sealing touchdown run.

The Crimson entered the contest with the second-best rushing offense in an admittedly pass-happy Ivy League, but managed just 3.0 yards per carry and 88 yards against a Princeton defense that was giving up 154.0 yards per game and 4.0 yards per carry coming in.

On the upside, the Crimson tallied 60 rushing yards in the third quarter alone, kick-starting its second-half comeback.

“Clutch plays on defense and then on the final drive on offense, the final two drives, what our offensive guys made was inspiring,” Harvard coach Tim Murphy said. “I’m very very proud of our kids.”

Gordon’s 6-yard touchdown run late in the fourth quarter to put the Crimson up 24-20 punctuated what appears to be Harvard’s return to form—am improvement that should be aided by facing Dartmouth’s Ivy-worst rush defense next week.

FLAG DAY

The Crimson got a serious wake-up call on the opening drive when senior Andrew Berry got his clock cleaned by three Tigers coverage players when trying to receive the punt from Princeton’s Ryan Coyle. It appeared to be a clear-cut penalty for kick catch interference, but no flag flew.

“He got drilled,” Murphy said with a shrug. “They said it was our guy’s fault that he got drilled.”

It was the first of a series of no-calls or debateable penalties called on the afternoon.

In addition to the questionable legality of the hit on Berry, the referees missed a clear late hit on sophomore Levi Richards after he caught a 16-yard pass from Pizzotti.

Then, with about two minutes left in the third quarter, a 7-yard pass to junior Matt Luft was nearly reversed after the back judge decided to pull rank on the linesmen and rule the pass was incomplete—though the linesmen had a much better angle on the play. The referees conferred and ultimately the pass stood.

All told, Harvard was somehow able to come away with the win despite having all factors—the opposing team, miserable weather, and the referee corps—working against it.

The Crimson didn’t help itself with a pair of obvious critical penalties—one for roughing the passer and another for pass interference—that extended a Princeton drive in the second half.

“You’re going to get some defensive penalties that happen through aggressiveness, but we had a couple ones that were relatively undisciplined,” Murphy said. “It took us a while to really get in sync defensively, obviously, and the bottom line is we did, but it was a process.”

—Staff writer Dixon McPhillips can be reached at fmcphill@fas.harvard.edu.