Sometimes, there just isn’t a whole lot to cheer about.

The luckless, winless Buffalo Bills were smashed, 38-14, by the visiting New York Jets, marking the Bills’ second loss in a row with Harvard alum Ryan Fitzpatrick ’05 at the helm.

The Jets, keyed by the play of LaDanian Tomlinson, had a 31-point lead going into the final quarter. Things got so out of hand that New York could afford to bring in Mark Brunell, who was born during the height of the Nixon Administration and whose prime probably came in 1999.

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Each Thursday, The Crimson will compile a series of unique statistics about Harvard's sports scene. Welcome to the Magic of Numbers—without the problem sets. We'll do the math for you.

LOOKING AHEAD: FOOTBALL

18 — Number of points scored by Harvard last year in a 35-18 loss to Lafayette. The Crimson will take on the Leopards this Saturday at noon in Easton, PA.

14 — Number of points scored by Harvard in its loss to Brown last week.

2 — Number of overtimes played between Lafayette and Princeton last week. The Tigers eventually prevailed 36-33, handing the Leopards its third loss of the season.

1 — Win Lafayette head coach Frank Tavani has against Harvard. In his eleventh season, he holds a 1-8 record all-time against the Crimson.

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Winning football games is undoubtedly a product of practice, discipline, scouting, and skill, but after traveling to Brown for the game last weekend, I have a new appreciation for another powerful contributor to strong play: fandom. Under the temporary lights of Brown Stadium, 17,360 fans filled the seats, creating an atmosphere that felt very collegiatea—a rare feat in Ivy League athletics.

“I can’t tell you what it meant to have so many people in the stands,” Bears coach Phil Estes said. “To turn around and see what we saw...[It] really got the adrenaline going, and I think the team fed off of that.”

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In the modern era of sports, being a college coach carries with it the burden of constant media attention. Facing dozens of reporters at press conferences, head coaches have gotten more savvy—they say what they need to and leave the rest up for speculation. Here at The Back Page, we’re happy to decode some of these media sessions, showing the average fan what we think coaches’ answers “really” mean.

To say that Week 2 of Harvard’s football season didn’t go quite as smoothly as Week 1 is, well, a gross understatement. After his team was embarrassed in a 29-14 loss that was much more lopsided than the scoreboard indicated, Crimson coach Tim Murphy had to do his best to explain what happened. Murphy tips his hat to Brown and shoulders most of the blame himself in this week’s edition of Sound Off.

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Coming into Foxboro Stadium to take on the New England Patriots yesterday afternoon, the Buffalo Bills had struggled to put points on the board. Through the first two games of the season under quarterback Trent Edwards, the team averaged a league-low 8.5 points per game, granting them the title of the NFL’s least productive offense.

Enter former Harvard quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick ’05.

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