Holy Cross came next and went down to a 6-0 defeat although the Harvard team play had not materially improved. It was necessary for Fisher to reach the Holy Cross goal line by a special trick play, using Pfaffmann to pass when he was expected to kick. The visitors stopped Harvard's straight attack time and again, and the Crimson forwards still proved unwieldy and at times awkward in carrying out assignments.
But it remained for Dartmouth to furnish Harvard a real test, and in that test the Crimson was found wanting. The score, 16-0, told truly the superiority of the Hanover machine. Fisher's line lacked anything resembling a sustained charge and there was no offense worthy of the name.
Team Finds Itself Against Tufts.
Against Tufts Harvard found herself for the first time. There was a distinct change in the play; the team showed itself a unit; and the forward line and backfield worked with new coordination. Also the first signs of hard, rugged backing up of the line by the defensive backs were noticeable. The interference was still slow and lacked momentum at the moment of contact with the defensive players. But the team as a whole played "heads up" football throughout the contest.
Springs Surprise at Princeton.
It was chiefly the preponderance of power in its forward line that enabled Harvard to win form Princeton 5 to 0. It was its lack of backfield power which prevented it from making a touchdown against the Tiger just as it had failed to make a touchdown against Dartmouth. The Crimson line had a superlative lift and the Tigers were forced to the uttermost to hold their ground at all. The game proved that at last Fisher had transformed the latent power of his heavy forwards into actual strength, usable when the occasion demanded; yet the game also showed that Harvard still lacked a running attack of real ground-gaining ability.
Brown a Stumbling Block.
Against Brown the Crimson stumbled and fell yet the game offers no criterion by which the comparative strength of Harvard and Yale may be judged. True the Bulldog trounced Brown 21 to 0 while that same Brown team defeated Harvard 20 to 7. But Fisher kept Hubbard, Coburn, Jenkins, Lee, McGlone, and Cheek out of the contest, and its result would certainly have been different had they been in. It is doubtful it the Brown center could have blocked Pfaffmann's disastrous drop kick had Hubbard been in the Crimson line. The score of the game, however, proves at least to some extent the calibre of the Crimson substitutes. Undoubtedly they are much weaker than Yale's.
The Harvard season has been marked by the team's extraordinarily slow development and by its lack of scoring ability. In its later games the line has shown encouraging improvement and brilliant defensive work. At no time on the other hand, has the backfield really come up to the mark and to date no sustained attack has been forthcoming.