It will be the Ivy League's most powerful offense meeting the tightest defense this afternoon at Princeton's Palmer Stadium, as Harvard tries to win four successive football games for the first time since 1946. To win, the Crimson will have to play good football for the third Saturday in a row: the combination of black magic and luck that beat Columbia will not work against the Tigers.
Statistically, Princeton is an awfully impressive outfit. In winning all four of their League games, the Tigers have scored 145 points (Harvard has 25 in its four Ivy games) and averaged 361 yards total offense per game (the Crimson's average is 234 yards). Tallbacks Hugh Scott and Jack Bullivan are first and third in total offense, and second and fourth in rushing. The Crimson has no one in the League's top five in either of these departments.
Defensive Strength
Still, John Yovicsin's team has been winning--three in a row for a 3-1 Ivy record--and the key has been its defense. Since the 12-0 loss at Cornell, the Crimson has scored three touchdowns and a field goal in three games, but the opposition has managed just two touchdowns. Harvard has allowed its Ivy opponents only 186 yards total offense per game.
Today's game presents the old, cliched case of the irresistible force and the immovable object, and it's hard to tall which one is going to give. Princeton must be at least a touchdown favorite, but if Harvard is up--and it is difficult to imagine a Harvard team not up for this game--the Crimson can win.
While Princeton offense and Harvard defense are tops, there are serious flaws on the reverse side of both coins. Princeton's last two opponents have scored three touchdowns each; without Charlie Ravenel (who again will not play today) the Crimson has been able to move but not to score more than one touchdown a game.
Harvard's offense looked great in every department but scoring for the first half against Penn last week, then it stalled almost completely for the last two quarters. For its winning points the past two weeks, the Crimson has relied on an impotent but lethal passing attack; Harvard completed 3 of 14 passes against Dartmouth and Penn, but two went for game-winning touchdowns.
Meanwhile, the running attack--led by Bruce McIntyre, Hobie Armstrong, Larry Repsher and Jim Nelson--has been over-powering until it gets to the opponent's 10-yard line, where it stops dead. Dave Ward missed three field goals at fairly close range last Saturday. This scoring problem seems as much psychological as physical: Yovicsin appears convinced of his team's inability to score from in close, and has called for the field goal on almost every fourth down situation within kicking range.
The Crimson has the line and back-field strength to do much more damage than it has in the recent past, and today would be a fine time to end the scoring famine. More than one touchdown will be needed to beat the Tigers.
Victory at the Ends
Harvard beat Penn last week at the ends, smothering the single wing sweeps and rushing the passer. Against Princeton, which presents a faster and more polished version of Penn's single wing attack, the varsity will have a tougher job of containment. Scott and Sullivan can run and throw, fullbacks Don Kornrump The Line In the line, where it showed consistent quality almost three deep last week, the Crimson rates an edge. Captain Torry Lensner, sidelined with a knee injury, will be missed, but Tom Gaston did a fine job in Lonsner's place for the second half against Penn. With Ravenel still out, junior Ted Halaby, who has led the team to three straight wins, will be at quarterback, with McIntyre, Repsher and Nelson running with him in the first backfield unit. If the Crimson can crack the relatively weak Princeton defense for at least two touchdowns, it can take the game. But if the offense continues to faint when it comes within sight of the enemy goal line, Princeton will win, and Harvard can count itself out of the Ivy League race
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