For the Harvard football team, this is it. They are not only have to beat Penn today in order to stay in contention for the Ivy League title, they have to play a good game to get up the momentum they need to get through the last three tough weeks of the season.

Harvard, 3-2 overall and 2-1 in the League, will go into the game with a backfield full of cripples and a still-suspect pass defense. Penn, too, is in rotten shapes, with half its first-string backfield of last week out of actions.

John Yovicsin has decided to give his erstwhile starting quarterback, John McCluskey, a week's rest in the hope that the junior speedball's injured leg will at long last get back to normal.

McCluskey pulled a hamstring muscle five weeks ago against Massachusetts. In that game he had turned in an 32-yard run and had been easily the most exciting player on the field.

For two weeks he could barely run. Last week against Dartmouth he turned in a couple of respectable carries, but not enough to convince Yovicsin that he was all right.

Tommy Bilodeau will open at quarterback, and will have Wally, Grant and Dave Poe at halfbacks once again. The two spent and week on the second string but have been moved up as a unit.

With Pat Conway out of the game at fullback with a bruised hip, Stan Yastrzemaki is a likely starter. But Yaz has a sore shoulder and junior Lloyd Macdonald may wind up carrying a lot of the load.

If Bilodeau, who was hampered by a charley horse against Dartmouth, can't move the team, Jerry Mechling may be asked to play quarterback for the first time this year. Mechling has been strictly a defensive specialist. Sophomore Ray Kubacki may also get to see some action.

Harvard ought to beat Penn today. The Crimson is favored by 14 points in the betting odds, made up by people who know that Penn is last in the Ivy League in both offense and defense.

The Quakers' runners, who haven't scored in three league games, are now hampered by the loss of leading rusher Barry Elman and fullback Whit Smith as well. In the reshuffled Penn backfield, quarterback Bruce Molloy has become a fullback, flanked by former fullback Tony Thompson and speedy Joe Schuls. The quarterback is likely to be sophomore Tom Kennedy, though senior Chuck Riley and Buzz Hannum are also expected to play.

Penn plays two-unit football and today the pressure will be on the defense while the runners try desperately to scare up a score. But the defense is the same unit that gave up 33 points to Cornell and 55 to Princeton.

In other words Harvard, injuries and all, is a favorite any way you look at it. But what will be more important will be the way the team plays.

A loss as bad as last Saturday's catastrophe against Dartmouth could knock any team out psychologically. Harvard doesn't have long to recover from the defeat; next week's game is with undefeated Princeton. Then come tough ones with Brown and unbeaten (though once-tied) Yale.

And Harvard has not played a good all-ground football game since the opener against Massachusetts. The next week against Bucknell the pass defense collapsed; at Columbia the team couldn't punch across a score, but won 3-0. Two fumbles and a 104-yard pass return beat Cornell 16-0; and everybody known about Dartmouth.

The team played well early, in the season. It's overflowing with potential. Performance is sure to come, and it would be awfully nice to start now.