Harvard's pass defense, still smarting from Saturday's embarrassing loss to U'Mass and quarterback Phill Penningtion, received another setback yesterday, when it was learned that startig adjuster back Steve Golden suffered badly bruised knee ligaments in the game and will be lost indefinitely.

Crimson coach Joe Restic said yesterday that it is not yet known how extensive the damage is to Golden's knee. "It'll be a couple days before we will even know how serious his injury is." Restic said, "After that we'll just have to see how it reacts to treatment."

The Harvard defensive backfield can ill afford the loss of Golden who, on the afford the loss of Golden, who, on the basis of a strong pre-season performance, had been heavily counted on to provide much-needed secondary help. The Crimson pass defense in Saturday's game was porous at best, and Pennington's pinpoint possing devastated the belly of the zone with slant patterns and clothes. The Umass serial attack gained 210 yards passing on the afternoon, and over 150 yards of that come on patterns run into the vulnerable midsection of the some.

Despair Saturday's ignominious debut of the pass defense. Restic is planning the changes for nest week. "We're playing the best people we have." Restie said. "We'll just have to work harder on the same things this week. "We'll have to be more aggressive.

On the positive side of the ledger. Restic was very pleased with the Crimson's offensive performance Saturday. "We gained well over 400 yards total offense." He said yesterday. "and whenever you do that you're getting performance. If our offense books this good the rest of the season. We're going to be awfully tough."

Restic had particular praise for Eeet halfback Mar Wheeler, who streaked and pirouetted through the baffled Umass defense for 150 yards on 11 carriers. Wheeler, a transfer student from the University of Washington, turned in a flawless performance according to the coach.

"He was fantastic," Restic said yesterday. "Here's this guy who is just in freshmen as far as our system is concerned--playing his first game for us -- and he doesn't make a mistake afternoon."

And so, with the disappointment of a second straight opening game loss still smarting, the Crimson go back to work. For the offense, the next five days will be spent refining the skills that made Saturday's big yardage possible. And for the defense - especially the men who defend against passes -- the week will be spent trying to put the pieces back together.