The similarities it bore to last year's Harvard-Penn contest were as weird as the men's room at Lamont--a sluggish game, that the Crimson dominated throughout, an injury to Jim Kubacki on a slick tartan surface upon which he claims he enjoys playing, a final score which doesn't quite do justice to Harvard's superiority.
A year ago it was 21-3--Saturday in Philadelphia it was 20-8--and considering the fact that the Quakers committed the ungodly number of nine turnovers (six interceptions, three fumbles), the 12-point margin is certainly a generous one.
There was, however, one major difference (in addition, that is, to the fact that the Crimson traveled to Philly via plane instead of bus). After last year's triumph, Harvard stood at 4-0 in the Ivies, and the best was yet to come. After Saturday's win, the record rests at 4-2, a full game behind the 5-1 marks of both Brown and Yale, and if Joe Restic could ever order up a miracle, how about a combination platter of Harvard over Yale and Columbia over Brown next weekend.
While the former is entirely possible, the latter is as likely as recognizing the slide identifications in the Fine Arts 13 hourly, and as a result, the Crimson's role has basically been reduced to that of a spoiler.
Like the Ol'Days
In a way, it's like 1974. Yale comes to The Stadium a game up on the Crimson seeking to nail down a championship, except that this time it's only a slice of a championship courtesy of a team from Providence.
None of which has anything to do with either the game on Saturday or Kubacki's injury. First the game.
As has been the case for the last month or so, the Crimson offense proved functional for a quarter, with this 15-minute segment occurring after the first period and before halftime (those who just thought second quarter are correct).
And, as was the case every time Harvard scored on Saturday, the opening drive was initiated inside the Penn 25-yard line and made possible by a Quaker turnover (which, incidentally, is on today's breakfast menu).
Legitimate
First Tommy Joyce halted Penn's lone legitimate drive of the game by intercepting a Bob Graustein pass on his own 18 late in the first quarter and returning it 44 yards.
After a change of quarters and a 35-yard Harvard drive, Mike Lynch initiated the scoring with a 20-yard field goal. Lynch is perfect from both inside the 30 and outside the 36 this year; he hasn't missed from the former and hasn't connected from the latter.
Moments later, Gary Taubes recovered a fumbled Penn pitchout on the Quakers' 15, and four plays later, Kubacki scored the first of his two touchdowns by rolling two yards into the endzone. Kubacki, incidentally, did manage to pick up 70 yards in total offense before retiring for the afternoon. He needs but 58 against Yale, should he play, to become Harvard's all-time total offense leader. But more on that later.
Before, Penn had to commit one more blunder, a Craig Renfrew fumble which Bob Baggott, who, like the entire defense, played another great game, a point which should be obvious by now, and who has to be the best defensive end in the Winthrop-I entry, if not the entire league, recovered on the Penn 23.
This time Kubacki needed only three plays to score, doing so on an eight-yard sprint with 3:34 left in the half.
Less than two minutes later, Kubacki again began to sprint, but instead of ending up in the endzone he ended up on his backside with a displaced transverse process, or a crack beneath the ribs in his lower back for those of us who aren't pre-anything.
"I was dropping back to pass," Kubacki said yesterday. "I took off up the middle, and a guy stuck his helmet in my lower back."
As for next week, "it's up in the air right now," he continued. "If there's any way I can play, I will."
If Kubacki can't play--and this is doubtful--then Tim Davenport, who took over in the second half along with a great many second-stringers, will. Davenport didn't do much offensively against the Quakers, the lone second-half points coming via a 26-yard Lynch field goal following a 34-yard Baggott interception return, but he's hardly played this season, and Saturday's game experience certainly didn't hurt.
Nor did a meaningless Penn touch-down and two-point conversion with 1:44 remaining in the game. The score did little more than create the final score and break what would have been a well deserved shutout by the Crimson defense, one which, in addition to the turnovers already cited, also produced two interceptions by cornerback Andy Puopolo, an interception and fumble recovery by Bill Emper and an interception by Bill Wendel.
The six Harvard swipes were the most by the Crimson since Potsdam and Yalta; to Penn's credit, however, it should be noted that rare was the play on which the Quakers committed more than one mistake.
Game Film
And so a contest which was taken from the 1975 game films and which meant more in terms of self-respect than league standing came to a successful conclusion for the Crimson, if not for Jim Kubacki.
It's not, you see, that Columbia can't beat Brown, it's just that the Red Sea can only open so many times for the same team each season, and it appears that Harvard has already used up its quota.
Nothing is definite ... yet. There's still a game at Columbia next Saturday, a game which must be won, but barring one of those upsets that can only occur when Michigan plays Purdue, it looks quite certain that Brown is about to gain at least a share of the Ivy championship, the first in its history.
By beating--make that punishing--Dartmouth on Saturday (the final of 35-21 is two touchdowns closer than was the game itself), the Bruins need but defeat a 2-4 Lions squad to assure themselves of a deadlock with Yale.
Which brings us to Harvard, for the Crimson could be Brown's best friend this weekend by knocking off the Elis for the third year in a row just when it appeared that Yale was title-bound.
Regardless of the outcome of the Harvard-Yale affair, though, the Bruins should be sitting pretty come next Saturday evening. Their comfortable position came at the expense of a Dartmouth team which hadn't lost to Brown since 1955, or before the Ivy League was officially formed.
The Bruins built a 28-7 halftime cushion, three of the scores coming on Paul Michalko scoring passes, increased it to 35-7 on another Michalko pass late in the third quarter, and then held their breaths as the Woodsmen (yes, that is Dartmouth's new nickname) mounted one of those "nice try, but it's much too late" comebacks in the final period.
Yale, meanwhile, was manhandling Princeton in New Haven, as John Pagliaro rushed for three touchdowns in a 39-7 rout. The Elis thus stand tied with Brown at 5-1; the best they can hope for is a first-place deadlock, and in light of recent history, they'd probably accept that right now and call off next weekend altogether.
And lest anyone go unmentioned, it should be noted that Columbia warmed up for its encounter with Brown by defeating a helpless Cornell outfit, 35-17 in New York. Cornell, incidentally, has one league triumph in the last two years: for those of you who have been on vacation, that victory explains why Harvard will be playing for second on Saturday.
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