Saturday's 11-6 loss to Princeton has raised lots of questions about the 1985 Harvard football team, but there's a far more important question about the 1882 Harvard squad that must be answered first.

That's right, 1882.

Can someone please explain how the 1882 Crimson squad that opened its season with a 1-0 victory over MIT, followed it with a 3-0 triumph over the same MIT club, a 2-0 victory over McGill and a 1-0 win over Amherst, then won its fifth game of the year, 53-0?

How did a Harvard team that had been averaging less than two points per game that season suddenly score 53 points? In one game?

Maybe that Harvard-Dartmouth game marked the start of a new era in scoring. But then consider that the scores of Harvard's last three contests that year were 3-0, 1-1 and 1-0.

And that makes the 53-0 score that much more absurd.

Speaking of which, we turn to 1985...

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One hundred and three seasons after Edward T. Cabot captained the 1882 Harvard squad to a 7-1 overall record, the 1985 Harvard squad currently sports a 4-2 overall mark that includes a 3-1 Ivy League record.

But despite the fact that Harvard is still in complete control of its own destiny, it won't find the road to the Ivy League title packed with pushovers.

If anything, the Crimson's last three Ancient Eight foes will be better than anything it's seen this year.

And don't be surprised if the Crimson's an underdog in every one of those games, as well as its lone remaining non-league game, scheduled for Nov. 9 at Holy Cross.

The main reason the betting line won't favor Harvard this weekend, or next, is the offensive line.

The squad's biggest question mark at season's start, the offensive line has become the squad's biggest problem area.

That was clear Saturday in the Stadium, when the Crimson's front five allowed the most sacks this decade. Only the nine recorded by Holy Cross last year even approaches the 10 recorded by Princeton on Saturday.