It proves that Harvard is not just better than every other Ivy League team, it's better by a lot.

Just look at the final scores: 33-0 against Penn, 27-10 against Brown, 24-0 against Dartmouth, 34-9 against Cornell and 45-7 against Columbia. Except for the 14-12 squeaker over Princeton, Harvard has whipped its opponents. After yesterday's shutout, Harvard's average points allowed in the Ancient Eight dropped to 6.3 points per game.

Penn's first play showed that Harvard's opponents know they can't score conventionally on Harvard. Penn tried a halfback pass, but Finn's duck wobbled incomplete into the mud of Harvard Stadium.

"We may have thought briefly that they were maybe a little bit desperate initially," Smith said. "They were trying to get a good start on us early, trying to break our confidence, but fortunately that didn't happen."

Harvard's secondary has been especially stingy recently, especially since the Crimson knows opponents have had to throw to catch up with the Crimson's prolific offense. In its last four games, Harvard has held opposing quarterbacks to 35-percent completions, with two touchdowns and eight interceptions.

Jackson has enjoyed a breakout year, with six interceptions after he picked off two yesterday. And on the other side, junior corner Derek Yankoff's pick on Penn's first play of the third quarter showed that the Crimson defense was not going to rest on a 20-point lead.

This ability to finish off opponents has been the difference between this year and last year. Whether it has been stopping Princeton to preserve the win or stiffening late in games to preserve shutouts out of sheer pride, the defense has made big plays in crucial conversion situations.

Yesterday was no exception, as Penn converted only four of its 21 third-and fourth-down conversion attempts.

A look back at the first nine games of the season has shown a lot of recent Harvard futility be reversed. This team beat Cornell for the first time in 11 years, shut out Dartmouth for the first time in 56 years, beat Brown for the first time in four years and beat Penn for the first time in five years.

Murphy's emphasis on defense has allowed this dramatic turnaround. Defense first made this team respectable, and then it led it to a championship.

"Our first priority when we got here was to put our best athletes on defense," Murphy said. "When we got to a point where we felt like we matched up, we started putting more of our outstanding athletes on the other side of the ball.