The fact of the matter is the backfield blanketed the Yale wideouts on nearly every play, and more importantly, simply kept the Elis from making catches.

Yale gave up on the run early, so a struggling Harvard offense took a comfortable lead into the locker room due in great part to solid big game play out of the Crimson secondary.

"We've worked hard and proven ourselves as a secondary this year. We've showed people we're no weakness to the team," Jackson said.

Although official statistics credit the Crimson defensive backfield with only two pass breakups, Jackson, junior cornerback Derek Yankoff, senior safety Jeff Compas and sophomore safety Aron Natale provided defensive pressure on at least seven pass plays on the day--some in spectacular fashion.

Jackson's touchdown-saving breakup shortly after the half stalled a drive just out of field-goal range.

"[Jackson] made an absolutely incredible play on the scoreboard route in the third quarter," Siedlecki said.

Harvard corners are athletic and they have stayed with swift wideouts all year long. But at times they have struggled to pick up balls in the air, adjust and make plays on them. A season's worth of jump balls may have paid off yesterday.

"We've worked hard [on our coverage]," Jackson said. "We've played a lot of teams like Brown that really put the ball up. Yale pulled out all the stops, but [we did not] let them get behind us."

Yale looked much better in the second half, racking up 139 yards in the air, but that is mostly attributable to Murphy's decision to play a more passive defense and protect Harvard's precious lead.

"[Yale's second half ball movement] may have been a little conservativism on our part," Murphy said. "[We wanted to] make them drive the entire field rather and not get caught in man-to-man and have a defensive back slip and fall."

As a whole, though, The Game proved what this secondary can do and how far the coaches' trust in it has come.