Harvard did attempt a wide-receiver reverse against Colgate, but defenders in the backfield did not allow the play to develop, and Paterson took a loss on the play.

Clutch Performance

Much has rightfully been made of the two pivotal Colgate drives to start the fourth quarter. In those drives--down only six points at the time--the Crimson allowed first downs on back-to-back third-and-17 and third-and-10 situations on a Colgate touchdown drive, then went in reverse on offense, losing 11 yards on three plays before snapping over the punter's head on fourth, resulting in a loss of yards.

The meltdown was complete. Colgate had the ball deep in Harvard territory with a comfortable two-touchdown lead, and the game, was, for all intents and purposes, in the record books.

But the two key third-down conversions, while clearly crucial, were merely symptomatic of the problem that plagued the defense throughout the day--an inability to hold on third and long.

The Colgate offense clearly was not running on all cylinders. Harvard forced the Raiders into third-and-four or more or nine separate occasions. Behind the athletic Vena, Colgate converted on seven of nine third downs, and earned a first down on both of the failed conversions after converting on fourth down.

"We were sloppy today," Vena said. "But we made some huge third-down conversions. When it came down to it, we got it done when we needed to."

"They seemeed to deliver in the crunch," said Harvard Coach Tim Murphy. "They wore us down and just poured it on in the fourth quarter."

Heavy Workload

Sophomore tailback Chuck Nwokocha got a rude introduction to the rigors of carrying virtually a team's entire load out of the tailback position.

Nwokocha, kindly listed at 5'6 in the media guide, is blessed with speed and exceptional balance. The tailback has improved his running noticeably from limited action last year, and appears to have put last year's troubles holding on to the football behind him.

Nwokocha looked confident and aggressive at the corner of the Colgate defense, slipping through holes that a less-nimble back would have missed.

There, are, however, limitations to Nwokocha's abilities. His diminutive stature makes getting tough yards up the middle a difficult proposition. Ordinarily, tough yardage might be the domain of the fullback, or at least an experienced fullback in the backfield could be used to blow open holes for the tailback.

However, since junior fullback Damon Jones was lost for the season, Harvard is left without an experienced ball-carrier at the fullback position, and much of the ball-carrying load from that position, has been dumped on Nwokocha at tailback.

Nwokocha's numbers from Saturday may be less than stellar, but this is more a manifestation of Harvard's losing the battle at line of scrimmage and of injuries forcing an unaccustomed workload on the running back than of poor play.