"There aren't many good fourth-and-10 calls," said Penn Coach Al Bagnoli. "It was a great play by the quarterback and receiver."

"I heaved it up--it was the only thing I could do," Hoffman said. "I had no idea where the line of scrimmage was."

That call could have gone either way, and if it had gone in Harvard's favor, the Crimson would still be only a game back in the League. Against Cornell, a 24-23 loss, bad luck victimized Harvard on fourth down again. Kacyvenski made what seemed to be a game-sealing interception with Harvard up 23-10. Instead, a bad defensive holding call on Waller gave the Big Red new life, and Cornell scored two quick touchdowns to win that game.

And you certainly can't blame last week's 17-10 loss at Brown on the defense, considering it held the Bears to only 230 yards, less than half its per-game average.

I wonder if this game made Murphy reconsider his decision not to guarantee Hoffman the starting job this summer when Hoffman was looking to transfer from Northwestern. Hoffman completed 29-of-48 passes for 348 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions.

"I thought I was going here, but things didn't work out," Hoffman said. "There was no resentment or extra incentive to win for me."

Meanwhile, Murphy's two quarterbacks, seniors Brad Wilford and Rich Linden, combined for four interceptions. Wilford had four last week and added three Saturday, even getting pulled for Linden for two second-quarter series. Linden threw an interception in the end zone to kill a great scoring opportunity just before the half.