Lonesome Kickers on “Special Teams”

Depending on your viewpoint, here’s an interesting or depressing statistic to mull over: of the five field goals attempted on Saturday; none went through the uprights.

This weekend’s game was a little dose of deja-vu for the Crimson faithful as sophomore placekicker Robbie Wright missed two field goals in the first twelve minutes.

True to his surname, Wright pushed his first attempt from 31 yards wide right. Two Harvard drives later, Wright threw in a little variety and missed wide left from 29 yards out.

“It was a solid effort all-around,” Murphy told the press after the game.

Except, of course, for the kicking game.

If you guessed that Wright was pulled at this point, you underestimate Murphy’s patience. In fact, Murphy replaced Wright with junior Anders Blewitt only after Wright missed a point-after attempt following the Crimson’s first score.

To his credit, Blewitt made both of his two point-after attempts. He did however, also miss a field goal when his 39-yard try sailed right and short on the last play of the second half.

And Harvard’s “special” teams should not be singled out. Cornell’s senior kicker Peter Iverson not only missed a field goal from 48 yards, he also had a 35-yard field goal attempt blocked in the second quarter.

Combined the teams went 0-for-5 on field goals and 2-for-3 on extra points. Unless of course, you count failed two-point conversions, in which case that latter number drops to 2-for-5.

Either way, nothing too “special.”