Ouch, indeed. Columbia was left hurting not only from such jarring hits, but also from costly turnovers caused by one of Harvard’s most improved defenders—junior cornerback Chris Raftery.

Raftery, who earlier this season won Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week honors, was all over the field making plays in Saturday’s contest. He forced a fumble, picked off a Hunsberger pass over the middle of the field and tackled punter Nick Rudd on a fake attempt that gave the ball back to the potent Crimson offense.

As Balestracci said earlier this season, the defense’s main goal is to make big plays to get the ball back in the offense’s hands. Saturday was an example of just that, as Harvard’s defense recovered a fumble, caught an interception and forced four turnovers on downs. And the defensive players did it with a vengeance.

“We were playing a tough game of football,” Balestracci said, in perhaps the understatement of the season.

Entering its most important game of the year, Harvard is fortunate that its defense is rising to the occasion and playing with such determination and championship-caliber resolve. Against the mighty Penn offense, the Crimson defense will surely be tested, but signs are promising as to how Balestracci and the Boys will respond.

Just ask Hunsberger. Or ask Columbia coach Ray Tellier. Heck, you can even ask the cast of ESPN’s College GameDay, which will be giving this epic Ivy match-up national media exposure by broadcasting live from Penn’s Franklin Field this Saturday.

Oh, and if Lee Corso brazenly puts on a silly Quaker hat and tells you that Harvard’s defense won’t be up to the challenge and that Penn will win the Ivy title, well, you need only shake your head, repeat what you’ve just read, and feed him his own medicine.

Not so fast, my friend.

—Staff writer Dan Fernandez can be reached at dfernand@fas.harvard.edu.