Despite small gains on special teams, Harvard’s greatest weakness reared its ugly head once again against the Lions.

Sophomore kicker Jim Morocco, benched earlier in the season due to a poor performance, struggled mightily, missing one of his two extra points and his only field goal attempt.

Morocco pushed the first of his extra-point tries off the right upright and his botched 36-yard field goal flew wide of the right upright as well.

Senior punter Adam Kingston shone when he didn’t suffer from lack of protection.

Three times Kingston’s kicks were deflected by oncoming Lions as a result of poor coverage on the line of scrimmage.

“It was a nightmare,” Murphy said. “I don’t think there’s any other way to put it.”

Each time, however, Kingston managed to get the kick away, though each travelled less than 30 yards.

“We talk about dagger plays,” Columbia coach Bob Shoop said. “We talk about being fundamentally sound and technique conscious in the kicking game and we talk about just one aspect of another team’s kicking game that we feel like we can exploit....We saw some things in their punt protection that we thought we could take advantage of.”

When Kingston had the chance, though, he boomed his kicks, knocking two longer than 55 yards and twice trapping Columbia inside its own 10-yard line—once at the eight, once inside the one.

Though the kicking suffered, the Crimson did manage to visit some of its own suffering upon the Lions, blocking an extra-point try on the first touchdown of the game.

—Staff writer Timothy J. McGinn can be reached at mcginn@fas.harvard.edu.