“Every game there was something different that contributed to us ultimately losing games,” Butler says. “I think for the past three games we just could not get all three units—offense, defense, special teams—to play well as a whole.”

Raftery agrees.

“More than anything else, it has been those breakdowns [on both sides of the ball] that have lead to the losses,” he says.

But as Dawson frames it, that’s how things go sometimes—even though, when the dust settled, the Crimson couldn’t really believe its eyes.

“I would be lying if I said that I didn’t expect to be 9-0 going into the Yale game,” Dawson says. “But that’s just not how things work out within this league, especially with the talent on each team so close together. You can’t take anyone too lightly—not that we did—but I just don’t know whether we did the things we needed to in order to win those games like we had with the first six.”

Factor in a final, valiant eight-point loss against then-No. 8 Penn that culminated in a failed comeback bid somewhere on the Quakers’ five yard line, and they all imply that it is indeed tough.

It’s tough not to head into this Saturday feeling like this was the season—for all its initial hype and potential—left unfinished.

Battling for Position

So The Game admittedly isn’t going to be worth much in the grand scheme of lofty Ivy League standings, championships and statistics. There’s no three-way tie for first, no share of the conference title to be had—though everyone would obviously like things to be a little more dramatic for No. 120.

What it is going to be instead is a battle for second-place in the Ivy League, for the second straight time. But Harvard’s entire season will be at stake—at least numerically.

Harvard and Yale currently sit at 6-3 overall, with Harvard No. 3 in the Ivy League, and Yale No. 2. Both squads are distantly behind the 9-0 Quakers—who have long since wrapped up the Ivy League crown—but a look down the Ivy standings reveals something intriguing.

On the one hand, a Harvard victory at the Yale Bowl this weekend would ensure it second place, and drop Yale down to No. 3.

But alternatively, a Crimson loss—and a victory by Brown, Columbia, or Dartmouth, all of whom have losing overall records—would officially give Harvard a sub-.500 Ivy record and no higher than a fourth-place finish behind one of those “lower-tier” teams.

Players like Butler, though, dismiss the numbers and continue to focus on the only goal in mind.

“The fact that those teams finish ahead of us means nothing to me motivation-wise,” Butler says. “[That we’re playing] for first place and second place in the league means nothing. Our motivation is to win our last game and to send my senior teammates out on top.”