FOUR-TIFIED

The Harvard front four also dominated throughout the evening, recording six sacks—by six individual players—and 12 tackles for loss.

"[Zach Hodges, John Lyon, Nnamdi Obukwelu], those guys pose matchup problems that you have to take into account in your protections," Susan said. "We started to adjust the protections as we went, but they are [so] good in terms of their ability to create straight-line rush, and they’re excellent in their movement and twist game, which really poses problems."

Until Bucknell’s final drive—when it scored a touchdown against Harvard’s second-team defense with 59 seconds remaining—the Crimson held the Bison to -1 rushing yards on 30 attempts. Bucknell’s starting running back, Jeremiah Young, was limited to 29 yards on 16 carries on the evening—just 1.8 yards per attempt.

“You won’t run the ball on us,” Hodges said. “That’s our job, to not let teams run the ball.”

Hodges paced Harvard with 3.5 tackles for loss, giving him a team-high 11 on the season. His 1.1 sacks per game is the sixth-best mark in the FCS.

“There’s always a difference in the athleticism between an offensive line and a defensive line, and that was obvious today,” Susan said. “That’s the best defensive line in terms of performance that I’ve seen.”

—Staff writer Scott A. Sherman can be reached at ssherman13@college.harvard.edu.