Heading on a Southwest Airlines flight to Hartford Friday afternoon en route to the Georgetown-Yale game, the line item under USA Today's list of football games caught my eye..."Holy Cross at Harvard, 7". And so began an unexpected ride east along I-90 to catch two games in two of American's great stadia.
I arrived at Harvard just after kickoff, with a large, and I mean LARGE contingent of students making its way down from campus. One girl in gthe group remarked she hadn't been to a football game before, but was going to be there this evening. In a town where evenings are for events and Saturday afternoons are for sleep, this was an event. Harvard filled the old stadium from the 10 yard line right to the other 10--a great turnout on a Friday night. Holy Cross was well represented as well, and the total attendance was around 22,000 in a 33,000 seat stadium. One person remarked it was the largest non-Yale turnout in years.
Halftime was also good. Holy Cross' band did their best, but they marched only 22, and Harvard marched 90 onto the field, well attired in crimson blazers for a scramble band, or what passes for music at the Ivies outside the great Cornell marching band. I've seen some of the lame attempts at humor from Columbia and Brown's band, so I can give the HUB credit for focusing more on the music and less on the left of center social commentary.
And, of course, a great finish, Harvard 25-24. I know somewhere there are some brahmin deriding an evening game aside Soldiers Field and harkening back to the days when games were played in the early afternoon as it has always been, but Harvard ought to have one or two night games a year, if for no other reason but to get people interested about the team earlier in the season. (An 11th game wouldn't hurt either, but this is only the 21st century we're talking about, not the 22nd...)
Saturday was Georgetown at Yale. The Yale turnout was small (maybe 10,000) on a 70 degree day in New Haven, I frankly had expected a big turnout. This message board may not be big enough to hold the level of irritation and frustration with the game, which can be boiled down to one concept: how remarkably hamstrung Georgetown recruiting has now become within the confimes of the Pennsylvania...er, Patriot League and how it translates on the field. Yale was pushing the small Georgetown line up and down and sideways all afternoon picking up 498 total yards against a small (that phrase, again...) but eager Georgetown defense. Good intentions only takes you so far.
With no line after three weeks, Georgetown has almost no rushing game left (Charlie Houghton has 98 yards in THREE games) and maybe a two second pocket for passing. The Hoyas punted on all six first half drives, many three and out. The starting QB was 4-6 for 43 yards. The defense is slow in the secondary and Yale was all over that. Now averaging 8 points a game, Georgetown won't be within three TD's of any other team left on the schedule this season at this rate.
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