"Harvard said that we have an unstructured curriculum and were in a podunk city. Also, they said they were going to steal our girlfriends after the game. That pumped us up."

"Harvard said they didn't respect us as people. They also said our girlfriends are ugly. That pumped us up."

"Harvard said we're ugly and so are our girlfriends, and that they're going to fire us when they're our bosses some day. That pumped us up."

This low-grade name-calling is ridiculous. I propose that next year's Harvard-Brown game be replaced by a WWF Smackdown-style confrontation in which the top five trash-talkers from each team sit at midfield, facing each other Family Feud style. Each can have a microphone, with the captain of each team serving as "dad."

I think we can probably get Merv Griffin to throw something together, maybe some music and a little TV coverage. ESPN's Chris Berman, a Brown alum, can do the color commentary. Maybe there'll be a lightning round that rewards fast thinking, and bonus points for fresh "yo mama" takes, if any still exist.

This year, however, they settled the game the old-fashioned way, and the lasting impression is that Harvard could just as easily have won this game--and maybe the Ivy title--as lost it. Chances are that the Crimson's chances of a title are over, and it's not because it wasn't good enough to win the Ivies.

Harvard is a very good team and a couple of plays (and wins) from being a great team. This defense is terrific and was again Saturday; Murphy said it couldn't have played better.

In Harvard's two league losses, Destiny turned its back on Harvard in crunch time. Cornell scored 14 points in the last three minutes to win 24-23 in a game that Harvard owned for 59 minutes. Saturday, Harvard made too many mistakes to win but came incredibly close.