CAMBRIDGE – If there was any Harvard fans worried about whether or not No. 18 Harvard may overlook Howard on Saturday afternoon, those fears were squashed early.

The Crimson jumped out to a 28-point halftime lead and rolled 48-7 over the Bison in front of 7,678 inside Harvard Stadium.

With the program’s first Ivy League title since 2015 in sight after such a hot start, Harvard is now 5-0 with all league games remaining, starting with a road trip to Princeton next weekend.

Harvard racked up 469 yards of offense to Howard’s 274, including 341 yards rushing. Isaiah Abbey accounted for 120 of those yards and three touchdowns while Malik Frederick had 78 and quarterback Charles DePrima had 87. DePrima also added 128 yards passing and two touchdowns. Harvard also only committed one penalty for five yards in an incredible display of discipline rarely seen in today’s game.

“No, this team’s done a great job of being focused,” head coach Tim Murphy said when asked if he was worried about a look ahead situation this week for his team. “We always talk about not taking it one week at a time, not one day at a time, literally, let’s just focus on getting better in this practice. Let’s focus on the things we’re really focusing on, different practices you’re going to focus on different things. Our kids have done a great job of that. They’ve really bought into that.

“The other thing we’ve done well is eliminating penalties. That was a big thing coming out of last season. We just had too many penalties and the kids have really done a good job of making good decisions on the field, playing hard and playing fast and making sure we don’t give our opponent anything.”

After the defense forced an immediate three-and-out to start the game, DePrima and the offense answered with a methodical 12-play, 77-yard drive that ended with a one-yard TD run for Abbey. Cali Canaval added the PAT. Howard moved to the Harvard 25 on its ensuing drive, but a strip sack from Jacob Psyk was recovered by Nick Yagodich. 13 plays and 71-yards later, DePrima hit a wide open Xaviah Bascon out of the backfield for a seven-yard TD.

Three plays after that, Eric Little came up with an interception at the Bison 30. On the next snap, DePrima rolled out to his right, stopped, and found a wide open Scott Woods II on the opposite side of the formation for an easy touchdown and 21-point lead with 11:04 left in the half.

With the defense continuing to smother Howard, Abbey added an eight-yard touchdown run with 31 seconds left for the 28-point halftime lead.

“I mean, my O-line is insane,” Abbey said with a big smile postgame. “Their mentality as far as like, attacking blocks and getting stuff done, if they make a mistake they talk about it and then forget it entirely and move on to the next thing. It says I have three touchdowns, but it was the O-line. All I did was take the ball and run in the direction they set up for me. I’m very grateful for my O-line and I think anyone…whether it was me or the running back behind me, or the running back behind him, the O-line makes everything possible for us in the run game.”

“Just going off what Coach Murph was saying, it’s all about preparation for us,” DePrima added when asked how much fun it is being at the helm of this suddenly electric offense. “On top of that, it’s just trusting the guys that are out there. You know, we all have…I think we’re in a great place in terms of relationships and we trust each other a lot out there. We’re just going out there with the game plan that is brought upon us by the coaches all week. It’s just a lot of confidence too. I think we’re in a really good place. Guys are rolling.”

After trading punts to open the third quarter, Abbey broke off a 52-yard touchdown run to make it 35-0. Canaval added a 32-yard field goal to push it to 38. Caleb Phillips had a tip drill interception late in the third that set up another field goal early in the fourth after Connor Easthope had taken over at QB.

With 8:55 left, Easthope capped the scoring with a 19-yard touchdown run for a 48-0 lead. Despite giving up a late touchdown with 3:36 left, the defensive performance was stout and probably the best of the season so far for the Crimson.

“I think the thing with Howard is they had some really big blockers up front, some really skilled guys on the outside playing receiver. Quarterback plays a conservative style, pocket passer who doesn’t really make too many mistakes. Fortunately, we were able to turn the ball over a couple times and play…I think we were much better on third down today than we have been, which has been a point of emphasis,” said senior D-linemen and captain Nate Leskovec.

“All together, top to bottom, like Coach Murph said, every day, attacking one day at a time. Checking the boxes every day and maximizing opportunities we have to get better. We still need to do a good job about being intentional and making sure we take care of those things that we need to do…I think we have a solid defense, but I think we’re scratching the surface of what we’re capable of. Hopefully, the second half of the season we can really start to play some really good football.”

At 5-0 and dominating good teams at times, it’s a scary thought for the rest of the Ivy League if Harvard doesn’t consider this its best football yet.

“It means a lot today, right?” said Leskovec when asked what 5-0 means. “We’re excited about winning the game. We say it every week, we’ll enjoy this one today and then focus on going 6-0 next week. Beyond that, we’re not really all that concerned. Just continue to take it one day at a time. It’s been a recipe so far that’s been working for us, so why deviate from that? Focus on getting better, getting our guys healthy. Fortunately, not having a lot of our starters playing in the fourth quarter, we’ll be going into next week a little bit extra fresh even. Not too many guys got too banged up today which is good.

“The only thing better than 5-0 is 6-0 and that’s going to be our focus.”