Brown's Play-Action Foold Dartmouth

Everyone had one question after Harvard's come-from-behind 24-19 win over Dartmouth on Saturday: "What happened to Larry Brown and your offense in the second half?"

Coach Joe Restic smiled, and then the world knew that in addition to his head football coaching chores, he has been moonlighting as Brown's alter-ego.

"We had some problems with execution and throwing the ball in the first half," Restic commented after the game. "Larry was overthrowing his receivers. We knew we had to do something about this, because our receivers were wide open."

So Restic changed his strategy. He shelved the sprint-out type of attack he had employed in the opening half, and went to play-pass action, using fakes to the backs and short slant passes by Brown in an attempt to rejuvenate the passing game.

"I figured that if Larry had more time to throw he would get the ball down. Our receivers would still be open because the play fake to the backs would free them short," Restic said.

Mod Squadder Link Hayes would have called Restic's strategy "solid." Brown, after suffering through a 5-for-15 opening half in the air, chucked 6-and-6 and accumulated 119 yards upstairs in the final 30 minutes.

Productive Ground

Brown's passing also freed the Harvard setbacks for a productive afternoon on the ground, as Ralph Polillio (20 carries for 95 yards) and fullback Matt Granger (11 carries for 79 yards) reaped the benefits of the all-around attack.

Restic summed up Harvard's offensive success on the day, which will prove tantamount to the team's success the rest of the way. "We know we're able to throw the ball," he said, "and we must make our passing game go before we start to run on teams. We can't run then pass and expect to win because we just don't have that power-type running game."

And sometimes, as happened on Saturday, a change of strategy is needed to unleash the air game. But alter-egos aside, don't look for Joe Restic's name in the passing stats.