Bears Mar Football's Chances

PROVIDENCE, R.I.--The Harvard football team's defense put forth its most impressive effort of the season Saturday, holding the Brown offensive attack--believed to be almost unstoppable--to its lowest offensive production of the season by far.

Because Harvard struggled so much offensively, it fell short and fell a game behind in the Ivy race, 17-10.

Six Harvard turnovers, four of which were Brad Wilford interceptions, were just enough to allow the Bears (7-1, 4-1 Ivy) to stay in a tie for first with Yale (7-1, 4-1) despite having its lowest point total of the season by 10 and its lowest yardage total by 162 yards against the Crimson (5-3, 3-2 Ivy).

The fifth turnover, an interception returned 44 yards by Brown sophomore cornerback Melvin Justice, was enough to break the game open for Brown.

Early in the fourth quarter, after the Bears mounted their first effective drive of the day to tie the game 10-10, consecutive sacks of Wilford pinned the Crimson deep in its own end. On the ensuing third-and-30 play, Wilford looked to make something happen for the Crimson.

Wilford tried to throw a bomb down the left sideline but overthrew his receiver by a mile. It was a fairly low-percentage play, as the Brown secondary had the Harvard receivers outnumbered.

Justice caught the ball on the Brown 38, with no Crimson player within five yards of him.

"I told [Wilford] that a long pass interception would be just as good as a punt," Harvard Coach Tim Murphy said. "We tried to throw it to the outside, but I guess it drifted in."

Most of the offensive players were 50 yards away from Justice and in the worst possible position to defend against the interception return.

After coming down with the interception, Justice sprinted across the field, and turned up the near sideline. With all of the Crimson players either yards away or blocked, Justice was able to run down the sideline completely untouched before being pushed out of bounds at the Harvard 18, just four yards ahead of the original line of scrimmage.

"We knew they'd throw the ball on third-and-30," Justice said. "I just played my zone, and made sure I protected the ball. Then I saw some gaps, and I hit them."

After a 14-yard pass to junior flanker Billy Rackley, big sophomore tailback Mike Malan scored on a four-yard run to put the Bears ahead for good, 17-10.

The Crimson had many chances to tie the game, as Harvard drove into Brown territory on each of its last three drives, but each time the Brown defense made a big play to silence any hope of a Harvard comeback.

On its first drive after the interception return, Harvard went three-and-out again. But on the subsequent punt return, Campbell coughed up the ball to the Crimson, giving Harvard a first down on the Brown 40.

Two plays later, senior running back Chris Menick had a chance to save the day for the Crimson. He busted through the line and went down the left sideline. Twelve yards downfield, Brown safety Tony Paquette shoved Menick, who was tiptoeing the sideline, just enough to push him out-of-bounds with nothing but open field in front him.

Two Menick rushes later, Harvard had third-and-4 from the Brown 13, but lineman Michael Archer got through the line on a Wilford option keep left and threw him down for a seven-yard loss.

Mike Giampaolo missed the 37-yard field goal.

"Until today, we were one of the best teams in the country at scoring in the red zone," Murphy said. "I think we had scored on 31 of 35 attempts."

Harvard got its next chance after Brown went three-and-out. A short punt and a Brown penalty gave the Crimson the ball at midfield. The Crimson then managed to convert twice in a row on third down, as freshman flanker Kyle Cremarosa made a clutch catch in the middle for 18 yards and Patterson got open on a slant for 11 yards.

But in the red zone, the Crimson was stopped again. On second down, Patterson had a pass slip out of his hands at the 5. For Patterson, who fumbled a punt return in the first quarter, this was a day to be forgotten.

Wilford tried to go to Cremarosa on the next two plays, but he was unable to connect both times.

"On that last play, we called a play with three receivers, which gave [Wilford] a chance to choose between two posts, but he just threw it behind him," Murphy said.

With five minutes left, and all of its timeouts remaining, Harvard still had plenty of time left, and after senior defensive end Mike Sands sacked Brown quarterback James Perry at the Bear 15 on third down, it appeared the Crimson would get the ball right back.

A questionable 15-yard personal foul call on Harvard and automatic first down gave Brown new life.

The penalty was costly, as it forced Harvard to use all of its timeouts on the ensuing series. Still, the Harvard defense forced Brown to punt, and another short kick gave the Crimson the ball at its own 44 with 3:07 left.

On the first play of the drive, Wilford hit junior tailback Chuck Nwokocha on a screen for a 16-yard gain, giving Harvard a first down inside Brown territory once again.

But on the next play, under pressure from the Bears and rolling right, Wilford forced a terrible pass that went right into the hands of Paquette. Wilford's ill-advised pass put to death any chance of a Crimson comeback.

"When a quarterback throws an interception, it's a reflection of the protection and of the secondary," Murphy said. "We take a responsibility as a team for those interceptions."

The defense held Brown to three first-half points and kept Harvard in the game despite four first-half turnovers--two interceptions and two fumbles on punt returns. Harvard then appeared to take control as it opened the second half with an impressive 13-play, 75-yard drive highlighted by an 11-yard touchdown run by Menick. Menick, who ran 29 times for 110 yards on the day, dragged a defender the final two yards to put the Crimson up, 10-3.

Brown made its own halftime adjustments and came out challenging the Harvard defense with a five-receiver set. The Bears looked unstoppable at first, as Perry completed five passes in a row in driving to the Crimson 42.

"Perry looked real good on that drive," senior linebacker Isaiah Kacyvenski said. "He makes quick decisions."

But then Harvard defense stepped up and forced the Perry to rush a few throws. On fourth-and-4, the Brown attack faltered as sophomore tight end David Brookman dropped a pass that would have gone for a first down.

On their next drive, the Bears went back to the three-receiver set. Perry completed 7-of-9 passes, finding freshman flanker Chas Gessner and Campbell three times each as Brown passed its way to the Harvard 11.

"It's frustrating to play Perry," Sands said. "He's got a real quick release, which makes it hard for the defensive lineman to get there."

Inside the red zone, Perry handed the ball off to Malan on consecutive plays. The Harvard defense, which had been stopping Malan all day, suddenly had difficulty tackling him, as he broke tackles en route to a nine-yard gain, then rushed in from the 2 for the game-tying touchdown.

"Brown's a different team this year, now that they've got the big back," said Sands of Malan.

Malan's ability to run the ball in the second half doesn't indicate how well Harvard's defense played. In the first half, Perry, who averages 331.3 passing yards per game, was held to just 62 yards. Campbell, who led the nation in receptions going into the game, was held to only two receptions, and Malan, coming off a 200-yard game, was held to seven yards.

If the Crimson offense had been able to exploit a defense that was giving up nearly 28 points a game, it would probably have been a different story. However, Wilford, who was 18-of-36 for 175 yards, was unable to make the throws as he did in last week's 63-21 win over Dartmouth.

He was picked off on Harvard's second possession of the game. He then underthrew freshman Carl Morris when he was three yards past his defender on a route right down the middle of the field. He also overthrew Patterson on second-and-5 and the ball at the Brown 29 for his second interception.

The Bear defense played a major role in Harvard's offensive struggles and succeeded in shutting down Harvard in critical situations, applying constant pressure to Wilford and making the play when Wilford threw bad passes.

"Brown was bringing the pressure all day, give them credit for that," Murphy said. "But we didn't make the big plays offensively when we had to."

It was a tribute to the mental toughness of the defense that there was no letdown as the Harvard turnovers frequently forced the defense to rush back onto field with only a moment's rest.

"We call it sudden change," Kacyvenski said. "We practice it all week. In those situations, we have to make a play. We have to play hard-nosed football."

"To hold [Brown] to what we did in light of the turnovers, we couldn't have been any better defensively," Murphy said.

Patterson's dropped punt near the end of the first quarter on the Crimson 17 led to Brown's only score of the first half.

"Basically, you're looking at a guy who for four years has never dropped a ball," said Murphy of the punt. "It was kind of a fluke thing."

Another fluke came in the second quarter, when a Bear punt went cascading off of senior cornerback Kane Waller's leg as he concentrated on blocking and lost track of the ball. Waller had no chance to get out of the way.

Overall, the loss was as close as Harvard's previous two and might have ended Harvard's title chances. With Brown's two remaining games against last-place teams, the Crimson will need serious help to catch the Bears again.

"I feel like we've hit rock bottom," said Kacyvenski. "This feels even worse than the Cornell loss."