Record-Setting Comeback Keeps Football Unbeaten

The Harvard football team staged the biggest comeback of its 128-year history on Saturday versus Dartmouth.

Over 12,000 fans—this season’s largest crowd, which included Senator Edward M. “Ted” Kennedy ’54-’56 and former Vice President Al Gore ’69—witnessed the Crimson erase a 21-0 halftime deficit against Dartmouth (1-5, 1-3 Ivy) in under four minutes during the third quarter. Junior Anders Blewett kicked the game-winning field goal early in the fourth quarter to put Harvard up 24-21 and complete the amazing comeback.

The victory means Harvard continues its undefeated season and its quest for the Ivy league title. The Crimson’s 6-0 (4-0 Ivy) record is its best since 1968.

“I’m very proud of how our kids responded to what we had to say at halftime,” Harvard Coach Tim Murphy said. “We not only played with tremendous character in the second half, but we also made a lot of big plays and plays in the clutch.”

Those big plays appeared midway through the third quarter, when the Crimson was down 21-0.

Harvard’s first drive of the second half took the ball down to the Dartmouth 35-yard line. On second-down and 4, freshman quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, starting in place of injured senior Neil Rose, pitched the ball left to junior wideout Carl Morris. Morris switched direction to the right and ran across the field before pausing to fire a pass to wide-open senior wideout Sam Taylor, who was back on the left side of the field. Taylor then rushed in untouched for the touchdown and the Crimson’s first score.

“The play was designed to go down the sideline, but the receiver was double-covered,” Morris said. “Sam Taylor was just kind of standing there and we were on the same page.”

The Crimson’s trickery breathed new life into the crowd and the team, which had been frustrated in numerous attempts to get into the end zone in the first half. Seventeen seconds later, Harvard would get there again.

On the ensuing kickoff, Crimson junior Xavier Goss nailed the Big Green’s Steve Jensen, forcing a fumble that Harvard senior Shawn Parker recovered at the Dartmouth 32-yard line.

Fitzpatrick, on the first play from scrimmage, tossed a fade to Morris, who outran his cornerback, made the catch and rumbled in for the score.

“That was a big play,” Dartmouth Coach John Lyons said. “Morris had a hell of a day, and he just went up and caught the ball over us and that was it.”

Blewett’s extra point made it 21-14 and gave the momentum to Harvard.

The Crimson defense, which had uncharacteristically given up 124 yards rushing in the first half, sensed things were going its way and finally showed up. The Big Green’s next possession was a debacle as it moved backwards three straight plays, including a third-down sack by Harvard senior defensive end Kyle Sims. Dartmouth was forced to punt.

Fitzpatrick didn’t miss a beat. Harvard’s first play, from the Dartmouth 45, was a pass over the middle to Morris, who made a spectacular jump and held on to the ball before getting tackled down at the 5-yard line. Junior tailback Nick Palazzo, who hadn’t played a down in the first half, then tied the game with a touchdown run.

The score came 10 minutes into the second half.

Just like that, a game that had seemed over for the Crimson was turning into the type of contest everyone had expected.

Harvard’s defense shut down the next Big Green possession when senior strong safety Andy Fried sacked quarterback Joe Kinder on third down. The ensuing punt gave the Crimson excellent field position.

Palazzo, who had missed last week’s contest against Princeton with a hamstring injury, took over the offense, rushing for 18 yards on four carries to set up a 30-yard field goal attempt.

“Palazzo told me in the first half that he was ready to go, but I could tell from his voice he was far from perfect,” Murphy said. “At halftime he said, ‘Coach, I want to go.’”

After play paused for the end of the third quarter, Blewett came on to try to make his first field goal of the season and the biggest of his career. He had taken over field-goal kicking duties from sophomore Robbie Wright earlier in the season.

The snap was steady and the kick perfect. The ball sailed through the uprights and the crowd erupted at the sight of Harvard’s first lead of the game.

“There were a lot of anxious people on the sidelines,” Murphy said. “That field goal was an emotional lift.”

Harvard never looked back after taking the lead. The defense took over, and reminiscent of last week’s 28-26 victory over Princeton, stopped the Big Green attack in the fourth quarter.

“We weren’t sustaining any more offense,” Lyons said. “They pretty much shut us down in the second half.”

But an odd sequence of events in the fourth quarter almost put Harvard’s win in jeopardy.

On Dartmouth’s next possession, freshman quarterback Evan Love threw a pass at midfield that was intercepted by sophomore linebacker Dante Balestracci. Balestracci, who returned two interceptions for touchdowns in last year’s 49-7 win at Dartmouth, ran 61 yards and leapt into the endzone for a touchdown. But a combination of penalty flags on both ends of the field confused both teams and, it seemed, the officials.

After five minutes of discussion, the officials nullified Balestracci’s TD, but gave Harvard the ball at its own 9-yard line. Murphy was livid, as were most of the fans, still unclear as to what the penalties were. Eventually the ruling came down that two personal fouls on Harvard were called—one on the team for “excessive celebration,” and another on senior cornerback Willie Alford, who was engaged in a scuffle with a Dartmouth wide receiver back at the Harvard 33-yard line.

“Their guy took a swing at ours and it’s always the second guy that gets caught,” Murphy said. “I always tell our guys they just can’t do that, especially on the tail end of a play and that will never happen again this season.”

Still, Murphy was unhappy with the call.

“Well, [the referees] made the right call in there. But you know what? I don’t think you make that call 50 yards behind a play you know is going into the endzone,” he said.

Stuck back in its own zone, the Crimson was eventually forced to punt. But more mistakes by the Big Green offense, including a fumble by Love after a sack by senior defensive end Marc Laborsky, killed Dartmouth’s chances to stage its own comeback. Harvard eventually added an insurance touchdown at the end of the game on a Palazzo run for a 31-21 lead.

The amazing comeback, Harvard’s biggest ever in 1149 games over 128 years, was necessitated by the Crimson’s own poor play in the first half. Big Green tailback Michael Gratch and tight end Casey Cramer combined to rush for 124 yards in the first half and simply bowled over the usually sturdy Harvard rushing defense.

“We just didn’t come ready to play in the first half,” Balestracci said. “They came out with more intensity and really pushed us around the first half.”

Dartmouth scored quickly to start the game, when Love connected with Cramer on a 14-yard touchdown pass 2:30 into the first quarter. Ten minutes later, Love dove in for a score to end a 70-yard drive.

It was a beginning no one expected, even with the injuries to Rose, Staph and the offensive line. Harvard spanked Dartmouth 63-21 in the Big Green’s last trip to the Stadium.

“We came in slightly overconfident,” said Morris, who finished the game with 11 catches for 153 yards. “We felt we were just going to pick up where we left off and the offense was going to keep rolling.”

Instead, senior tailback Rodney Thomas, who started the game, was limited to 24 yards on eight carries, and Fitzpatrick was hard-pressed to find any targets besides Morris. The Crimson was also stopped several times on downs.

Fitzpatrick, who had an excellent second half, also made a critical error late in the second quarter when he threw an interception to Kevin Hogan, who returned the ball to the Harvard 8-yard line. Dartmouth scored again before the half to take a 21-0 lead.

“They completely outplayed and out-coached us in the first half,” Murphy said. “Those guys came ready to play. Conversely, and I take full responsibility for it, we weren’t ready to play.”

But whatever Murphy and the coaching staff told the players at halftime—he said “you couldn’t print it”—certainly worked.

On the other side, Lyons was left to console his Big Green squad, which so far this year has lost to Penn by one point and Columbia by seven.

“I mean, we played our ass off in the first half and we just couldn’t sustain it,” he said. “The guys got overwhelmed in the third quarter.”

Harvard takes the momentum of two straight thrilling victories at home to New York this Saturday, when it faces off against the streaking Columbia Lions in New York.

It is not clear whether Rose or Staph will be back by next weekend.