Low Snaps, Wind Gusts Derail Special Teams

Special teams were a factor in Harvard’s 20-13 win over Yale yesterday afternoon—a disastrous factor, that is.

Coaches on both sidelines were left shaking their heads throughout the game, as the swirling wind and bitter cold proved a challenge for both teams.

“The kicking game today was tough, shaky and unpredictable for both sides,” said Harvard coach Tim Murphy.

The Crimson’s punting game was plagued by low snaps all day, which disrupted the rhythm of junior punter Adam Kingston. One snap that hit Kingston square in the midsection caused him the most trouble.

With Harvard punting from its own 41 late in the first quarter, Kingston muffed the snap and faced a fierce Yale rush by the time he retrieved it. With disaster looming at his own 30, he hustled to the right sideline and somehow managed to get off a running punt—a ground ball of sorts—that topspinned all the way to Yale’s 41.

Kingston’s ability to get the ball at least that far downfield was critical, and the Crimson defense held the Elis to a three-and-out on the next possession to negate the miscue.

“That was not exactly as planned,” Murphy said. “But that was nice improvisation by Adam Kingston.”

Unfortunately for Yale coach Jack Siedlecki, his team didn’t emerge as well from a similar situation in the third.

After Harvard forced the Bulldogs to punt on their first possession of the second half after just one series, Yale punter Ryan Allen mishandled the snap at his own 29-yard line and was taken down by Crimson sophomore Sean Tracy.

“I think he bobbled it,” Siedlecki said. “It didn’t look like a bad snap. He just must have felt that he couldn’t get it off.”

The mistake proved fatal. Six plays later, Harvard scored its first touchdown of the day, and Anders Blewett’s point-after gave the Crimson a 7-6 lead it never relinquished.

But to add to the special teams drama, Blewett—a senior who entered the final game of his career 58-of-58 on extra points—missed the PAT on Harvard’s second touchdown of the quarter.

Kingston, meanwhile, came up with the biggest special teams play of the game with under three minutes to go when, standing inside his own 30, he launched a gorgeous spiral all the way to the Yale 15. And though the Bulldogs’ return brought them out to the 27, the Crimson defense held them to a three-and-out and Harvard got the ball back.

“That was a nice punt down the stretch when we really needed it,” Murphy said.

Yale Offense

Yale entered The Game as the Ivy League’s top rushing team, and it showed from the start.

The Bulldogs, who entered the game averaging 173.6 rushing yards per game, began the contest with six consecutive run plays—all to sophomore standout Robert Carr—before throwing on the first play of their second drive.

Of Yale’s 11 first-quarter plays, nine were runs. The other two were incomplete passes, as the Bulldogs had a tough time getting any offensive rhythm going early in the game.

“With the atmosphere of that stadium and the way the wind swirls,” said Yale tight end Nate Lawrie. “It was hard to get a feel for where the ball’s going to go.”

Yale, in fact, didn’t cross midfield until early in second quarter, when a 23-yard run by Carr brought the Bulldogs right to the 50.

But Yale gained momentum from there, and quarterback Jeff Mroz found Lawrie for two key pass plays to put the Bulldogs in position for their first score of the day.

But Yale’s inability to establish a running game in the later stages of the contest was its downfall. During the third quarter—while Harvard scored 20 points to take control of the contest—the Bulldogs netted out at negative-9 rushing yards.

“They ran the ball as well as anyone in the league, and our defense did a great job,” Murphy said. “We made them do what they weren’t happy doing, which was throwing the football.”

Harvard Running Game

The Crimson running game, meanwhile, mirrored that of the Elis in the first quarter. Of Harvard’s first 10 plays, nine were runs, but at the end of the quarter, the Crimson had gained a meager 38 yards on the ground.

Things slowly got going, though, and senior tailback Nick Palazzo and sophomore quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick combined for 150 yards and three touchdowns on the ground by game’s end.

Palazzo was the workhorse, carrying the ball 26 times for 95 yards and a touchdown in his final game at Harvard and picking up tough yardage on a day when he knew he’d be needed.

“Some games, your role might be pass-blocking, but when it’s crappy weather, you’re going to be between the tackles,” Palazzo said.

“Because of the elements, we had to go to ‘Plan B,’” Murphy said. “We had to put it in the offensive line’s hands. They did a great job physically, Nick Palazzo was huge, and they realized that they had to stop our running game with Ryan back there. It was rock-’em, sock-’em, Lambeau Field stuff.”

—Staff writer Jon Paul Morosi can be reached at morosi@fas.harvard.edu