Brown's Offense More Versatile Than Just Hartigan

PROVIDENCE, R. I.—Maybe that Brown offense isn’t quite so one-dimensional after all.

With a shrewdly concocted mélange of backfield misdirections and Nick Hartigan rushes, Bears coach Phil Estes capitalized on Harvard’s commitment to halting Brown’s ground game and transformed the Crimson defense from impenetrable to porous in just over 10 minutes.

Because he was facing an inexperienced quarterback—sophomore Joe DiGiacomo’s start on Saturday was just the second of his career—Harvard coach Tim Murphy singled out stopping Hartigan, the Ivy League’s leading rusher last season, as the primary objective on defense.

“Hartigan’s a great back, needless to say,” Murphy said. “A great running back.”

Though the strategy would necessarily make the end zone more vulnerable by air, Murphy conceded, containing the bruising running back would ultimately limit both passing and rushing options if successful.

Of course, the calculated risk made sense. DiGiacomo had shown flashes of brilliance in guiding the Bears to a season-opening win against Albany, but even Estes had worried aloud that the Crimson would reveal whether his signal caller was “good or just lucky.”

By the end of the first quarter, those doubts had been decidedly dispelled.

From the opening drive, Brown exploited Harvard’s sensitivity to Hartigan’s threat. DiGiacomo’s play-action pass on first down netted 19 yards before the Bears returned to their bread and butter. Hartigan rushed between the tackles for four yards, then took a pitch left for 16.

Not only was Brown’s offensive line already controlling the line of scrimmage, preventing the penetration necessary to limit Hartigan’s effectiveness, but he was barreling his way through tackles, gaining the extra yards after the initial hit the Crimson had sought to limit.

And so when DiGiacomo faked a handoff to Hartigan, then rolled out of the pocket towards the other sideline, the resulting pursuit began in the wrong direction.

The quarterback was left with 53 yards of green space before crossing the goal line, a stunned Harvard defense in his wake, trailing just 1:38 into the game.

“It’s not just [Hartigan],” Murphy said. “I think that Brown’s a really well-coached team, [and] they give you complements on everything. What I mean by that is everything is synced, everything is reciprocal. If they do this, they’ve got this offense, and so you have to cover it all.”

But with attention still squarely focused on weeding out the ground game and the secondary cheating forward to help, accomplishing that proved difficult. Brown regained possession after Harvard’s drive stalled near midfield and returned to the same strategy that had victimized the Crimson defense moments earlier. Two play fakes to Hartigan yielded only a one-yard loss courtesy of defensive end Erik Grimm and an incomplete pass, but the Bears found an opening on third down.

DiGiacomo poorly executed a fake handoff to Hartigan before dropping back to pass. But the mere motion towards the running back sent the secondary cheating forward and allowed wide receiver Jarret Schreck to slip behind. DiGiacomo floated the ball to the 5’9 wide receiver 20 yards into his route and the footrace was on.

Dodging a last gasp dive by senior safety James Harvey with 30 yards to go, Schreck skipped into paydirt untouched and raising a finger in celebration of his 83-yard score, Brown’s second TD with just 4:35 gone by.

“I was surprised, in one respect, how well they did both,” Murphy said. “Not that they could run and throw but that they could do it so effortlessly. We just—for whatever reason—I mean it was like on air.”

DiGiacomo’s unexpected precision left the secondary unexpectedly shaken, but a different strategy would not have rendered him any less accurate a passer. He would still have found his targets and his offensive line couldn’t have been under any less pressure. But the yards after catch surrendered because of the defensive backfield’s posture left Harvard reeling.

DiGiacomo completed just three of five passes in the first quarter but amassed 141 yards, though he would finish the contest 18 for 33 with 313 yards.

Schreck, an undersized and unknown speedster who abused his coverage all afternoon, racked up 122 yards in the first quarter alone—on just two catches—en route to a daily total of 253.

His one-handed 39-yard over-the-shoulder sideline grab after the Crimson’s three-and-out left Brown knocking on the door again, before Hartigan simply broke it down.

Forgoing the play action that had staked them to a two-touchdown lead, the Bears repeatedly rammed Hartigan between the tackles. On Brown’s third drive, he accounted for 21 yards on six carries, including a scoring rush with 4:45 remaining in the first quarter. By halftime, he’d racked up 129 yards.

“We didn’t tackle worth a damn in the first half,” Murphy said. “Hartigan just kept falling forward and forward.”

But after 31 first-half points, the Bears’ offense suddenly shifted away from the effective playcalling that had baffled the Crimson. Hartigan continued to run the ball, but the play fakes dwindled. Brown tried to score, but tried harder to manage the clock. DiGiacomo’s magical touch faded when he remained in the pocket on three-step drops.

And when Harvard rallied and the Bears again needed to move the ball, the Crimson was no longer biting on DiGiacomo’s sleight of hand. His passes fell incomplete and Hartigan was rebuffed.

“They had the answers,” Hartigan said. “We were inside the 10 three or four times and couldn’t get it in. They played real good defense….I just didn’t make the plays we needed to win.”

—Staff writer Timothy J. McGinn can be reached at mcginn@fas.harvard.edu.