Defense Bears Down on Brown

Six quarters into the season, Harvard coach Tim Murphy finally saw the defense he’d been waiting for.

After giving up 31 points and almost 500 yards of total offense the weekend before against Holy Cross, the Crimson looked to be in the midst of another defensive disaster against Brown on Saturday night. Harvard went into halftime clinging to a four-point lead, but the defense had already given up 198 yards through the air and 17 points, including two 11-play touchdown drives during the second quarter.

The run defense, which allowed 38 yards on 12 carries, was the lone bright spot during the first half. However, the Bears’ ground game was severely weakened due to the loss of starting tailback Dereck Knight. Knight went down within the first couple of plays of Brown’s first drive and would re-enter only briefly later in the game.

His backup, Jonathan Edwards, failed to pick up the slack as Harvard held him to just 17 yards on 10 carries. He was even out-run by Bears quarterback Michael Dougherty, who had 21 yards on 12 carries.

And although it could not handle Brown’s passing game early on, adjustments proved to be the key to the game, as the Crimson came back with a new pass defense in the second half—and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

“We saw a lot of things in the first half they didn’t run against Duquesne,” Murphy said. “They didn’t run their whole repertoire, so it was pretty basic in the one film we had. I think we just adjusted well. I think our defensive staff really did an outstanding job. We have a history of finding out what they do best and then taking it away from them.”

Harvard allowed a total of just 62 yards after intermission—51 yards through the air and 11 yards rushing on 13 carries. Daugherty was 5-of-17 and threw three picks in the second half after a 13-of-27 and turnover-less start.

Much of the Bears’ struggles on the offensive end were a product of the Crimson finally being able to put pressure on the quarterback. The Crimson managed only one sack in Week 1 and none in the first half, but came back with three after the break. The defensive line got in Dougherty’s face, hitting or hurrying him on a majority of the plays, as the whole unit utilized its quickness on the added blitzes.

“I think we put a lot of pressure on him,” Murphy said. “When we didn’t sack him, we hit him. When we didn’t hit him, we were in his face. It made it tough for him to throw the ball.”

Two of the three picks fell into the arms of senior cornerback Steven Williams, who had a third called back on a defensive holding penalty earlier in the game.

“Our safeties were flying all over the place, ” Williams said. “I just had a few lucky tosses my way.”

One of those safeties was senior Doug Hewlett, who made a number of nice plays. At one point, the Bears looked to have a sure touchdown with a pass to an open Buddy Farnham, when out of nowhere Hewlett jumped in to break up the play. He led the team with seven tackles.

The third interception came from sophomore Derrick Barker. Barker struggled in the Holy Cross game, and the second-year player had a tough start to the day, matched up against speedy Brown receiver Paul Raymond. But he found more of a rhythm in the second half—his interception was the clincher, coming with just over 1:30 left in the game.

The spirit of the defense in the second half is promising for a squad that has to travel to Lehigh next weekend and face dual-threat quarterback Sedale Threatt. But it seems the Harvard ‘D’ is finally finding the form that made it one of the best in the nation a year ago.

—Staff writer Madeleine I. Shapiro can be reached at mshapiro@fas.harvard.