Football Stakes Title Hopes on Annual Yale Game

The journey ends here.

After the graduation of 14 All-Ivy players, an epidemic of injuries, and nine weeks of bruising play, Harvard football once again stands on the brink of an Ivy League championship.

Beat Yale, and the Crimson will secure a fourth-straight Ancient Eight title for the first time ever.

Lose, and Harvard will go down as a team that squandered considerable talent and nullified a nine-year winning streak in The Game.

The pressure is high, and by no means is the Crimson perfect. The program has lost twice—to Holy Cross and Penn—and eked out its last three victories by a combined 12 points.

Still, Harvard (7-2, 5-1 Ivy) has plodded on. At the start of the season, the Crimson shouldered immense expectations and strove for a historic goal. Now everything has reduced to a single contest.

Yes, the journey ends here—at Harvard Stadium, on Saturday afternoon, and in the 133rd playing of The Game.

“The main thing is pride,” captain Sean Ahern said. “There’s so much pride between the two programs. It goes back over 100 years…. It’s for the guys who came before and built the program to what it is now.”

Last week, the Crimson could have clinched a piece of the Ancient Eight crown by downing second-place Penn. But the Quakers defended their home turf, scoring two touchdowns in the final 15 seconds to claim an epic 27-14 win.

For the moment, then, Harvard, Penn, and Princeton each possess one conference loss—which means that, for each program, a victory this weekend would lock up a share of the championship.

The Quakers play at Cornell. The Tigers host Dartmouth. And Crimson players? Well, they have a matchup of their own.

“Every year, no matter what the records are or what’s at stake, Harvard-Yale just has a different feel about it,” senior quarterback Joe Viviano said. “That’s really why you come here.”

In the long history of The Game, no program has ever built a winning streak as long as the one that Harvard now enjoys. Nine games. And if the Crimson wins, then it will push that streak to double digits for the first time.

Harvard’s destruction of Yale plays into a larger narrative of dominance. The Crimson has not had a losing campaign since 1998. In 23 seasons with Harvard, Murphy has grabbed nine Ivy titles; one more in 2016 would tie him for most all time with Carm Cozza, the Bulldogs’ coach from 1965 to 1996.

The Crimson’s hopes rest largely on the defensive line, which gives up a mere 92 rushing yards per game. The senior Cerberus of Langston Ward, Doug Webb, and James Duberg anchors the unit, but sophomore D.J. Bailey has morphed into a monster of his own, leading the team with six sacks.

Last Friday, that defensive line held Penn to a lackluster 21 rushing yards on 20 tries and gave the offense an opportunity to sneak back into the game. Which the offense did, powered by key throws from the senior Viviano.

The 220-pound Viviano embodies the following paradox: How fast can a man with two broken feet run? Pretty darn fast, it turns out.

After breaking both his feet in separate incidents as a junior, Viviano has emerged as one of the shiftiest Crimson quarterbacks in recent years. He has topped 10 rushing attempts in all but one start and scored five touchdowns.

Success through the air has come and gone in spurts. The senior has completed 62 percent of his throws for 14 touchdowns and eight interceptions. But against the Quakers, Viviano tossed three picks before halftime to dig a 14-3 hole.

“It wasn’t Joe’s best game, but I know he’s a good quarterback,” Murphy said. “We believe in him. He’ll certainly be ready to play this week.”

Whenever Viviano passes, he tends to focus on three players: senior Anthony Firkser, and sophomores Justice Shelton-Mosley and Adam Scott.

Firkser is the latest in a line of dominant tight ends. At 230 pounds, the NFL prospect mixes bowl-you-over power with catch-me-later speed. He puts up 15 yards per grab and leads all targets with seven touchdowns.

Although Shelton-Mosley has notched a single score, he has caught at least five passes every time that he has taken the field. He has sure hands and silky strides—assets that distinguish him as a kick returner.

Scott shares the workload with Shelton-Mosley, which is fitting because the off-field roommates also share a double. Thanks to a lingering muscle injury, the 5’7” Scott didn’t see action until late October, but he has electrified the Ancient Eight ever since. Averaging 80 all-purpose yards a game, Scott blows past opponents on screen passes, jet sweeps, and quick slants.

These receiving weapons might cause nightmares for a Bulldogs secondary that allows 296 passing yards per contest. In terms of scoring defense, Yale ranks last in the league by nearly a touchdown, conceding over 36 points per outing.

“When you analyze the athletes they have on the field, they have a ton of great athletes,” Murphy said. “Depth doesn’t seem to be an issue for Yale. They just haven’t put it all together.”

Injuries have plagued the Bulldogs throughout the year. Three quarterbacks have started games, and three running backs have topped 100 rushing yards.

However, Yale seems to have settled on a solid duo in freshman quarterback Kurt Rawlings and freshman running back Alan Lamar. In week five, Rawlings led the Bulldogs to a stirring win against Columbia, and the 5’9” Lamar has averaged 4.4 yards per carry.

The safety position is one source of veteran talent for Yale, as four-year starter Foyesade Oluokun and junior Hayden Carlson man the position. Back-end talent compensates for upfront weakness, as the Bulldogs are tied for last in the Ancient Eight with 15 sacks.

In any rivalry game, however, past performances mean little when the two opponents take the field.

Harvard has played nine games so far. But practically and emotionally, the results of the first nine mean nothing without a triumph in the finale.

Just ask Murphy, who has overseen 22 editions of The Game. His final thoughts?

“Expect the unexpected,” the coach said. “It’s the Harvard-Yale game.”

—Staff writer Sam Danello can be reached at sam.danello@thecrimson.com.