Surprise! Harvard Football Dominant Once Again

It’s easy to forget today, but for a moment in the third quarter Saturday, Brown breathed life. The Bears had just marched 80 yards in less than four minutes. Brown running back John Spooney finished the drive with a 34-yard touchdown scamper that brought the visitors within 11, 31-20. There was plenty of time left.

On the ensuing kickoff, a Harvard penalty forced the Crimson to start the possession on its own 16. And on the first play of the drive, a Brown linebacker showed up right in junior quarter Conner Hempel’s passing lane.

But the Bears defender hardly managed to get a paw on the throw, and the deflect pass found its way into senior tight end Cam Brate’s breadbasket. Brate gathered the pass for a 19-yard gain.

Two plays later, Hempel stayed calm in the face of a blitz, finding Ricky Zorn down the sideline for a 63-yard touchdown. In less than two minutes, Harvard had moved the ball 84 yards and put the game to bed before the fourth quarter. Again.

Last week against San Diego, the Crimson started slow and entered halftime up by one, 14-13. In the second half though, the team clicked on both sides of the ball. Hempel led the offense on three scoring drives that each took less than two minutes, and another that took 2:09. The defense only allowed one more score, and that only came with Harvard up big. The Crimson won, 42-20.

Saturday, Harvard must have decided it liked the way that game went. This time the Crimson spotted its opposition 13 points before getting on the board. But by the second quarter, Harvard had another 14-13 lead. It was clicking again.

Senior safety Jaron Wilson returned an interception 51 yards for a touchdown. Sophomore running back Paul Stanton scored from 15 yards out minutes later. And when Brown scored in the fourth quarter, it didn’t matter. At the end of the game, the score was nearly the same as it was a week ago. This time Harvard won 41-23.

Both safety and running back were question marks a few months ago. It turns out they are still well-functioning parts of the Harvard machine. The offense was loaded with new faces coming into this year. Now we know it’s simply loaded. We should have seen this coming.

Over the last six years, Harvard is 35-3 against every Ivy team besides Penn, and that includes last year’s aberration at Princeton. That’s not by mistake. Once again Saturday, it was Harvard who won the turnover battle, made the big plays, and fell on loose balls.

At the start of the game, it was Brown who controlled play. It entered the game as the biggest contender to Harvard and Penn’s collective reign—the only other team to earn a first-place vote in the preseason poll. On the Bears’ second drive, returning starting quarterback Patrick Donnelly led the team on a 78-yard scoring drive. Then Brown recovered a surprise onside kick and scored a second touchdown less than two minutes later.

It looked like this might be the Bears’ year. Now, we know better. Of course, Brown still has a chance to compete for its first outright title since 2005. In fact, the Bears lost to Harvard in Cambridge that year too.

But now Brown head coach Phil Estes is resigned to hoping the Crimson slip up multiple times. Historically speaking, that seems unlikely.

Next week, Harvard travels to Holy Cross. The Crusaders are coming off a come-from-behind win at Dartmouth they capped with a last-minute field goal. It was an impressive win, until you remember that you can’t draw too many conclusions about an early-season non-conference matchup. Sometimes, a team makes a few mistakes and loses to a lesser foe.

Just not this team.

—Staff writer Jacob D. H. Feldman can be reached at jacob.feldman@thecrimson.com.