THE BOOK OF SAMUELS: Tiger Contest Chock-Full of Surprises

Most people who came to Harvard Stadium on Saturday probably expected just what I did: an old-fashioned whooping, courtesy of the mighty Harvard offense and defense.

At the very least, there were some guarantees. Against a weak Princeton defense, junior Colton Chapple would have another day that left his stat sheets looking like a Madden box score. And the stingy Harvard defensive line would shut down the Tigers’ running game.

But on Saturday, you couldn’t count on anything. The unexpected became the expected in one of the craziest games that Soldiers Field has hosted in years.

The most surprising moment, though, didn’t come when the teams scored nine touchdowns on 12 possessions. Or even when Princeton fought back from a 26-point deficit to bring the game within three points.

No, it came just one minute and 22 seconds into the game, when a Harvard No. 16 jersey—worn by senior quarterback Collier Winters—came onto the field to lead the offense.

I thought—we all thought—this was a done deal. Winters was out. Through. It was Chapple’s game now. Winters had ridden off into the sunset. Forced into early retirement, the next stop for Winters was Florida. Bingo and golf, here we come!

Because during Winters’ injury, Chapple had stepped in and set the record books ablaze, doing things with the football that Harvard quarterbacks just don’t do.

And even with Winters healthy to play last week, it was the junior that came out to marshal the offense, not the veteran Winters.

So no one expected that Chapple would’ve been benched in favor of the fifth-year senior. Even the stadium announcer had it wrong, proclaiming that Chapple would start behind center against the Tigers before the game.

In the junior’s place, Winters didn’t have a flawless game. He missed the open receiver at times and opted scramble far too often. He had an ugly interception in the second quarter.

But overall, Winters picked up just where Chapple had left off, completing 81 percent of his passes, throwing for 403 yards, and tallying six touchdowns—five through the air, and one on the ground.

And so, Winters too assured himself a place in the Harvard record books, becoming just the third Crimson gunslinger ever to throw for more than 400 yards in a game.

Some of Winters’ passes were, well, Chapple-esque. Throws like his 53-yard touchdown pass to senior Chris Lorditch couldn’t have been placed any better.

And certainly, it helped to have such a deep and talented wide receiver corps. Some receptions just wouldn’t have been possible without acrobatic moves from the wideouts. Sophomore receiver Matt Brown’s high-flying touchdown reception in the first quarter proved that sometimes it pays to have basketball players on the gridiron.

In the end, though, it was Winters’ game. And now, it’s Winters’ offense, as he appears to be the long-term starter.

“I’m really proud of what Colton did while I was out,” Winters said. “I’m thankful for the coaches having the confidence in me to play me this week, but I’m really grateful for Colton getting us in this position, and I thought he did a great job.”

In his own, soft-spoken way, Winters was thanking Colton for the ride. But now, he’ll take the keys back, thank you very much.

On the other side of the football, the defense, the one constant all year has been the powerful, suffocating defensive line. Senior defensive tackle Josue Ortiz and Co. had held opponents to an average of just 55.4 yards per game on the ground coming into Saturday’s game.

But against Princeton, when upside down became right-side up, the run defense took the day off.

Other than one sack by Ortiz, who was pulled early in the second half after suffering a mild concussion, the usually dominant D-line got dominated. The leave-your-mouth-wide-open front seven did just that against the Tigers, but for a much different reason.

In its first five games, the Crimson D-line had allowed 277 yards on the ground.

In 60 minutes, Princeton nearly matched that number, galloping for 267 yards.

And the on-and-off secondary was off as well, surrendering nearly 300 yards in the air. The trouble really began when senior cornerback Matt Hanson had to sit out a few series after getting banged up. Without its stalwart, the secondary struggled, dropping coverages and failing to stop the relentless Princeton attack.

Eventually, after the all-Ivy senior came back in, the defensive troubles subsided, and Harvard overcame the adversity to take a far more exciting game than was previously expected.

But Murphy refused to explain away the defensive struggles by pointing to injuries to key players. And rightly so. He knows there’s serious work to be done before the level of competition picks up.

“I don’t care who goes out of a game,” Murphy said. “If Josue goes down, we have to step up. We talk about it all the time: everything we do is about adversity training ... The true test of fortitude and the true test of excellence is being able to fight through adversity. So there’s no excuses.”

—Staff writer Robert S. Samuels can be reached at robertsamuels@college.harvard.edu.