The play seemed to energize Harvard. The Crimson drove in for a touchdown on the ensuing series and put another one in before the end of the first half for the 21-0 margin.
Two consecutive penalties, first a face mask call that reversed a punting situation for Harvard and then a holding call, seemed to chew the life out of the Bulldogs on the drive after the failed fourth down conversion.
And that's when junior receiver Colby Skelton and Harvard seemed to put it in gear. Skelton ran a reverse to the right side of the field, and there was nary an Eli to been seen. The play propelled the Crimson 38 yards downfield to the Yale five-yard line; however, Skelton tore his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) on the play.
An unscathed Eion Hu put the ball in the end zone on a two-yard rush one play later.
Hu controlled the ground game in the second half and reprised his fantastic performance in last year's Game. Hu's 177 yards surpasses his effort in last year's game by two yards. Hu also broke the Harvard record for number of carries in a game (41) and became the first Harvard back to rush for more than 3,000 career yards.
Harvard put another one on the scoreboard right before halftime. Freshman quarterback Rich Linden and Jared Chupaila, who had eight catches for 100 yards, hooked up on the drive for a 19-yard pass, and Linden kept the ball on a draw play for the touchdown in The Stadium's closed end.
After a rocky first couple of drives at the beginning of the game, Harvard settled down, and Linden heated up. After the Crimson sent Yale three and-out on the Elis' third drive of the game, Linden engineered a 68-yard, 10-play drive that resulted in a three-yard touchdown pass to tight end Andy Laurence.
Yale had plenty of chances in both halves but consistently failed to capitalize until the fourth quarter. The Elis did score at the end of the third quarter when quarterback Barber connected with Rodriguez for a 12-yard touchdown pass.
Ryan Korinke also added a 25-yard field goal for the Crimson in a drive that consumed 7:13 of the fourth quarter.