And Nakielny's woes continued when, with a 12-11 lead on a fourth-quarter drive that could have killed what remained of the game clock, he mishandled a snap and linebacker Isaiah Kacyvenski recovered at the Princeton 27-yard line to set up Giampaolo's winner.
"Turnovers really killed us today," said Princeton Coach Steve Tosches. "We gave the ball up three times in the second half and Harvard converted all three into field goals."
And that proved crucial in Harvard's surviving sloppy play and big-play lapses like Nakielny's only bright moment of the game--a 65-yard touchdown pass to wideout Ryan Crowley that caught safety Mike Madden napping in single coverage--a defensive breakdown that Linden followed with a 62-yard completion to wideout Colby Skelton on a broken-play rollout five minutes later. Every time the Crimson coughed up a turnover or blew a punt, the Tigers covered it up with gaffes of their own.
And if I may add one item to the Crimson's sin list: red zone efficiency, as Harvard looked worse than the Dallas Cowboys in punching the ball in from inside the Princeton 20, mustering only three field goals on four trips.
"We had almost 80-percent touchdown effectiveness in the red zone prior to today's game, and today it was just the opposite," Murphy said. "Because we couldn't throw down there, because we lacked timing and spacing our offense became one-dimensional. Princeton's defense is always very tough and they have some excellent corners."
Running either Menick predictably off tackle or curiously going to a largely ineffective option late in the game, Harvard failed to break through what should have been a beaten-down Princeton defense, on the field for almost 40 minutes.
"The fact is that we kept a great offense out of the end zone all day," Tosches said.
But enough griping from the peanut gallery. A win is a win is a win, right? Perhaps not--Saturday's rain-drenched, supremely messy victory showed something about the character of a team that simply didn't win games like this a year ago. Remember Dartmouth and a missed field goal of the same crossbar that Giampaolo cleared?
"This was the best team we've seen and a hard, physical game," Murphy said. "But this team was determined to leave the field with a victory."
Something about the way the defensive line blitzed Nakielny on Princeton's last-ditch drive with time expiring, something about the hits the secondary put on the Tiger wideouts as the clock wound down, something about the way Menick and the offensive line's uniforms looked like something out of a Tide commercial made you believe Murphy's faith.
And most off all, something about the way the crowd leaving Harvard Stadium spontaneously applauded Mike Giampaolo as he headed to the locker room makes you feel that beauty, at least as far as football goes, is in the eye of the beholder.