Harvard did not lay down its arms, however. Starting at its own 20, the Crimson was forced to do something it had only done once during the game-- drive the length of the field. Rose started things off by firing a bullet to sophomore wideout Carl Morris for a 14-yard gain.
Rose went to Morris again a play later and misfired, but gained the yards anyway when defensive pass interference was called against the Quakers. After an incompletion, Rose hit Sam Taylor, who made it to the Penn 30 before going out of bounds with 54 seconds left. Rose then went to tight end Chris Stakich, who picked up a short pass underneath, turned upfield and got taken down at the Quaker 11-yard line.
A false start sent Harvard back to the 16, where it now had 40 seconds and three chances to make it to the end zone. All three times, the Quaker pressure forced Rose into three incompletions.
"We went for a couple plays to get into the end zone," Murphy said. "They mixed up strong-side, weak-side blitzes, and we didn't have enough guys to pick up the blitz."
The crazy ending overshadowed an excellent football game played by both sides. Rose went 16-of-33 with three touchdowns, and his 266 passing yards moved him into first place on Harvard's all-time single-season passing list, with 2,345 yards going into this weekend's game against Yale.
Harvard's rushing attack picked up 181 yards against the top-ranked Quaker rush defense, mostly on sophomore Nick Palazzo's 122 yards. Morris also added big numbers to his season, catching eight passes for 181 yards and two touchdowns.
The game was exciting from its first minutes. Penn, on its first possession, marched 82 yards on ten plays and scored on a one-yard keeper by Hoffman. Harvard's defense got beaten up, and the strong start by Penn looked ominous.
Harvard barely waited to make its comeback. OK, it waited twelve seconds.
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