Again, at the start of the second half the Crimson offense blundered. On the first play, from the Harvard 14, Rose struggled to find an open receiver, missing sophomore Kyle Cremarosa 20 yards downfield. Instead, Rose was picked off by linebacker Travis Belden.

Harvard's defense came up big, forcing Penn to settle for a field goal.

Like dej vu, the Crimson didn't even wait one play to mess up the next time. Palazzo took the handoff, went a few yards and then fumbled. Penn recovered in Harvard territory, but moved backwards and was forced to punt after a three-and-out.

"Our defense overall played extremely hard the entire game, and really was excellent in the second half," Murphy said.

Similar to a joke told too many times, the next incident wasn't even funny. After the punt, Harvard had the ball on its own 20. On the first play, Palazzo carried. He fumbled, and Penn recovered.

After a short pass and a false start penalty, Penn again lined up for a field goal, which fell short this time. The Crimson defense, led by another strong game from freshman linebacker Dante Balestracci, once again came up with the goods.

"After those turnovers to start the second half, we came together as a team," Morris said. "No one was really down. We all knew we could move the ball."

Harvard returned to its bread and butter game to take the lead. Instead of benching Palazzo, Murphy just gave him the ball more. His jaunts up the middle, and some trickery by the offense, set up a 30-yard pass to Morris, who broke two tackles and got inside the five. Two plays later, Rose threw a touchdown to Stakich, and Harvard had a 28-27 lead.