"We had an effective game plan," Murphy said. "If they were going to beat us today, they were gonna have to do it with someone other than Johnathan Reese."

Some question surrounded Rose entering the game. He missed several practices with a sore rotator cuff, but felt fairly comfortable after several reps on Thursday.

Rose silenced any questions about his arm when the junior quarterback used it effectively to drive the Crimson into the red zone on Harvard's first possession. Rose opened the game with six completions and a shovel pass to Palazzo behind the line of scrimmage. Two of Rose's throws were short passes at the line of scrimmage to junior wide receiver Sam Taylor, who turned the tosses into modest gains.

After hitting sophomore wide receiver Carl Morris with a 10-yard strike up the middle to give the Crimson a first down at the Columbia 29-yard line, Rose faked a handoff to sophomore running back Nick Palazzo and rolled into open space. He hit Taylor on a fade to the right corner of the end zone, giving Harvard the lead for good at 12:10 in the first quarter.

"I feel fine," Rose said. "I felt a little nervous earlier in the week, but now, no soreness or anything."

Rose, now only 60 yards shy of Harvard's single-season passing yardage record, sat after the third quarter. Freshman quarterback Conor Black, who has solidified his hold on the backup job, threw for 46 yards in mop-up duty.

Harvard's defensive strategy left an imprint on the game before Columbia quarterback Jeff McCall even stepped on the field. Instead of booting the ensuing kickoff in conventional fashion, freshman placekicker Robbie Wright sent a line drive into the middle of Columbia's kick return formation.