"We didn't need the offense to win the game for us," Murphy said. "We needed it not to self-destruct."

On the next drive after the field goal, Harvard went three-and-out--on three incomplete passes. Each play involved a slight misread. The first two downs, Wahlberg led his receivers a little too far to make a proper catch. On third down, Wahlberg took too long to find wide open sophomore receiver Kyle Cremerosa at the 40-yard line. By the time he made the throw, the Crusaders were mounting pressure and the pass was well off the mark.

Wahlberg's critical errors, though, didn't happen until the third quarter. Setting back at his own 20, he felt the oncoming Holy Cross pass rush instinctively went to his short, safe option. However, his dump-off pass went straight into the hands of Crusader linebacker Luke Sinkhorn, who then went right into the end zone.

Wahlberg's third interception finally knocked him out of the game. A shanked punt had given Harvard great field position at the Holy Cross 34. Two rushes had brought Harvard into the red zone. The runs set up the play action, but Wahlberg forced the issue and his pass was batted straight up into the arms of defensive end Ben Berger. Harvard was only down 20-18 at that point and was well within field goal range.

"[Wahlberg] seemed like he was a little nervous," Sinkhorn said. "We were giving him pressure, moving him around and stemming him a lot. It seemed like he couldn't handle it that well."

While Wahlberg, given more time behind the center, certainly will improve and perhaps flourish, after one game Rose is the more polished quarterback.

It didn't seem that way at first. Rose's second offensive series consisted of one play--fumbling the snap right after a Crusader turnover put the Crimson at the 20 yard line. Still down 20-18, Harvard could've seized the lead and the momentum with at least a field goal.