Harvard appeared to bounce right back, however. On the third play of the next series, sophomore split end Carl Morris took the ball on an apparent reverse but pulled up and found fellow sophomore wideout Kyle Cremarosa at the Holy Cross 22. It was a 38-yard pass and the Crimson's longest completion of the day.

That pass set up sophomore placekicker Anders Blewett's 32-yard field goal attempt a few plays later. Blewett missed the attempt wide left which would have made the score 27 - 21 Holy Cross.

After a three-and-out for Holy Cross, Harvard got the ball with 7:55 to go in the game at its 28 yard line. Harvard marched down the field on the strength of four Rose completions along with some tough red zone running by Jared Lewis to the 1-yard line. Rose capped the drive with a one- yard touchdown plunge with 4:18 remaining.

"Obviously we gave a great effort and played extremely hard and because of that we still had a shot," Murphy said. "Basically we kick a field goal, we have a chance to win the game."

Though Harvard still had all of its timeouts, the defense was unable to stop Holy Cross from running out the clock on a seven play, 59-yard drive.

The defense couldn't stop the Crusaders at the very end, but it was the offense that lost the game for the Crimson.

Harvard coughed up five turnovers, three of them interceptions, to a Holy Cross defense that didn't have to stop the Crimson offense so much as wait for it to make a mistake.