The storyline from Saturday’s meeting between Harvard and Princeton read like a generic script for Crimson failure from last season.

The Harvard offense jumped out to an early lead but committed costly turnovers and couldn’t put away a reeling foe. An opportunistic opponent took advantage and stayed close into the final quarter. The Crimson defense gave the opponent a chance to win, and the game came down to a field goal in the final seconds.

Fortunately, this time it was Princeton’s Taylor Northrup’s last second field goal attempt sailing wide left, and the Harvard bench erupting in celebration.

During the 2000 campaign, Harvard lost heartbreakers to Penn and Cornell, which were credited in large part to the team’s inexperience.

This time around, Harvard Coach Tim Murphy believed the Crimson’s growing confidence and experience made the difference.

“I thought it was a great win for us because we had our hands full of adversity,” said Murphy. “I don’t know if we had the confidence to play like this a year ago.”

During a dramatic come-from-behind victory over Brown in the first week of the season and Saturday’s victory over the Tigers, the Crimson proved to itself and its critics that this year’s squad possessed the mental composure that last season’s team lacked.

That newfound composure may be just the thing to push the Crimson to an Ivy League title and, perhaps, an undefeated season.

Breach of Security

Coming off a season in which the Crimson committed an astounding 36 turnovers, Coach Murphy and his staff preached nothing but ball security to the team in the offseason.

And through Harvard’s first four games, the extra effort appeared to have paid off. The Crimson had committed only two turnovers all season heading into Saturday and were ranked second nationally in turnover margin.

But against an aggressive Tiger defense, the Crimson’s focus lapsed as senior quarterback Neil Rose threw three interceptions and senior wide receiver Sam Taylor lost a very costly fumble.

Coach Murphy drew a direct correlation between Harvard’s mistakes and the close final score.

“If you want to know why we were down at halftime, it’s obvious,” he said. “We made mistakes we hadn’t made in a long, long time.”