In a scene eerily reminiscent of the play two weeks ago when Rose was hurt against Princeton, he remained down on the ground for a few minutes.

After walking to the sidelines on his own, Rose did not return to the game.

“He will be fine,” Murphy said after the game.

It turned out Rose had simply suffered a “stinger” and with the game mostly in hand, the decision was made not to play him anymore.

Rose finished with a nearly perfect day, completing 14-of-16 attempts for 156 yards and two touchdowns. His only incompletions were a dropped pass by tight end Matt Fratto and his final throw-away.

Since freshman quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick was still suffering from an ankle injury, he came in for only one snap before third-stringer Garrett Schires took the ball.

Considering he was making his first-ever appearance in collegiate football, the freshman handled the duties adequately for Harvard to finish out the first half. The lefty even threw a touchdown pass to Byrnes to continue to blowout, 35-7.

The Crimson added the final points of the half when senior defensive end Marc Laborsky intercepted a McCall pass. Junior placekicker Anders Blewett, who hit the game-winning 30-yard field goal against Dartmouth last week, connected on a 36-yarder.

The 38 first-half points marked the Harvard record for the best start in its 128-year history.

It was simply a matter of holding on in the second half, and while Columbia managed to outscore the Crimson 26-7, the outcome was hardly in doubt.

Staph made way for junior tailback Nick Palazzo who was dominant in the second frame. Palazzo carried the ball 18 times for 132 yards. He reeled off several runs of over 20 yards, including the Crimson’s final touchdown, when he went around the left end for 32 yards.

Schires also had an admirable effort, finishing 9-of-11 for 76 yards.

More importantly, he never gave the ball away.

“If you can only find one reason we’re undefeated, well, there’s 124 teams in Division I-AA,” Murphy said, “but there’s only one that has the fewest turnovers—that’s us.”

For yet another game, Morris was a star, catching nine balls for 86 yards and two scores. Morris set the Harvard record for career receiving yardage (1991 yards) and career touchdown receptions with 16.