In the fourth quarter, Harvard set up a deceptive play where Fitzpatrick took the snap, flipped it to Morris, who in turn threw to Fitzpatrick for a first down. However, the play was called back on a holding penalty on junior left guard Joe Traverso. The Crimson could not come back first-and-20 and ended up punting.
“We had a bunch of momentum busters,” Murphy said, “the obvious one being the penalty on the reverse pass.”
The many setbacks the Crimson faced on Saturday were the result of a lack of execution that turned this regularly 400-yard, four-touchdown offense into a floundering, frustrated unit.
“We didn’t make enough good plays to win the game,” Murphy said.
The Crimson looks to make some big plays and learn from its dismal performance Saturday when it plays next weekend at Princeton, a critical game featuring the Ivy League’s top contenders. The Crimson and the Tigers are the only remaining teams with undefeated league records.
Northeastern 17, Football 14
Northeastern 7 3 0 7 — 17
Harvard 0 7 7 0 — 14
First Quarter: N—Gale 43 pass from Brady (Kesic kick), 6:38. Second Quarter: N—FG Kesic 38, 14:56. H—Jenkins 1 pass from Fitzpatrick (Blewett kick), 5:03.Third Quarter: H—Morris 18 pass from Fitzpatrick (Blewett kick), 11:14. Fourth Quarter: N—Parks 20 pass from Brady (Kesic kick), 14:50. Attendance 13,402.
Northeastern Harvard
First downs 15 20
Rushes-yards 54-208 28-140
Passing 128 209
Comp-Att-Int 9-18-0 21-53-0
Return Yards 29 28
Punts-Avg. 7-39.7 9-34.8
Fumbles-Lost 3-2 2-2
Penalties-Yards 9-75 7-70
Time of Possession 34:44 25:16
Rushing Northeastern: Riley 28-124, Harris 14-68, Brady 10-18, Team 2-(minus 2). Harvard: Fitzpatrick 12-81, Byrnes 7-65, Thomas 6-7, Rose 1-(minus 2), Morris 1-(minus 5), Team 1-(minus 6). Passing Northeastern: Brady 9-18-0-128. Harvard: Fitzpatrick 15-34-0-155, Rose 6-19-0-54. Receiving Northeastern: Parks 6-83, Gale 1-43, Thomas 1-5, Riley 1-(minus 3). Harvard: Morris 9-108, Cremarosa 4-45, Byrnes 3-33, Jenkins 2-8, Harvey 1-7, Thomas 1-5, Fratto 1-3.