Brown got the ball to start the game and scored on its first three possessions. The Bears used a controlled passing attack and running back Joe Rackley to move down the field on its first possession, chewing up eight minutes on the drive, which was punctuated by a three-yard touchdown scamper by tailback Tristan Murray.
A similar drive took shape in the beginning of the second quarter, when the Bears moved the ball 94 yards in seven minutes.
Gessner, who had been limited to short catches up until that point, ran an out-and-up on the right side to blow by the coverage and catch a 27-yard touchdown pass from Slager in the end zone. However, Brown kicker Paul Christian missed his second extra point of the day and the Bears were limited to a 12-0 lead.
This time Harvard had a response. Rose, who finished a perfect 5-for-5 before leaving the game, completed two 20-yard passes, including one to senior wideout Carl Morris that moved Harvard into Brown territory.
Several plays later, senior tailback Nick Palazzo, who finished with 82 yards rushing and two touchdowns, took Rose’s handoff to the right sideline. He then barreled 25 yards to the end zone for the Crimson’s first score to cut the deficit to 12-7.
Harvard’s defense was outdone once again on Brown’s next drive, which only took three plays. On third down from his own 40-yard line, Slager managed to find Gessner on a short cross route and the All-American did the rest, scoring his second touchdown of the day.
“We knew the offense was keeping us in the game,” Garcia said. “It was just a matter of us making plays—it was just that [Brown] was outplaying us for most of the game.”
A missed two-point conversion meant Brown had a 18-7 lead, and it was after this score that Murphy rode his “colt” to victory.
Rose, who had been suffering from back problems since preseason, injured himself on the bus ride down to Providence. In the second quarter, Rose took a hit on a scramble that aggravated a sciatic nerve condition that affected his legs, and he left the field on crutches while Harvard played defense.
Fitzpatrick provided an immediate boost to the offense with his scrambling abilities. He single-handedly ran for 64 yards on his first drive, and put the Crimson into position for Palazzo’s second rushing touchdown, a one-yard burst late in the second quarter. Harvard failed on the two-point conversion, however, and Brown maintained a 18-13 lead.
The end of the action-packed first half featured a well-planned Harvard one-minute drive.
This time, Fitzpatrick showed off his arm. He connected with sophomore wideout Rodney Byrnes for 32 yards, and then an 18-yarder to Morris to cover half the field as time winded down. Finally, on the Brown 19, Fitzpatrick rolled out ro his right, before throwing a perfect cross-field pass off his back foot into the end zone, where Morris hauled in his third touchdown catch of the season.
“I’d rather throw the ball anyway,” the quarterback said.
Harvard ran into the locker room with its first lead of the day, 19-18, and that would be all it needed.
The Crimson picked up where it left off to start the second half, with Fitzpatrick and a running back—this time senior Rodney Thomas—keeping the Bears’ defense off balance.
Harvard ran nine straight times to get to the Brown 8-yard line before Fitzpatrick tossed a fade to junior Kyle Cremarosa, who made a nice jumping catch in the endzone.
The Bears scored one more time to cut the lead to 26-24 before the final few minutes’ flurry of activity.
“We’ve got a pretty poised team,” Murphy said about his team’s come-from-behind victory.
—Staff writer Rahul Rohatgi can be reached at rohatgi@fas.harvard.edu.