On a day when Payton Award candidate Fitzpatrick connected on only seven of 15 passes for 79 yards and junior fullback Kelly Widman—who came into the game with one career catch—led the team in receiving yards with 35, Murphy was pleased with his signal caller’s game management.

“The quarterback’s main job on a day like this is to make sure you come away without turnovers and he made great decisions,” said Murphy of Fitzpatrick, who was lifted midway through the third quarter with the game already in hand. “It’s not about his statistics. It’s about field management and he did a great job of field management.”

On the other side of the ball, after Gruber’s early fumble, the Holy Cross offense couldn’t muster anything against the Crimson defense. The unit that was supposed to miss its leader and anchor, Dante Balestracci ’04, looked perfectly in-sync with junior linebacker Matt Thomas and Everett flying all over the field. The linebacker duo combined for nine tackles and put constant pressure on O’Neil, who finished the day with only 70 yards in the air. The tandem twice forced the Crusaders’ quarterback to throw the ball before he wanted, and both times the ball ended up in the hands of Crimson senior safety Ricky Williamson.

“I think we’re going to have a much better defense than we did a year ago,” said Murphy after watching his team hold Holy Cross to just 131 yards of total offense. “We really feel like we have some talented, tough, experienced kids and we should be a good defensive team.”

Even the kicking game, which in recent years has been a nightmare for Harvard, showed some promise. Freshman kicker Matt Schindel made field goals of 31 and 37 yards and appeared unhampered by the wet conditions.

—Staff writer David H. Stearns can be reached at stearns@fas.harvard.edu.