Some of the blame clearly goes to a Holy Cross squad that was outwitted and outmatched. But certainly, the Crimson deserves much of the credit. You don’t score 49 points or limit the other team to three in the first half by accident.

“It was a combination of us just getting completely in sync in the first half and playing against, quite frankly, a very banged-up Holy Cross squad,” Harvard coach Tim Murphy said.

In the game’s opening minutes, a ruthless, Genghis-Khanesque blowout didn’t seem in the cards. While the Crimson marched seemingly unopposed downfield for the score in the team’s opening drive, the Crusaders responded with a possession that was similarly dominant, though it culminated in a field goal.

Harvard scored again, blocked the subsequent Holy Cross punt, and returned it for a touchdown.

But for the Crusaders, the second quarter was even uglier, when things went downhill faster than a freshman with a bottle of Rubinoff.

It became a dismal game of ping pong for Holy Cross. Harvard touchdown, Holy Cross punt. Harvard touchdown, Holy Cross punt—you get the idea. When the 15-minute onslaught came to a close, the Crimson had put 28 points on the board. By that point, the fat lady had already run through her operatic repertoire and was moving on to showtunes, and the rest of the game was just running out the clock.

Of course, it’s still early in the season, too early to fully extrapolate trends. But after this win, accomplished with a ruthlessness that would make ol’ John Rockefeller smile, I’ll harken back to a quote Murphy made before the start of the year.

“I don’t know if we’re any good, I really don’t,” Murphy said before the team’s first game. “I know you guys think that’s being ‘whatever,’ but we haven’t played anyone. It’s such a work in progress when you’ve got so many new faces and moving parts and schedule and so forth.”

Now, with the team sitting at 3-0, this much is clear: Harvard’s not just good. Harvard may be downright dominant.

—Staff writer Robert S. Samuels can be reached at robertsamuels@college.harvard.edu.

—Follow him on Twitter @bobbysamuels.