SOUNDING BOARD

“There was no way I wasn’t going to be out there. I owe that to the seniors. My first two years here, seeing them after the game with smiles on their faces from beating Yale—we weren’t going to let that feeling escape us this year.”

Junior quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, explaining his decision to play in today’s game, despite the risk of further injuring himself. Fitzpatrick had broken his throwing hand and is currently suffering from injuries to both his left knee and ankle.

“That’s why I wasn’t looking at [junior wide receiver Brian Edwards]. He was supposed to run a five-yard hitch.”

Fitzpatrick, explaining his 79-yard touchdown pass to Edwards. Edwards headed straight for the endzone off the line of scrimmage before his defender fell down, leaving him with 40 yards of open space with no one within 10 yards of catching him.

“I’m saying , ‘throw to the underneath guy, throw to the underneath guy... Oh, great play’.”

Harvard coach Tim Murphy, recounting his inner monologue during the broken play that resulted in Edwards’ touchdown.

“[Fitzpatrick] did a great job. They protected him. We couldn’t get to him.”

Yale coach Jack Siedlecki, bemoaning his team’s inability to pressure Fitzpatrick. With a bum knee and ankle, his scrambling abilities were severely limited, but the Bulldogs still managed only three sacks thanks in large part to solid blocking throughout by the offensive line.

“I guarantee you there was absolutely no time I felt comfortable. Not even when the Gatorade came on my head. I just said, ‘What are you doing? This game isn’t over.'”

Murphy, addressing his concerns that Yale might pull off a late-game comeback like the one in which the Bulldogs scored 21 fourth-quarter points to force overtime against Penn.

“Obviously having Rodney [Byrnes] and Brian Edwards and Corey Mazza and Fitzy on the same field, quite frankly I’m a better coach when those guys are on the field. It’s difficult to double guys when you get those three guys on the field.”

Murphy, celebrating the fact that most of his core players had returned from injuries to play in The Game, making Harvard’s offense too much for Yale to handle.