Picking Off A Big Win

Do you want to see a picture that tells a lot of the story of Princeton's 30-24 win over Harvard Saturday afternoon?

Of course you do. Here it is:

It's a picture of Matthew Winston, the junior defensive back, after his fourth-quarter interception. How does this tell the story of the game?

If you look close, you'll see the Harvard logo on the football. The big story of the game Saturday was the fact that Princeton turned three interceptions into 17 points, and that was a huge part of why the Tigers won the game.

Winston's interception was the third and final one, and it came at a big moment in the game. Princeton was up 23-21 with five minutes to go, and the door was clearly open to a Harvard drive for the go-ahead points.

Instead, Winston picked off a pass and returned it 28 yards to the Harvard 18. Kevin Davidson then found Dylan Classi in the end zone, and the lead was 30-21. Harvard kicked a field goal on a third down with 30 seconds left, but Andrei Iosivas ended things when he recovered the onsides kick.

The biggest of the interceptions was the one turned in by Daniel Beard, a sophomore linebacker, in the third quarter. This was the game-changing one, the play that turned things from "uh oh" to "that's more like it" on a dime.

Princeton led 10-0 early after a perfect opening drive (Davidson to Classi for that touchdown too) and then a field goal after a Jeremiah Tyler interception and return.

Harvard, though, is very good and very tough, and the Crimson threw a blanket over the Tigers for more than 30 minutes after that - it would be 32:22 to be precise between Tiger scores.

In the meantime, Harvard came back to make it 10-7 and then take the lead 14-10 on a last minute, 73-yard touchdown pass that seemed to completely change the momentum. If that didn't do it, then the fact that Harvard got not one but two fourth-down stops in its own territory on Princeton's first two second half drives.

The second of those stops came with 7:21 left in the third quarter, after a 12-play, 60-yard drive that ended at the Crimson 24. It looked all the world like Princeton was going to finish that drive with points, and then it looked all the world like Harvard was about to go the other way and maybe open up some distance between itself and the Tigers.

So what happened next? The entire game changed in two plays.

The first was Beard's interception, where he tipped the ball to himself and corralled it before it had a chance to touch the field. That was the first play after Harvard's stop.

Suddenly, Princeton had the ball right back, on the Harvard 31. And what did the Tigers do with it?

Teams are never more vulnerable than the play right after a turnover, and Princeton needed only that one play to get to the end zone, as Davidson found running back Collin Eaddy down the middle for a TD. Just like that, Princeton was on top, this time for good.

Recappng, it was a three-play stretch that went like this:
* Harvard gets a fourth-down stop and is now brimming with momentum
* Beard makes an outstanding play to intercept the ball, stemming that momentum but bring back out a defense that had shut Princeton out for more than 32 minutes at that point
* Davidson and Eaddy made it hurt

For a team that was shut out for that 32-plus minute stretch, by the way, Princeton had some tremendous offensive numbers. Eaddy ran for 110 yards and another touchdown, and Davidson was 20 for 35 for 314 yards and three touchdowns. Also importantly, he had no interceptions.

In fact, Princeton had no turnovers and only 23 yards in penalties. The Tigers might not have been scoring in the middle of the game, but they weren't hurting themselves either.

It was Princeton's third straight win over Harvard, and the winning streak is now at 16. Of those 16 games, this was the second-closest, one point behind Princeton's 14-9 win over Dartmouth last year.

While many of those 16 games have been easy wins, this one was more decidedly not. Harvard forced Princeton to play with a lot of what Tiger head coach Bob Surace would call "grit," and that grittiness is why Princeton won.

Princeton and Dartmouth are both unbeaten, and they play the following week at Yankee Stadium as part of the 150th celebration of college football. That game, though, might as well be another 150 years away for as much as any coach or player on either team is focused on that right now.

First up are two important tests this coming weekend. The Tigers will now be rooting hard for Harvard when the Crimson host Dartmouth Saturday. Princeton, meanwhile, is at Cornell Friday night on ESPNU.

It's hard to believe that the football season is 60 percent over already. That's six games, all wins, for the Tigers, including the most recent one, a hard-fought installment against a huge rival, a game that Princeton was ultimately able to pick off.