Linden Rises From Dead to Lead Crimson Into First Place

PRINCETON, N.J.--Saturday was a crazy day in the annals of the Ivy League.

Brown topped Pennsylvania 58-51 in the final minute, and the teams set a new single-game scoring record in the process. Harvard needed a halfback pass in the fourth quarter and a missed field goal by the League's best kicker to pull out the first road win in the history of Princeton Stadium.

When the smoke had cleared, four teams--Harvard, Princeton, Penn and Yale--were tied for the League lead at 2-1, and four more were one game back. And one starting quarterback had his job back, and he couldn't have been happier.

Linden Resurrected

Princeton's strong suit going in was its run defense. The Tigers are No. 2 nationally against the run, allowing 56.4 yards per game.

Junior running back Chris Menick, coming off three straight 100-yard efforts, was limited to 56 yards on 19 rushes, only 2.9 yards per carry.

"They're definitely the best run defense we've faced," junior running back Chris Menick said. "We were expecting that. They were giving up something like 50 yards a game on the ground. They were really good at staying with the guys blocking them, and as soon as I made a cut, they threw the block away. They were good with their hands that way."

The onus was therefore on junior quarterback Rich Linden, who had struggled mightily through four and one-half games, to pilot an offense deprived of its major threat.

Since last year's second-team all-Ivy campaign, Linden had averaged a little better than 100 passing yards per game and thrown six interceptions against one touchdown.

Harvard Coach Tim Murphy even benched Linden in the second half of last week's 20-14 overtime win against Holy Cross, going with backup Brad Wilford.

Linden responded with his best effort of the season, completing 15 of 28 passes for 186 yards and two touchdowns, but more importantly parlaying that passing yardage into the Crimson's two longest touchdown drives of the season.

Down 10-0 late in the first quarter, Linden and his mates took over at the Harvard 21-yard line, and after junior running back Chris Menick carried twice for five yards, faced a third-and-five at their own 26.

Linden dropped back on a play-action fake and zipped a ball to the right sideline for sophomore wideout Josh Wilske, who caught five balls for 88 yards and his first career touchdown. Wilske took the pass 22 yards for a first down that sustained the drive.

Three plays later, Linden found junior tight end Chris Eitzmann open two steps behind his cornerback down the right side and threaded the needle once again, allowing Eitzmann to split up the middle of the field for a 38-yard touchdown reception.

And midway through the second quarter, Harvard took a 13-10 lead on an eight-play, 44-yard scoring drive that was almost entirely Linden's handiwork.

Linden hit on four of six passes for 40 yards, including a six-yard strike to Eitzmann in the back left corner of the endzone that resulted from blanket coverage on the right side of the field.

"They have that quick little sprint-out, a lot of one-man and two-man routes," Princeton Coach Steve Tosches said. "They picked on our corners, the combination of Garrett Fittizi and Brian Beem [opposite Wilske]."

Not only are the numbers impressive--they mark Linden's season highs for yardage and touchdowns--but one got the sense, for the first time since last November, that Linden's passing game could work as an effective counterpoint to Menick's workhorse ball-carrying.

Short five-and-ten-yard outs, quick slants to the middle and the occasional screen pass alternated with game-breaking deep outs, providing an offensive pulse that the anemic pass attack had been unable to supply.

So what was different this week?

"I've gotten that question a lot recently, and honestly I don't know," Linden said. "It's a tough game, and it's a tough position to play. You keep throwing the ball, keep believing in yourself, and eventually good things are going to happen."

Trick-or-Treat

Murphy has long sported a bag of tricks to rival Harry Houdini's, and Saturday he engineered a pair of razzle-dazzle plays that materially assisted the Crimson win.

Trailing 19-16 with 14:22 to play in the fourth quarter, Murphy called a halfback pass for junior running back Chris Menick from the Princeton 41-yard line.

Menick took a pitch wide right from Linden and danced a few steps away from the backfield, looking all the way for sophomore wideout Josh Wilske, breaking downfield behind the Tiger secondary.

As is the case with trick plays, they either come up smelling like roses or come up just smelling. This one worked to perfection, as the Princeton safety failed to honor Wilske's deep route, and his cornerback keyed to the run as soon as Menick took the pitch.

Menick fired immediately and sent a neat spiral to the two-yard line, where Wilske had his recovering defenders beaten by a step. Wilske grabbed the bomb and was tackled into the endzone for the eventual winning points.

"We just put it in this week because we anticipated that Princeton would come hard and blitz a lot, and that's exactly what they did," Menick said. "As soon as the pitch came out, I saw it. I had my eye on Wilske, and the guy covering him even came up and all the backers and the corner came up; I just planted and chucked it."

Murphy had another ace up his sleeve, which he called on a kickoff return with 11:00 remaining in the fourth after Alex Sierk's 30-yard field goal had pulled the Tigers to within one at 23-22.

Menick took the kickoff at his own nine-yard line and immediately turned right, handing off to freshman cornerback Willie Alford, who cut to the left sideline on the pseudo-reverse, then turned the corner upfield for 58 yards. Harvard, however, went three-and-out.

Not all Murphy's calls shone like his halfback pass. Well attuned to the danger of the flanker reverse from watching game film of junior Terence Patterson's game-winneragainst Cornell, Princeton Coach Steve Tosches hadhis squad prepared to defend it, and Wilske wasstuffed for a five-yard loss on the firstoffensive series.

"A couple of weeks ago, they beat Cornell on abig reverse play, and I thought we defended thatwell," Tosches said. "Any play of the game, therecould be some kind of trick play. You have to beready, but unfortunately we didn't do it on [thehalfback pass]."

But the rationale behind the trick play isn'talways a yardage gain or a game-breakingtouchdown--though Murphy has been getting those inspades.

The failed reverse lulled the Tigers intothinking that they had anticipated and beaten theCrimson razzle-dazzle, a misconception Murphyburied two quarters later with the game hanging inthe balance.

"We always spend a lot of time on specialplays," Murphy said. "We're not geniuses, Iguarantee it, but special plays are the type ofthing that, even if they don't work, loosen peopleup. They're going to make people aware of ourother personnel, take the heat of Rich Linden andChris Menick. Once in a while, they're going tomake some big plays."

Saturday afternoon, one was all Murphy neededto keep his Crimson alive in the title hunt

"A couple of weeks ago, they beat Cornell on abig reverse play, and I thought we defended thatwell," Tosches said. "Any play of the game, therecould be some kind of trick play. You have to beready, but unfortunately we didn't do it on [thehalfback pass]."

But the rationale behind the trick play isn'talways a yardage gain or a game-breakingtouchdown--though Murphy has been getting those inspades.

The failed reverse lulled the Tigers intothinking that they had anticipated and beaten theCrimson razzle-dazzle, a misconception Murphyburied two quarters later with the game hanging inthe balance.

"We always spend a lot of time on specialplays," Murphy said. "We're not geniuses, Iguarantee it, but special plays are the type ofthing that, even if they don't work, loosen peopleup. They're going to make people aware of ourother personnel, take the heat of Rich Linden andChris Menick. Once in a while, they're going tomake some big plays."

Saturday afternoon, one was all Murphy neededto keep his Crimson alive in the title hunt