Dartmouth Defense No Match for Morris

HANOVER, N.H.—Someone should have passed on a copy of this week’s Sports Illustrated to the Dartmouth football team. Maybe then it would have had an idea of what it was getting into in attempting to defend senior wide receiver Carl Morris. With SI’s flattering feature still hot from the presses, Morris broke four of his own team receiving records en route to the Crimson’s 31-26 victory.

In truth, this kind of offensive fireworks from No. 19 should be eerily familiar for the Big Green.

In the Crimson’s fateful meeting with Dartmouth a year ago, Harvard found itself reeling 21-0 at halftime, its hopes for an Ivy League title rapidly slipping away. Then the Morris show began. In what has become modern legend, Morris both caught and threw for a touchdown and made a 40-yard, TD-generating reception within a three-and-a-half-minute third quarter span. The Crimson went on to win the game 31-21.

This year, Morris ensured that there would be no need for a comeback. On a frigid afternoon where snow frosted the field at kickoff, he iced the Dartmouth defense for 21 catches and 257 yards.

“We definitely came in more focused, looking to execute better,” Morris said. “We were not going to let things get to where they were last year.”

Morris and senior quarterback Neil Rose were on the same wavelength for much of the afternoon. More than half of Rose’s own single-game records of 443 passing yards and 36 completions were directed to Morris. Though Dartmouth surrounded Morris with heavy pressure, Rose managed to find him again and again for crucial first down yardage.

“Coming in, we said we were going to ride [Morris],” said Harvard coach Tim Murphy. “Even double-covered, he finds a way to come up with the football.”

Dartmouth’s attempts at containing Morris were further frustruated by three pass interference calls. The Crimson profited from 41 yards off these penalties alone.

“We really didn’t cover him well,” Dartmouth safety Phil Frost admitted.

Morris set records for both single-game and single-season receptions and reception yards. He became the first Crimson player to reach 1,000 receiving yards in a season, finishing the day with 1,068. With 11 catches for 139 yards by halftime alone, most of the records were in shambles midway through the second half.

Morris currently is the team record-holder in eight of nine major receiving categories. His only unattained mark is that of three touchdown receptions in a game.

As the Crimson began yet another scoring campaign late in the fourth quarter and Morris’s offensive spectacular showed no signs of slowing, it seemed as though even that record would fall. However, he was briefly knocked unconscious after a first down reception near the end of the fourth quarter and forced to leave the field for the remainder of the game.

A few short plays later sophomore tailback Rodney Byrnes slipped into the end zone for his third TD and a 31-19 Harvard lead that put the game out of reach.

After the game, Morris was fuzzy-headed but upbeat.

“I haven’t even seen the magazine,” he revealed.

After Saturday’s prolific performance, he only needed to ask the Dartmouth defense to get an accurate summary.