NOTEBOOK: Defense Bottles Up Three Tigers Quarterbacks

In a game that saw senior signal-caller Chris Pizzotti throw for a career-high 365 yards, the quarterback situation for Princeton during its 27-10 loss to Harvard on Saturday was far less stable.

The Tigers are familiar with playing two quarterbacks in the same game—backup Greg Mroz has played in all but one contest this season. But Saturday was the first time this year that Mroz has stepped in due to injury, coming on after Foran left the game with a concussion early in the second quarter.

Things got even worse for Princeton on the team’s first drive of the fourth quarter, when a hand injury forced Mroz out of the game, paving the way for Brian Anderson to make his first appearance of the season.

“As far as [Foran] goes, it was cage mentality the entire game—keep him in the pocket, keep him from getting outside, contain him basically the entire game,” captain Brad Bagdis said. “When [Mroz] came in—and they actually had plays that we’d seen on film where they were both in the game—he was more of a passer, so it was more of a base rush.”

But the film offered nothing on Anderson, a lefty thrower who ran for 12 yards on his first two plays.

Things quickly turned south for Princeton, though; on Anderson’s second drive, the Tigers offensive line committed three false-start penalties in a four-play span.

“I think part of it was that Harvard was threatening with a crossing stunt, and their inside linebackers were right in the line of scrimmage,” said Tigers head coach Roger Hughes. “Perhaps our guys were a little bit anxious to get going.”

In total, none of the three quarterbacks fared particularly well against defensive coordinator Kevin Doherty’s stout unit, finishing a combined 10-of-28 for 84 yards with two interceptions.

A LATE RUSH

The Crimson’s continually evolving running game seems to have found its favorite part of the game—the second half.

The trend continued on Saturday, when sophomore Cheng Ho and freshman Gino Gordon combined for 108 second-half yards, compared to just 33 in the first two quarters. Ho was responsible for 113 of the duo’s 141 yards, including a few key carries late in the fourth quarter that prevented Harvard from having to punt the ball back to Princeton.

“Our philosophy is we’re going to take what people give us, and take what we do best, and we’re going to wear you out when we can,” said Crimson head coach Tim Murphy. “If our defense can continue to put the type of pressure that we do on people, then we’re going to hopefully wear people out, and that’s where, obviously, it’s fun to run the game. It controls the clock, and you can balance your offense.”

YAC ATTACK

Though it’s not an official statistic, a large number of Pizzotti’s record-setting yards total came thanks to nifty runs by his receivers. In fact, the game’s two longest plays both featured large chunks of yards after the catch.

On a 59-yard pass to tight end Jason Miller in the second quarter, a coverage breakdown by Princeton resulted in an easy completion of about 20 yards before the junior rumbled for nearly 40 more, finally getting dragged down at the Tigers’ 16-yard line.

“Usually, you base your game on how well you block, and when you catch passes, that’s just kind of a luxury you get,” Miller said.

Earlier in the quarter, Ho turned a routine screen pass in the left flat into a 43-yard gain deep into Tigers territory by breaking a tackle, making a great cutback, and sprinting up the right sideline.

“Once Jason or Cheng got the ball, they knew what do to do with it, and they made some big plays,” Pizzotti said.

EXTRA POINTS

Pizzotti’s 365 yards goes down as the fourth-highest total in team history. It tops the 361-yard outing of current Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick ’05, who previously held the fourth spot on the list...With two more interceptions on Saturday, senior cornerback Steven Williams’ 14 career interceptions leave him just one away from the school record. His two takeaways also mean that every Crimson home game this year has seen a defensive back intercept two passes...Senior wideout Corey Mazza caught his 26th career touchdown pass, meaning he’s only two scores shy of the record held by Carl Morris ’03. His five catches broke a tie with Terrence Patterson ’00 for second place on Harvard’s all-time receptions list...Murphy was indudcted on Saturday evening into the Athletics Hall of Fame at his alma mater, Springfield College. Murphy has 116 wins in 21 seasons as a head coach.

—Staff writer Malcom A. Glenn can be reached at mglenn@fas.harvard.edu.