The Game, 2018: Should've, Could've

Yale's offense amassed  411 yards, but couldn't keep pace with Harvard, as the Crimson took the 135th Game, 45-27.

At the 135th Game, Harvard triumphed.  But This Game, in Boston on a chilly, windless Saturday afternoon (Nov. 17), will be allotted into the category of "should've (won), could've won."  At least for Yale, which finished the 2018 campaign at 5-5 after having won the Ivy League last year. The Bulldogs could've won this contest. 

Yale appeared to hang in tightly with Harvard's swift, agile squad for three quarters.  Yale even squeaked ahead early in the second half.  Tired, young, and worn down in the fourth quarter, its defense succumbed and allowed Harvard to escape for easy touchdowns. Harvard won what Yale should have won, 45-27, halting Yale's two-game streak over Harvard. 

This Game will also be The Game at Fenway Park.  Harvard organizers decided to set the game at the aging, but well-maintained, hallowed grounds of the Boston Red Sox (which, by the way, had just won the 2018 World Series).

The Game, 135, was an experiment, a bold change of venue and perhaps a maneuver to attract others who normally would not attend. The experiment meant large throngs of Yale and Harvard students, alumni, families and other guests broke tailgating habits of Yale Bowl and Harvard Stadium and convened in the middle of the Boston cityscape in a stadium geometrically arranged to fit a baseball diamond, not a football grid-iron. 

One end zone was situated where home plate had been. The other end zone was inserted in front of the center field bleachers.  Organizers rolled out new turf to fill the infield.  Groundskeepers sprinted onto the field during time outs to tend to the precious infield grass. 

Nearly 35,000 fans from Yale and Harvard bought the experiment and made the best of watching football from dugout seats, baseball bleachers, and cramped boxes meant for keeping up with balls and strikes and fly balls to deep right.  Organizers even arranged for a corporate sponsor (UBS) and a pre-game flyover, when jets roared above the stadium seconds after the Yale and Harvard bands finished the national anthem. 

Harvard followers held camp along the right-field line.  Yale students and fans were posted behind home plate and along the first-base line. Harvard and Yale football players shared a sideline, which ran parallel to Boston's famous Green Monster outfield wall.  When it performed at halftime, Yale's band faced the end zone where Yale students by the thousands piled behind the home-plate screen.

This Game featured the usual taunts from Yale and Harvard students, who behind different goal posts sat about 100 yards away from each other.  It featured the decades-old, fourth-quarter strip from Yale undergraduates. Band members wandered on the field with residential college flags (now 14 in total). It had tributes to over 20 players from the storied 29-29 Game from 1968, the 50th anniversary of Yale surrendering 16 points in the last 42 seconds. (The quarterback of That Game, Brian Dowling '69, was an honorary captain at This Game, 2018.)

Because this was a major league baseball park filled with high-powered speakers blaring pop songs, Yale and Harvard fans danced and wiggled every time powerful beats blared.  A highlight, most will agree, was the chance for most of the 35,000 to sing along to Boston's favorite anthem, "Sweet Caroline" in the second half. Yale and Harvard joined together in a spectacular chorus in unison. 

Yale quarterback Kurt Rawlings '20, a leader in each of Yale's previous two victories over Harvard, injured his leg in the Penn game.  So a first-year quarterback from California stepped in to battle the Crimson.  After a first-quarter interception, Griffin O'Connor '22 settled into Game spotlight and flung passes all over the field with ease. In shot-gun formation, he often took two, three steps back, cocked his arm, faked one way and rifled the ball the other way. Sometimes he overthrew his Yale receivers, but wasn't overwhelmed by The Game's history. 

He tossed a touchdown pass, ran for another, and totaled 328 passing yards.Sophomore running back  Zane Dudek '21, who had been injured all season, surprised Yale onlookers with 66 rushing yards. By the fourth quarter, the Bulldog offense simmered. The defense turned lackluster, listless. Harvard scored at will with long passes and long runs. Just like that, Harvard had scored 45 in total.    

The close, tense affair was no longer close and tense in the waning minutes. But everybody stayed to bask in Fenway glory, celebrate something different, and enjoy a museum-piece of a setting in the middle of Boston's skyline--even if Yale should have and could have won This Game.