Harvard at Brown

After last week's lackluster performance against 1-2 Stonybrook, I was a little worried that we might get trounced by Harvard, who is rumored to be pretty good. They were giving out free seat cushions for the first 1500 fans, so we left earlier than last week, there was also a significant chance of heavy rain thanks to then Tropical Storm, now Hurricane Kyle, so we drove the 1.2 miles to the stadium after swinging by Rite-Aid to buy Sara a youth-sized poncho and some snacks. These two choices combined to get us there about 20 minutes before kickoff and in plenty of time for free seat cushions.

Sara makes tries to blend in with the "W" in the BROWN sign while modeling her Rite-Aid youth Poncho. Sara had to tear the neck to fit her head into it because she's not 8 years old any more.

We started the game by going 3-and-out before pinning them inside their own twenty. Only to watch get a few first downs and then score on a 53 yard bomb. They missed the extra point, but the way their offense moved the ball I wasn't sure that it would matter, and least I had seen the score after missing all of them last week.  On our 2nd drive we turned it over in the Red Zone and they drove right back and went up 13-0.  Things weren't looking too good as the rain started coming down harder.  Luckily, my wife encouraged me to buy a poncho once we got to the game, it was paying off now.

Me modelling my Brown University adult-sized poncho.

On our third drive we again were moving the ball well, as we marched down the field and this time punched it into the endzone with a 25 yard TD pass. Yay! I had seen Brown score a touchdown. It had taken 4 quarters, but I'd seen us score. Sara asked me if I thought Brown could win this game, I said, "yeah if they fumble this kickoff return."

They did. But on our first play after the fumble recovery they blitzed and drilled our QB just as he released the ball that was picked off around the 10 yard line. But on Harvard's first play after the interception, they fumbled again and we recovered it. 3 plays, 3 turnovers, I know it's raining pretty hard, but I'm sure Harvard's coach is livid. We score and make the PAT to go up 14-13. The half ends that way.

At halftime, Harvard's non-marching band takes the field as their PA announcer pithily insults Brown. Then Brown's band takes the field and our PA announcer makes fun of Harvard. At this point, I remember that Brown's PA announcer did the same thing last week, making fun of the Stonybrook. Apparently, this is some kind of Ivy League tradition. Whether for the whole league or just Harvard and Brown remains to be seen, but it's kind of funny to hear the PA Announcer at a football game ripping on the opposing school because their newspaper made up a word, or their students were complaining about the new lunch policies.

In the second half we exchanged scores and we were up 24-16 until Harvard scored a TD with 1:03 making it, 24-22. How big is that missed extra point now? 

After starting out docile, the Brunonian fans got a little more into it as we started to score.  Now they're going absolutely crazy, the stadium is loud, though that could be from the sound of heavy rain drops beating on tons of umbrellas more than the cheers of the fans themselves.  Either way, it's loud as Harvard goes for two and fails.  We recovered the onside kick, downed the ball several times and everybody was cheering and happy as we exitted the rain.  Final score Brown 24, Harvard 22.

 

The teams shake hands as we file out of the stadium.

As we walked to the car I thanked my wife for being brilliant enough to insist that we drive to the stadium.  Our clothes that weren't quite covered by our ponchos are still drying out from the deluge 12 hours later.