NEW HAVEN — In a matter of minutes, Yale turned The Game on its head.
Harvard clung to a 3-point lead for most of the first half after freshman quarterback Jake Smith orchestrated an 11-play, 50-yard opening drive that ended with a 29-yard Jake McIntyre field goal. Up until then, the Crimson had also quieted a high-powered Yale offense.
But a sloppy final 6 minutes, 26 seconds of the second quarter doomed the Crimson in front of 51,426 at the Yale Bowl. The Bulldogs exposed a gaping hole in the middle of Harvard’s defense to set up their first touchdown, tacked on 10 more points before halftime, and didn’t look back en route to a 24-3 demolition of their rival in the 134th edition of The Game.
“They’re by far the best football team in the league,’’ Harvard coach Tim Murphy said. “They have no real weaknesses. They deserved to win, and they certainly deserved to be Ivy League champions.’’
Crimson captain Luke Hutton raced downfield in coverage and picked off a pass in the second quarter as the defense initially stifled Yale’s Kurt Rawlings, who opened 5-for-10 passing for 32 yards.
Yale broke through midway through the second when Rawlings (18 of 27, 177 yards, 1 TD, 1 interception) fired a pass over the middle to wide-open receiver JP Shohfi, who tore 46 yards across the open field to the Harvard 8.
Three plays later, Shohfi snared Rawlings’s fade pass over the outstretched hand of cornerback Isaiah Wingfield in the left corner of the end zone. The sophomore wideout spun in the air and tapped one foot down to complete a 9-yard touchdown that lifted the Bulldogs to a 7-3 lead with 6:26 remaining in the second.
As Yale’s offense gained traction, Harvard’s imploded.
After Smith was dropped for a 7-yard loss on Harvard’s next series, the freshman scooted through Yale’s defensive line on a well-designed run-pass option. But after what would have been a 6-yard pickup, Smith pitched it to his left behind Aaron Shampklin (13 carries, 37 yards), who wasn’t expecting it. Yale cornerback Malcolm Dixon scooped up the fumble and raced untouched for a 19-yard touchdown — Yale’s second trip to the end zone in 55 seconds.
The meltdown continued on Harvard’s next drive.
Shampklin stumbled as he collected another pitch. The ball slipped out of his hands, and Bulldogs defensive end J. Hunter Roman fell on it at Harvard’s 38. Yale picked up 15 on fourth and 8 to set up a 25-yard field goal, which Alex Galland booted through as time expired to stretch the lead to 17-3 at halftime. Rawlings ended the first half on a tear, completing seven of his final eight passes for 90 yards and a score.
Harvard’s offense, which accumulated 164 total yards on the day, stumbled into halftime.
’’I really feel bad for Jake, for us, but especially our defense, because our defense had kept us in the game,’’ Murphy said. “We could’ve been in a much different situation. And then the two turnovers almost back-to-back on the same play, really I put that on us as coaches, not on the kids . . . But obviously those two turnovers ended up being huge impact plays for Yale.’’
Harvard’s defense delivered a formidable stand against an opponent that entered Saturday averaging more than 400 yards of offense and 30 points per game. It conceded 295 total yards, 17 points, and held Yale running back Zane Dudek to 64 yards on 25 carries. The freshman phenom punctuated the rout with a 2-yard touchdown run early in the fourth.
“We lost 13 guys off our two-deep over the past 12 weeks and week in, week out, our staff would put together a good game plan,’’ Murphy said. “The kids who had to step up would step up, and we would find a way to be very competitive defensively.’’
But like it has all season, an ineffective offense hindered the Crimson (5-5, 3-4 Ivy). Smith (9 of 16, 83 yards) was sacked six times, and Harvard registered 45 yards on 31 plays on its 10 drives after opening the scoring. Fifth-year senior Joe Viviano (3 of 8, 55 yards, 2 interceptions) replaced Smith with 12 minutes remaining, but two of the four drives on which he led Harvard ended with interceptions.
The Game served as an appropriate finale for Harvard’s lackluster season. The defeat handed the Crimson their first five-loss season since 2000, and they tallied their first losing conference record since 1999. Back-to-back losses to Penn and Yale also marked the first time since 1986 that the Crimson failed to score a touchdown in two consecutive games.
On the other sideline, Yale (9-1, 6-1) celebrated its first outright Ivy League title since 1980.
“This is more than just a win for Yale,’’ Bulldogs coach Tony Reno said. “This was a complete culture change and people were shown how football should be played.’’
Nick Ironside can be reached at nicholas.ironside@globe.com.
