"[Sophomore quarterback] Rich [Linden] got the ball to his receivers no matter what--[and on the reverse] I had linemen getting way downfield to block for me," Patterson said.

While the offense looked comfortable opening up a new bag of tricks, the defense ensured there were no such tricks when the opposition held the ball.

The Crimson held the Big Green to negative rushing yards on the day, and allowed only 173 yards of total offense. The defensive performance permitted Dartmouth to advance inside the Harvard 40-yard-line only once all day long.

This represents an incredible coming-of-age for a defense that allowed three of its first six opponents to reach 24 points or more. Harvard's defensive backs, ordinarily a soft spot in the defense, racked up three interceptions, broke up two passes, and allowed only one reception of over 22 yards, despite enduring a 40-passing-attempt day against Dartmouth.

"We generally have a pretty balanced offense, but we reached the point where nothing worked out there," Lyons said. "[Dartmouth quarterback] Pete [Sellers] has had better games, but what happened to him today was a result of [Harvard's pressure on the quarterback]."

Harvard finally showed it has all the tools to win on Saturday, and now that the Crimson clearly has arrived, it needs only to keep enough of them working to pull out three more games for its first Ivy League title in a decade.