Yale beats Harvard, clinches its first outright Ivy League title since 1980, and storms the field

The Bulldogs’ defense dominated in a rivalry win.

Yale beat Harvard on Saturday in New Haven, 24-3. It’s the second year in a row the Bulldogs have won the game known just as “The Game,” and it runs their all-time record against the Crimson to 67-59-8. It also clinched the Ivy League for Yale, which finishes its year 9-1 after going a lousy 3-7 in 2016.

The scene:

Why that field-rushing, other than that beating a rival’s always a big deal? It’s a huge deal for Yale to win this game in this moment. The Bulldogs hadn’t won an outright Ivy title in 37 years, a drought that’s now over. (Yale shared the title with Princeton in 2016). This one is Yale’s 16th Ivy League championship and its seventh outright, because the Ivy still doesn’t play a conference title game.

Harvard could barely move the ball an inch against an overwhelming Yale defense. The Bulldogs had an elite defense all year and entered the day averaging 17 points per game, tied with Villanova for the ninth-fewest in the FCS. The Crimson ran for almost nothing, and what yardage they did get, they lost much of by way of sacks.

Yale’s offense didn’t exactly set the world on fire, either. The Bulldogs got a nice day out of quarterback Kurt Rawlings and receiver JP Shohfi, and they were at least able to get the ball upfield enough to cruise past the lifeless offense on the other sideline.

Congrats to everyone at Yale for their victory. And to everyone at Harvard, congrats on everything else.