The Six-Pack After Merrimack

HANOVER (Sept. 30 BGA) – Week Two is in the books so it’s time for another edition of the BGA Six Pack Plus with thoughts and analysis heading into the first Ivy League game.

1) Notre Dame played a part in Dartmouth’s win at Merrimack. Stay with me now.

It was January of 2022 when the Fighting Irish “flipped” a highly regarded kicker who had committed to Dartmouth. That and several injuries forced the Big Green to pull Ryan Bloch ’23 out of a self-imposed retirement. It also sent Dartmouth back into the market for a kicker, and that resulted in the Big Green landing Owen Zalc. All the sophomore has done since then is make 21-of-26 field goals, with his third of the game Saturday providing the winning margin against Merrimack. The kicker who switched to Notre Dame? He has kicked four extra points for the Irish and hasn’t attempted a field goal.

2) The decision to send Zalc out for a career-long, 50-yard field goal attempt on a fourth-and-nine play at the Merrimack 33 with just 7:54 left and the Big Green trailing 14-10 was open to second-guessing. But Zalc had regularly made kicks from that distance in practice and while his 50-yard bid in the third quarter sailed wide left, it had the distance. McCorkle figured, correctly as it turned out, that Zalc would stripe the kick, his defense would hold and the sophomore would get a shot at the winner, which is exactly how it played out. Combine the gamble against the Warriors with last week's onside kick and two kickoff returns already this fall and it suggests McCorkle isn’t afraid to roll the dice.

3) Merrimack was not Jackson Proctor’s best game at quarterback with the senior completing just 14-of-29 throws for 161 yards. But with the game on the line, the senior delivered. On the Big Green’s next-to-last drive he completed his final four throws (although the last was lost to a penalty) to set up Zalc’s 50-yard field goal. On the final drive he was three-for-three with throws of 13, 15 and six yards, all for first downs set up the winning kick. That kind of clutch play on a day when he had been struggling says a lot.

4) Speaking of struggling, Dartmouth’s run game was credited with 119 yards and not many came easily. The longest carry by a running back in the first half was four yards. Q Jones’ 10-yarder in the third quarter would be the only double-figure gain by a running back all day. Proctor helped bail the ground game out with 43 yards on 10 carries. Of note was backup quarterback Grayson Saunier subbing in on the final drive with the game on the line and sprinting 10 yards around the left side for a first down at the 22. At 6-foot-2, 210 pounds Saunier isn’t cut in the mold of Nick Howard or Jared Gerbino, but could his cameo at Merrimack and 31-yard TD run late in the Fordham game lead to him seeing time as the “running” quarterback should the ground game struggles again?

5) Give the Merrimack defense credit. McCorkle wasn’t blowing smoke when he said it’s a good unit stocked with athletes who play hard and “vicious.” That said, Dartmouth scored just one touchdown on Saturday and regardless of how talented your kicker is, you simply aren’t going to win many games when you reach the end zone just one time. 

6) Merrimack is 1-4 this fall and while two of the losses were to Air Force (21-6) and UConn (63-13) it’s still a one-win team that pushed Dartmouth to the limit. Fordham, meanwhile, fell to 0-5 with a 63-21 loss to Monmouth Saturday. That’s a 1-9 combined record for the two teams the Big Green has beaten this fall. But as the old saying goes, you can only beat who is on your schedule. (Although it’s hard not to think about what might have been last Saturday when the Big Green had expected to be playing at Army instead against an opponent whose stadium features seats on just one side.)

And the bonus . . .

7) Merrimack listed the attendance Saturday as 15,211 and that’s an out-and-out fib. There might have been that many tickets sold, but more than half of the ticket-holders never saw a snap. They were celebrating Homecoming in the parking lot behind the grandstand and in lots all over campus. Duane Stadium, with a listed capacity of 4,000, was filled with spectators ringing one end zone and it was a surprisingly good environment, but the official attendance number isn’t even close to accurate. Still, if they sold enough of those $5 bottles of water the school did pretty good for itself.

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING

Micah Green led Dartmouth with nine tackles including half a stop for a loss. Safety Sean Williams made eight tackles while Josiah Green had seven, including a sack for five yards, from his linebacker position. Ejike Adele had six tackles and 1.5 sacks up front while Tyson Grimm add six at the nickel.

Merrimack was credited with six pass breakups and five hurries while Zyion Freer-Brown had the only breakup Dartmouth recorded. The Big Green was not credited with a QB hurry. So it goes with skeleton stat crews on the road.

Paxton Scott, targeted just once in the first half without a catch, caught four balls for 36 yards after the break. Painter Richards-Baker’s 75-yard TD reception was his only catch of the day. … Davis Golick averaged 43 yards on his two boots and is averaging a career-high 41-5 yards through two games. Opponents have no punt return yardage against him this fall.

The Big Green had 18 first downs to Merrimack’s 15 and total offense was even closer. Dartmouth finished with 280 yards to the Warriors’ 264. … Also close were possession time (Dartmouth 30:45, Merrimack  29:15) and third-down conversions (Dartmouth 7-of-16, Merrimack  5-of-12). … Neither team turned the ball over.

Dartmouth had drives consisting of 10, 12, 12 and 14 plays while Merrimack's long dirve was nine plays. The Big Green’s longest marches were 51, 62 and 75 yards. Merrimack had one of 72 and one of 60 but the next-longest was just 30 yards.

QUOTABLE (lightly edited for clarity)

Paxton Scott on not watching the gamewinning kick: “I haven't watched any of his game winning kicks. Kyle Brown and I were sitting on the bench looking at the iPad. We think it's bad juju to watch him. So now it's just superstition. We trust him.”

Scott on whether it was a point of emphasis to get him the ball in the second half: “No, not really. We talked about it as receivers: playmakers need to make plays. We’re the spark of the offense and but the ball just kind of found me. I was trying to get open the best I could. They ran a lot of man cove- two stuff like that and so I was just trying to find pockets and Proc was able to find me, so very grateful for that.”

Scott on the benefit late in the game of Zalc’s range and accuracy and how that played into the final minutes: “It definitely takes a little bit of pressure off the play calling. We're not trying to force as much, especially as receivers. We're not trying to make spins and jukes. Everyone is there to do their job and we do that. Everyone in the huddle was calm, very collected and we just kind of marched down the field. That's the type of stuff you want to see. And then Owen did a great job.” 

Owen Zalc on gauging the wind on the final kick at a stadium that unaccountably had just one red tell-tale atop the four goalpost uprights (albeit on the posts he was kicking toward). “I felt (the wind) a little bit, but it was moving around so much I didn't really think about it. I just tried to do exactly what I do every time.”

Zalc on whether he’s rooting for a chance to kick the decisive field goal or for the team to score a touchdown: “I want to win the game. However we do that doesn't really matter to me.”

Ejike Adele on the final Merrimack drive that he helped snuff out with the game on the line: “You got to give everything you got. That's the mentality we have to have up front every single play, especially when it gets to the fourth quarter. We call it tank time. You’ve got to empty out your tank, give everything you have. Up front, I think we did that and that helped us win the game. That's why we've got  to keep that mentality.”

Adele on Merrimack tailback Jermaine Corbett, who ran for 137 yards and two touchdowns: “He was a good player, a very good player. One of the better running backs I think we'll see this season. Definitely a really good player, very shifty and hard to tackle. I'm just glad we've got  the job done today.”

Sammy McCorkle on Corbett: “He's just so good. He's quick. He’s elusive. For a guy his size, he's very hard to tackle too. He's got great vision. He’s got a good jump cut. He really does, he kind lulls you to sleep a little bit when he gets up in there, and then all of a sudden he bounces it and hits it.”

McCorkle on the 75-yard touchdown pass to Painter Richards-Baker to even the score at 7-7 in the first quarter: “We needed a little jump start there. I felt like our guys were just kind of going through the motion a little bit. That was helpful, but we've got to continue that energy. We have to match our opponent's energy, and even more. I thought they did a good job coming out with a little bit more energy than us. Obviously we can't wait till the second half to do that.”

McCorkle on whether he has some words of wisdom for Zalc before the winning kick: “No, I leave Owen alone. He knows what he has to correct. It's the whole operation too. It’s not just not Owen. It's the snap, it's the hold, it's the protection, it's everything. We'll look at the film, but I don't know if that was the greatest operation. That's something we've got  to make sure we clean up so he can continue to do what he does.”

On whether he might have called for the kick on third down rather than fourth in the event of a bad snap or bobbled hold: “Potentially. It was all about the clock. Just trying to get the clock down as much as we possibly can. … Kicking that on third down, but it would have been nice. We were trying to get it  a little bit more to the middle for him.”

On calling Grayson Saunier’s number for the 10-yard run during the final drive: “He's a gamer. He’s an athletic kid. He does some really good stuff. He can give you some options there. He can give you some versatility as well. He's very composed for as young as he is and as a limited amount of experience he has. When he gets out there, he's very composed. You definitely want to have another threat on that offensive side of the ball. We're going to need it going forward.”

The tailgating scene at Merrimack was lively and crowded. This picture was shot from the top of the grandstand during the game. (Click for a better look.) Given the size of the stadium and the number of people partying in the parking lots who seemed to have no interest in the game and never made it into the stadium,  the star of the afternoon was Homecoming, not football.