Big Green Takes Care Of Business

HANOVER (Sept. 22 BGA) – It wasn’t the test it might have been, but Dartmouth aced it.

Quarterback Jackson Proctor completed 14-of-18 throws for 185 yards with two touchdowns, receiver Paxton Scott caught six balls for 121 yards, tailback Q Jones carried 16 times for 86 yards and a touchdown and caught another of 19 yards, and Jordan Washington brought back his own field goal block for a score as the Big Green ran out to a 31-0 lead by early in the third quarter before cruising home to a 45-13 win.

Projected to be a leading contender for the Patriot League championship, Fordham fell to 0-4 playing without its starting quarterback – named to the preseason watchlist for the nation’s best offensive player – its 1,000-yard rusher, the leading wide receiver, it's biggest starting offensive lineman and without the preseason All-America linebacker who had 129 tackles last year.

But if Fordham wasn’t quite the team head coach Sammy McCorkle expected to see during the preseason, the Dartmouth team he saw was exactly what he wanted to see as it ran out to a 24-0 halftime lead, piled up 418 yards of total offense and was in such total control that he was able to get backup quarterback Woods Ray in the game with more than eight minutes left in the third quarter and then sub in fellow sophomore Grayson Saucier early in the fourth.

“This game's first one and you're just not quite sure,” said McCorkle, the second-year head coach. “But I’m really excited the way our guys prepared all preseason and prepared this week. I really thought our energy was great. It really was.

"There's some things we've got to clean up. A couple of mistakes here and there. We just can't kind of take our foot off the gas, but I think the guys responded well."

The party started early for the Big Green. On the third play from scrimmage the combination of a good route by Scott and significantly blown coverage by Fordham – a familiar theme much of the game – saw Proctor find the fifth-year senior for a 44-yard gain. On the next snap it was Jones going 40 yards for a touchdown.

That quickly, Dartmouth had back-to-back explosive plays of at least 40 yards and an early touchdown that let Fordham know who was in control.

“I think it's big,” Jones said of the quick start. “I think it essentially sets the tempo of the game. As an offense, we obviously want to go out there and make sure that we're a threat to the defense. For us to go out there first drive and be able to score on four plays, that’s big.”

The defense, meanwhile, was also getting in on the act. Fordham’s first six possessions netted just 42 yards total and the only time the Rams’ offense made it into Dartmouth territory in the first half came with 12 seconds to play before the break – and that drive ended with a 56-yard field goal attempt that sailed wide left.

The Big Green by that point had piled up 24 points on Jones’ big run on the first drive, his 19-yard TD reception from Proctor at the business end of an 86-yard march late in the opening quarter, a 12-yard toe-dragger in the corner of the end zone by Chris Corbo, which was first ruled out-of-bounds before review showed the tight end had indeed dragged his foot before going over the back line. Owen Zalc closed out the first-half scoring with a 40-yard field goal.

Dartmouth ended up with a 306-88 advantage in total offense in the first half on 154 yards rushing and 152 yards passing. That contributed to the Big Green holding the ball for 21:35 and the Rams having it for just 8:25.

“If you can establish the run, you give yourself a really good chance,” said McCorkle. “It puts a lot of stress and pressure on the defense. We felt like we had an opportunity to do that. … Our offensive line – hats off to them, did a great job. And our coaches did a phenomenal job all week of putting us in the right position.”

They were really in the right position to start the second half – after they were in the wrong position, all thanks to special teams.

Joe Castellitto, who coordinates that unit, spotted something in the Fordham set-up on kickoffs and the Big Green tried to exploit that with an onside kick to start the second half that it couldn't recover. Tack on a penalty against Dartmouth and bottom line was that the Rams’ ended up starting their first drive of the third quarter at the plus-35.

But the same special teams that gave something away would take it back in a big way.

After a third-and-15 sack moved the ball back to the 21 Fordham set up for a 39-yard field goal only to have Washington fly in off the left end untouched and block the kick. 

Collecting the ball on the bounce he sprinted 60 yards down the right sideline for a touchdown and a 31-0 lead.

“Obviously we took a chance there to start the second half,” McCorkle explained. “We saw it on film. We felt like during the game we had an opportunity. He just didn't quite kick it where we wanted it.

“But to be able to respond like we did on a special team's play? That's huge. That's a huge momentum swing, and it obviously gets everything going on the sideline.”

Among the things it got going was McCorkle, a former special teams standout at Florida, who escorted his defensive back part of the way down the field.

“I think I about pulled a hamstring running down the sideline,” he said. “I was racing the ref, so I think I had him by a couple strides…. I’m a special teams guy deep down, so you get excited and pumped up for stuff like that.”

With the Big Green substituting liberally from that point on, the teams traded touchdowns over the final 16 minutes.

Needing to score quickly –and a lot – as the fourth-quarter rolled around, Fordham went for it on a fourth-and-14 play near midfield on its first possession of the period only to have the pass fall incomplete.

DJ Crowther made the decision to go for it hurt by reeling off a 46-yard touchdown run on the first play after the turnover on downs to make it 38-7.

The Rams got a 20-yard TD pass midway through the final period only to have Dartmouth respond with a 30-yard run by quarterback Grayson Saunier with 1:51 remaining.

For McCorkle, the opener played in front of 3,573 went pretty much the way he hoped it would go.

“They played fast,” he said “They played hard, and pretty much assignment-sound the entire time. I really was impressed. The guys that we wanted to step up, they stepped up. They put us in a really good situation early in the game and kind of put it where Fordham had to play catchup, and that's where you want to put yourself. I thought these guys did a good job for four quarters.”

Dartmouth returns to action Saturday at Merrimack, which fell to 1-3 Saturday with a 26-15 loss to Maine.

Editor's Note: Check out BGA Overtime tomorrow for notes and analysis.