Six Pack (And More) After Central Connecticut
BGA (Oct. 21) – It’s Monday and you guessed it. Time for the baker’s half-dozen reflections on Dartmouth at the midway point of the season:
1) The goal of many an offensive line is to go largely unnoticed by avoiding sacks, and methodically creating holes for the run game. Check and check. In fact, you can make a case that the Dartmouth O-line is the team MVP through five games. Central Connecticut came into Saturday’s contest leading the nation in sacks per game at 3.3. The Blue Devils were credited with one sack for a loss of three yards. Through five games the Big Green line has allowed just five sacks for a loss of 30 yards. The run blocking, meanwhile, has helped Dartmouth average a healthy 170.8 yards per game. All that after losing grad transfer Ethan Sipe to Virginia and Nick Schwitzgebel to Butler and with Thomas Hartnett serving this year as a pseudo grad assistant. For anyone who has witnessed line coach Keith Clark’s legerdemain over the years, it isn’t a surprise that he has done it again.
2) Someone asked during the week leading up to Central Connecticut if Grayson Saunier, who did such a bang-up job at Yale, might be a “one-hit wonder.” It was a fair question. The sophomore who hadn’t thrown a pass in his career before helping beat the Bulldogs was an unknown quantity for the Yale defense, but Central Connecticut had seen him on film. Would he be able to prove against an aggressive Central Connecticut defense that he was a prime time player? You be the judge. All he did was go 15-for-21 (71.4 percent) while throwing for 177 yards without an interception, and run 13 times for 42 yards and two touchdowns. The starting role still belongs to Jackson Proctor if he’s healthy, but Saunier has shown he’s more than ready if he’s needed.
3) Take all-time Dartmouth record-holder for interceptions Isaiah Swann ‘20 out of the equation and the Big Green defense hasn’t always hung up big turnover numbers under coordinator Don Dobes. Although he’d obviously like more of them, the hallmark of his bend-don’t-break philosophy is being in the right place at the right time and putting all the time spent working on tackling technique with pads and dummies to good use. Still, a few more turnovers might save Dobes, McCorkle and Big Green fans some heartburn in a season that has seen the last four games come down to the final minute. Dartmouth is dead last in the country this fall with just two turnovers. Zach Farris has the lone interception and Braden Mullen the lone fumble recovery (which unfortunately for the Big Green saw Yale get back on his fumble return).
4) As overpowering as he can be on the defensive line, 6-foot-1, 280-pound Josiah Green came into the season with All-Ivy on his resumé after making the second team last year. He was a known commodity. Twin brother Micah, a 5-11, 230 linebacker, entered his senior year somewhat under the radar with just 25 career tackles. Midway through the season, however, it is Micah leading Dartmouth in tackles with 35, which is 10 more than the next-leading tackler – who just so happens to be his twin. Give a gold star to whichever assistant found the brothers at North Central High School in Indianapolis.
5) After his second blocked kick of the season Saturday, Jordan Washington sung the praises of special teams coordinator Joe Castellitto, as did Sammy McCorkle. Whether what Dartmouth is doing gets into the head of opposing kickers or not is open to debate but this is not: Opponents have made a woeful 2-of-8 field goal attempts against the Big Green this season. The importance of that stat cannot be stressed enough given how close Dartmouth’s games have been. The Big Green hasn’t yet been credited with a punt block this year, but that feels like only a matter of time with how rushed opposing punters have been. And still on the subject of special teams, don’t underestimate the importance last Saturday of Sean Williams’ 26-yard punt return. Together with a facemask on the play it set the Big Green up in great field position for what would be the winning touchdown. Again, when games come down to the wire special teams are absolutely critical and Dartmouth's special teams have been winning the day.
6) It wasn’t all that long ago that schools like Central Connecticut and Merrimack wouldn’t have been competitive against Dartmouth. This year both undoubtedly walked off the field thinking they should have beaten the Big Green. Credit increased scholarships and the transfer portal for a big part of that. The Blue Devils had no fewer than 18 transfers on their roster last week. In the final analysis, Dartmouth and the Ivies don’t have much in common with the Merrimacks and Central Connecticuts of the world. We can agree to disagree, but for me a games against Holy Cross and the other Patriot League schools – which recruit from much the same pool as the Ivies, largely eschew transfers and have great tradition – hold a much greater appeal.
And today’s bonus . . .
7) Former Dartmouth receiver Isaac Boston caught two passes for 43 yards and a touchdown against his old school last week and very nearly caught a pass at the end that likely would have beaten the Big Green. It was heartwarming at the finish to see Dartmouth players swarm Boston at midfield and Sammy McCorkle, strength coach Spencer Brown and others hug him. It would have been bittersweet if he’d caught the pass at the end to beat his old team but you can be sure all the hugs would still have been there. As Boston said of Dartmouth after the game, “It will always be home.”
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING
Micah Green led Dartmouth with 10 tackles while Ejike Adele, Danny Cronin and Josiah Green had six apiece. Adele had two tackles for a loss and two quarterback hurries.
Q Jones, Desmin Jackson and Grayson Saunier split Dartmouth’s 138 yards rushing almost evenly with Jones netting 51 yards, Jackson 49 and Saunier 42. … Daniel Haughton had a team-high 55 yards receiving on three catches. Paxton Scott had four receptions for 37 yards and Jackson four for 28 yards.
Davis Golick punted only two times but had a 53.0 yard average with help from a 66-yarder. … Owen Zalc was 2-of-3 on field goals, the miss a 50-yarder into a slight breeze. … Matisse Weaver averaged 63.2 yards on five kickoffs with three resulting in touchbacks.
The final team stats were almost as even as the final score. Dartmouth had the edge in first downs, 22-19. Central Connecticut’s advantage in total yards was even smaller, 317-315. … Dartmouth had exactly five more minutes of possession time.
One of the biggest differences statistically, and one that played a role in the outcome of the game, was in the penalties category. Dartmouth, which had penalty issues earlier in the season, was flagged just two times for 24 yards (although both resulted in Central Connecticut first downs). The visitors were whistled nine times for 68 yards, gifting Dartmouth four first downs…. The missed Central Connecticut extra point that cost the Blue Devils the chance to perhaps force overtime with a field goal at the end was the first blown PAT against the Big Green this year.
Central Connecticut had scoring drives of 14 plays and 68 yards for a touchdown, seven plays and 66 yards for another TD, and 11 plays, 68 yards for a field goal. The Blue Devils’ drive at the end of the game covered 69 yards and 12 plays before ending on downs. … Dartmouth’s scoring drives were 10 plays, 78 yards and seven plays 32 yards for touchdowns, and 12 plays, 64 yards for a field goal.
QUOTABLE
Quarterback Grayson Saunier on why he could be confident despite making just his first start and second significant appearance: “Props to Coach (Kevin) Daft and the rest of the quarterback room, Jackson Proctor, , Woods (Ray), even Kyle (Mesier) and Noah (Trigueros), our two freshmen. We all prepare every single week as if we're the starter…. And we feel comfortable no matter if you're the third string or the second string or whatever. You have to be ready. Coach Mac says it all the time. The next guy has to be ready. So Jackson's there every single step of the way. He's helping me. Woods is helping me. We're all in it together. That preparation is key mentally. Just being confident, being ready, trusting my guys on the field. Even last week, I mean, I had to lean on the O-line and the receivers and tight ends at times because I'm not as experienced. But as long as I go out there confidently and they have my back snf I have theirs, we all feel really good and comfortable on the field together.”
Delby Lemieux on the offensive line: “We were very aware this week of CCSU's capabilities up front and in the box as a whole. They've got a great unit up front. They've got some great linebackers. We saw that all day. It was a great competition out there. … We got after them in the run, I thought, big time. We really got after them. And that helped us open up the pass and kind of calm them down as well.”
Lemieux making it clear everyone understands the line is one entity: “Give credit to the other four-O-linemen, too, as well as our big boys at tight end. When we go out there to run the ball it doesn't work unless everyone's doing their job. We're very confident in one another. We trust one another a lot. We're very lucky to have an experienced older group of guys. … When you have that kind of trust and camaraderie that you build year over year, that really helps when we go out there on game day.
Jordan Washington on blocking a 50-yard field goal just before the half: “They have a really good operation so the first couple ones, I was like, ‘Dang, I’m not getting there.’ And that one, the slowed down just a little bit bending the edge. Coach Cass does a great job of just letting me know and teaching me how to do stuff.”
Coach Sammy McCorkle on winning close games week after week: “We work on that, a lot of that stuff, being in these tight type of games. That's what football is now. If you watch games every Saturday now, they're down to the end. They're down to the wire because the talent level is even across the board, especially all the teams we play. Just being able to not panic and be able to go out there and keep performing, that's the key.”
McCorkle on hearing after his game ended that Columbia beat Penn to set up a showdown of the Ivy League’s only 2-0 teams: “We'll enjoy this one today. We'll enjoy it and we'll watch it tomorrow. Then we'll clean it and go out to practice and we'll start prepping and preparing. They're the next opponent and our goal is each week is to try to go 1-0. We're going to practice and do what we need to do to put ourselves in a situation to try to do that.”
