Similar Scenario: 2023 Game Revisited
Editor's Note: One of the advantages of the format change from BGA Premium to BGA Overtime is that the site is no longer behind a paywall and more people can read stories like this. (One of the disadvantages, by the way, is that the site is no longer behind a paywall. ;-)
This story is reproduced here so that everyone who did not have a chance to read it a year ago can get a feel for the excitement we all felt in 2023, and what it might feel like this time around. Enjoy.
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| After Dartmouth's win, all eyes were on the tiny screens showing the final minutes of the Harvard-Yale game. |
PROVIDENCE, R. I. (Nov. 18) – Physically dominant on both sides of the line of scrimmage, Dartmouth ran for 386 yards and four touchdowns, sacked the Brown quarterback five times and limited the high-octane Bears offense to a single touchdown until midway through the fourth quarter Saturday while earning a share of the Ivy League title with a 38-13 win before 1,531 at Brown Stadium.
“We knew we had to impose our will,” said first-year coach Sammy McCorkle, whose team did just that in winning its record 21st Ivy title. “We wanted to establish our identity. I could just tell. I didn’t have to say much in the locker room. They were very eager to get out here and it was, Let’s go.”Dartmouth finishes the year 6-4 overall but 5-2 in the Ivy League, sharing the crown with Harvard and Yale, which defeated the Crimson to force just the third two-loss championship scenario in conference history. The Big Green has won a share in each of those years.
“I’ve been around a lot of championship teams as a player and as a coach but there’s something different about this group,” says McCorkle. “What they had to face and endure and overcome? These are special, special men.”
THAT CHAMPIONSHIP SATURDAY
With the Big Green needing a win in Providence and a Yale win over Harvard, here's a contemporaneous look at what it was like watching Dartmouth-Brown while trying also to follow Harvard-Yale via "live stats" that, maddeningly, were being updated sporadically and sometimes incorrectly.
12:02 p.m.
Brown has kicked off to Dartmouth. A touchback means the Big Green will start at the Brown 25 and go three-and-out.
12:03 p.m.
A touchback on the opening kickoff at Yale sees the Bulldogs take over at their 25 and collect three first downs before their drive bogs down and they punt on a fourth-and-six from the Harvard 38. Championship Saturday is underway.
12:25 p.m.
Yale has held the ball for 16 plays and driven 48 yards before settling for a 33-yard field goal. The first cheers from fans watching on their phones filter down from the stands behind the Dartmouth bench with the Bulldogs taking that 3-0 lead.
12:29 p.m.
More cheers from the Dartmouth fans, this time for the game in front of them. After an interception at the Brown 3 derailed the Big Green’s first drive offensive coordinator Kevin Daft calls seven consecutive running plays on the next possession. The last is a 19-yard touchdown run by Q Jones, who will finish the day with 124 yards and two touchdowns on 16 carries.
“We’ve got the greatest O-line,” Jones says later. “They show up on game day, they put their heads down and do their thing. That’s all you can ask for as a running back.”
12:45 p.m.
Still more cheers from fans in the visiting stands with their phones in hand. It is early in the second quarter in both games and Yale has just blocked a Harvard punt, recovered at the Crimson seven and taken a 10-0 lead on a short touchdown pass.
12:46 p.m.
Dartmouth quarterback Jackson Proctor (five rushes for 103 yards, 6-of-10 passing for 42 yards) has run 25 yards for a first down on a third-and-11 play, and two snaps later it is Jones going 38-yards for the touchdown and a 14-0 lead. One possession into the second quarter Dartmouth has already run for 170 yards behind a line that has come of age this fall.
“We grew up a lot as a line this year,” says offensive tackle Delby Lemieux, still just a sophomore. “We came out in spring ball, the preseason and this fall and worked hard to be the crew that we want to be. We looked at the guys from 2021 and said, How do you become that and write your own destiny as an offensive line? We did that – but it’s not just the five of us. It’s all 20 of us.”
12:53 p.m.
Patrick Campbell picks off a Jake Willcox pass and returns it 22 yards to the Brown 37. Five plays later Proctor hits tight end Chris Corbo with an eight-yard touchdown pass to make it 21-0.
In New Haven, meanwhile, Yale has extended its lead with a pick-six touchdown. But wait. For all the wonders of being able to follow a play-by-play online, occasionally signals get crossed. Those watching the NESN or ESPN+ broadcast in the stands know the updated stats from Yale Bowl are incorrect. There was no interception return for a score. It is still 10-0 Yale.
1:04 p.m.
Brown isn’t going away. Not yet, at least. In danger of losing sight of the Big Green, the Bears convert a fourth-and-one at their own 48 and three plays later Willcox hits Graham Walker with a 35-yard strike for a touchdown and PAT that make it 21-7 with 3:34 left in the first half.
1:09 p.m.
Dartmouth answers with a bullet. On the second play of the ensuing drive, Proctor goes around the left side and sprints 78 yards for a touchdown and a 28-7 lead.
Nick Howard, the quarterback who ceded the starting role as the year went on, raves about the junior QB who had a 64-yard run the last time Dartmouth played at Brown. “I’m super proud of him,” says fifth-year senior who carried 16 times for 96 yards. "He's been put in some tough situations this year and showed the kind of character he has and what kind of athlete he is. It's funny. I remember him in ’21. He seemed like such a little kid and look at him now.”
1:15 p.m.
Harvard has driven 59 yards in six plays, the last an 11-yard touchdown pass. With a blocked PAT the Crimson is trailing 10-6. It will stay that way until the half.
1:41 p.m.
The battleship gray skies in Providence have opened up and sun has come out for the first time as the second half gets underway. Are the live stats coming out of Yale accurate? A heading saying that it is the start of the “third half” might have you wondering.
2:05 p.m.
Dartmouth probably should have had a pick six on Brown’s first possession of the second half. The Big Green finally gets its first points of the half on a 26-yard field goal by Owen Zalc with 4:03 remaining in the third quarter. Down in New Haven, meanwhile, Yale has stretched its lead to 17-6 on a TD with 4:42 left in the third quarter.
2:10 p.m.
Charlie Looes’ eight-yard sack forces a Brown punt and the Bears will go to the fourth quarter trailing by 24 points. In New Haven, Harvard will go to the final period trailing by 11. For Dartmouth fans, all is right with the world.
2:22 p.m.
Brown has driven deep into the Dartmouth end. With no choice but to go for it on fourth-and-two at the two, the Bears surrender a 10-yard sack to Joe Onuwabhagbe.
“We knew all year long that it starts up front on both sides of the ball,” explains Looes, the leader of the D-line who finishes his fifth year with a team-high 7.5 sacks. “We wanted to make sure we controlled that line of scrimmage. He's a good quarterback and they're heavy passing team, so we knew we'd have to get his face. Make sure that the DBs give us some time to get there and then make sure that we forced some bad passes."
2:23 p.m.
Things are getting interesting in New Haven where Harvard quarterback Jaden Craig has run seven yards for a touchdown to trim Yale's lead to 17-12. With a chance to close within a field goal, the Crimson tries a pass play on the two-point conversion. It fails.
2:35 p.m
Brown gets a 30-yard touchdown run from running quarterback Nate Lussier to make it 31-13 with the failed two-point conversion. Just 7:30 is left and it will take a miracle for the Bears to win the game.
2:38 p.m.
The live stats have shown a 51-yard Yale pass completion but it is a mistake. Worse yet for Dartmouth fans, Harvard has taken its first lead on a seven-yard TD pass. With another failed two-point conversion the Crimson is on top, 18-17, with 10:45 remaining.
Proctor and his teammates are unaware of what's happening in the day's other big game. They are focused on what’s in front of them.
“We didn’t have much of an idea,” he says later. “Some fans were shouting the scores but we were still worried about finishing our game and beating Brown.”
2:43 p.m.
Brown tries an onside kick to no avail and five plays later DJ Crowther goes 36 yards to close out the scoring in Providence.
2:51 p.m.
Cheers from the visiting stands. Two plays after intercepting a Yale pass Harvard has fumbled the ball back to the Bulldogs at the Crimson 14. On the third Yale play after the turnover Nolan Grooms gives the Elis a 23-18 lead on a 12-yard pass with 5:47 remaining. The two-point run fails.
2:55 p.m.
Dartmouth sophomore Sean Williams picks off a Brown pass in the end zone for a touchback. Time for the victory formation in Providence as all eyes and ears turn to what is happening 100 miles to the southeast.
3:05 p.m.
The game is over and phones are held above the players’ heads near the 50 so everyone can see as Yale makes a fourth-and-two stop at its six to preserve its lead. “It was crazy,” Looes says later. “I mean, that was crazy, with people trying to pull up videos, the picture freezing and other people screaming and yelling.”
3:15 p.m.
The game in New Haven is now in its final minute-plus. Moments before Harvard had a first-and-10 at the Yale 29 thanks to a big stop and a short 25-yard punt by the Bulldogs. But an 11-yard sack, an incompletion and a seven-yard pass now has the Crimson facing a fourth-and-14 at the Yale 33 with 46 seconds left.
When a pass deep down the left side is broken up bedlam erupts in Providence.
“Oh my goodness,” Jones says in a bit. “It was so nerve-racking. I don’t get butterflies but I was getting butterflies. But you know what? We ended up champs and that’s all we can ask for.”
With Yale now in victory formation, Ivy League champion hats are unboxed, cigars are lit and hugs resume.
Dartmouth's convincing win and third Ivy League title in four seasons says a lot about the program after the emotional challenges of the past year according to McCorkle.
“Everybody was all in,” he said. ”It was very difficult. Very tough. But there was no choice. We were going to go forward and put our foot on the gas and go. We challenged each other and held each other accountable.
“I thank the staff, the administration and the players. It took everybody to do it. Everybody stepped up. That’s why we are where we are today.”
Dartmouth has returned to the top of the Ivy League after finishing 3-7 a year ago, although McCorkle will tell you the record in the final season under late coach Buddy Teevens was deceiving.
"We weren’t a 3-7 team," he says. "We had so many close games that we knew we could build off that. Buddy made sure that we were going to clean things up, get back the attention to detail, the sense of urgency, all the stuff that we continued to talk about, and continued to preach. We knew that's what it was going to take to get us back where we needed to get."
3:45 p.m.
The field has cleared except for safety Sean Williams doing a video interview.
4 p.m.
The Dartmouth game ended 56 minutes earlier and punter Davis Golick, still in full uniform, is on his phone accepting congratulations outside the Big Green locker room as the words Nick Howard uttered earlier continue to resonate.
“It’s been a rollercoaster," he had said. "I wish Coach T was here to share it with us, but I know he’s here in spirit. It’s a storybook ending.”
