Six-Pack After Cornell

BGA (Nov. 18) – It’s that time of the week again so buckle up for your Sunday Monday Six Pack of assorted Dartmouth football thoughts after the loss at Cornell.

1) On the surface it might seem jarring that a Dartmouth defense that surrendered more than 21 points just twice in the first seven games gave up 39 points to Cornell. Here’s what you might not realize. The Big Red scored 47 points in its win over Yale earlier this season, 49 in its win over Princeton in Week 7 and 49 in a loss to Penn the next week. That's 98 points in the previous two weeks alone. Quarterback Jameson Wang makes his share of mistakes but he makes a lot more plays with his arm and his legs. And with sophomore Samuel Musungu coming of age at wide receiver, soph Ryder Kurtz at tight end and classmate Ean Pope at running back, the Big Red has an explosive offense. In fact, Cornell leads the Ivy League in conference scoring this fall at 37.5 points per game.

2) Turnovers certainly didn’t help the Big Green’s cause. Three interceptions and a scoop-and-score contributed to Cornell running 16 more plays than Dartmouth and holding the ball for 9½ more minutes. All told, Big Red scored 20 points off turnovers while winning the game by 17 points. Yup. Dartmouth came into the afternoon with five turnovers on the season and turned it over four times on Schoellkopf Field.

3) Daniel Haughton is quietly developing into a big-play receiver for Dartmouth. With six catches for 101 yards and a touchdown Saturday he’s now third in yards-per-catch among Ivy League receivers with 15 or more receptions in conference action this fall. He’s had 17 grabs for 298 yards and three touchdowns in league play, an average of 17.5 yards per reception. He trails only Columbia’s Bryson Canty (18.8 yards per catch) and Penn’s Bisi Owens (17.7 yards) among those receivers with a minimum of 15 catches in Ivy League action. Still, Dartmouth misses Mr. Dependable, Paxton Scott, a third-down conversion specialist. The Big Green hasn't been the same since he was lost to injury.

4) Patrick Campbell’s 26-yard interception return against Cornell was highlight-reel worthy. Given the way he ran with the ball and the fact that he showed good hands with seven touchdown catches (and a 20.7-yard average gain) as a senior wide receiver in high school, he would look pretty good on the depth chart along with Sean Williams at punt returner next year. And on the subject of depth charts and punt returners, it’s a little disingenuous to have Scott listed as a starting wide receiver and backup punt returner when his foot is in a boot and he’s not in uniform.

5) What to make of Dartmouth’s two running backs combining to run the ball just 12 times for a total of 16 yards? That against a Cornell run defense which allowed more than 200 yards on the ground in four of its first eight games this fall, including 286 a week earlier against Penn? Granted, there were 13 carries credited to the Big Green quarterbacks (although five of those were actually sacks) but the 60 net yards allowed were a season-low for the Big Red run defense. Finally, Dartmouth failed to reach triple figures in rushing yardage for the first time on the same day it gave up more rushing yardage (175 yards) than it had in any game this fall. The Big Green's worst previous rushing performance: 118 yards against Harvard and Princeton, and 119 against Merrimack. The most rushing yards given up before Cornell: 165 against Merrimack and 123 against Harvard).

6) The scenario for Saturday is similar in several ways to a year ago. Once again, a Dartmouth team with two Ivy League losses comes into the final game of the season needing a win over Brown in The Tussle and a Yale win over Harvard to grab a share of the title. And once again, the season could end in a three-way tie. Should the Bulldogs defeat Harvard, Dartmouth beat Brown and Columbia outlast Cornell, the Big Green, Crimson and Lions will each earn a share. The difference this year is the title is not on the line for Yale, but you have to believe the Bulldogs would like nothing better than to deny their arch-rival the outright championship. And for a lot of us, if Dartmouth has to share the title, how cool a story would it be for Columbia to be one of the champion for the first time since 1961?

And your bonus (although not one you’ll like if you are planning to be in Hanover):

7) Dartmouth, Ivy League teams and others in the east have been very lucky with the weather this fall. It has been both mild and dry each game but both could change for the finale. As of this writing Weather.com is calling for rain and possible snow showers on Saturday morning with conditions improving as the day wears on. Given the drought conditions in the northeast rain is probably a good thing – but thankfully it seems the system coming through starting Thursday should abate by kickoff.

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING

Patrick Campbell led Dartmouth with 11 tackles and his 26-yard interception return. Micah Green had 10 tackles and a 25-yard interception return. Josiah Green, Sean Williams and Danny Cronin had seven tackles apiece while Teddy Gianaris had the Big Green’s lone sack for a 12-yard loss.

In addition to Daniel Haughton’s six catches for 101 yards Desmin Jackson had five grabs for 27 yards out of the backfield with wide receiver Grayson O’Bara also pulling in five passes.

Davis Golick continued to put up solid numbers punting with four kicks for a 43.5-yard average. He’s now topped 43 yards in each of his last three games and has averaged at least 40 yards in six of nine games. … Owen Zalc’s Ivy League record of 17 consecutive games with at least one field goal came to an end in Ithaca when he missed his only attempt, a 49-yarder that sailed just wide left in the second quarter.

Cornell ran up 26 first downs to Dartmouth’s 18, including three by penalty, with each of the three flags against the Big Green giving the home team a new set of downs. … The Big Red had a 378-327 advantage in total yards. … Both teams batted .500 in third-down conversions with Dartmouth  going 7-of-14 and Cornell 8-of-16. The Big Green converted its only fourth down and the Big Red both of its fourth-down opportunities.

The disparity in time of possession was most pronounced in how long drives lasted. Dartmouth had just one possession that topped three minutes. Cornell had six drives of three-or-more minutes, including two that topped five minutes.

THEY SAID IT

Cornell coach Dan Swanstrom (speaking to the school paper): “Just great. Great performance by everybody. It wasn’t perfect, it wasn’t clean, but we fought (and) we played hard and competitive.” 

Swanstrom on the improvement from a week earlier when Penn slapped 67 points on his team: “A lot of things needed to change. We needed to play better. (Today) we just ran and hit and knocked people back.”

Swanstrom: “I hope (the seniors) are the original rebirth of this program and take us to a different place. They’re the first guys that bought into all this, so hopefully it’s the start of something really good here at Cornell.”

Dartmouth coach Sammy McCorkle: “The guys battled and kept fighting. It’s just too many mistakes. We just can't do that and allow a team to have the opportunity to control the ball, control the clock, and allow them to have opportunities to score more points.”

McCorkle: “You’ve got to make plays when you're in third down situations. You’ve got to make stops, and especially with a good offense like they have. And then offensively, when we get the ball, we’ve got to be able to move those chains. We've got to put ourself in a situation and score touchdowns. We just didn't do that when we needed to.”