When a writer began asking fair but probing questions during Sammy McCorkle’s first season as Dartmouth’s head football coach a couple of years ago, at least one high-ranking athletic administrator expressed concerns about how players would respond.
 |
| Grayson Saunier |
That came to mind listening to Dartmouth quarterback Grayson Saunier outside the Big Green locker room in the bowels of Harvard Stadium Saturday night after a 31-10 loss to the Crimson.
With All-American Delby Lemieux and fellow tackle Vasean Washington sidelined, Saunier had been running for his life at too many points in the game, but he steadfastly point the finger at the patchwork offensive line. Instead he took the blame himself.
“Will (Prince) and Cisco (Caballero), I have the utmost respect and trust in them,” Saunier said of the two first-time starters who stepped in for Lemieux and Washington. “I trust them any day. I’ll follow them. I’ll be behind them. They did a great job. They did a phenomenal job for their first game.
“No excuses. I needed to get the ball off quicker on a lot of them. I needed to make the right reads. A lot of the sacks were on me, not on them.”
After completing 12-of-13 passes a week ago against Columbia, Saunier finished 18-for-32 against Harvard for 200 yards. He was sacked three times.
"He's a warrior," McCorkle said of the junior QB. "He does a heck of a job. He's a competitor. And I'm proud of the way he went out there and competed today. He made a lot of good throws for us. He made a lot of good plays for us. Unfortunately, though, it just didn't turn out the way we wanted it to.
"I know that's not the way (Saunier) wanted it to turn out. But knowing him and the leader he is, he's going to come back this week and he's going to be ready to get to work. And he's going to get our players ready to go to work too."
As last night’s BGA Overtime story reminded us, McCorkle wants his team to wash away each week’s game and start anew the next day. Talk to Dartmouth players after any game and to a person they’ll say pretty much the same thing.
After the Harvard loss Saunier replaced “wash” with a synonym, but the meaning was clear.
“I mean, we’ve just got to wipe it,” he said. “This isn't the outcome that we wanted, but there's a lot to learn from. There's a lot of good things that happened today. There were a lot of great blocks, great catches, things that we've got to build on. We've got to look at the bad things and learn from it.
“Wipe it clean.”
Not surprisingly, although McCorkle was elsewhere while Saunier was speaking, he took the same approach minutes later talking about the disappointing loss.
“We’ve got to do a better job,” he said. “We just made mistakes in crucial times of the game, and that just can't happen. It's disappointing, but I tell you what, our guys battle, and we'll bounce back.
“We'll clean this thing. We'll learn from it and move on and get ready for next week.”
Wash, wipe, clean and repeat.
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING
Dartmouth’s run game was limited to a season-low 61 yards. The previous low was 117 yards against Central Connecticut. . . . DJ Crowther finished with a team-high 24 yards on nine carries. . . . Saunier had 48 yards but with 32 yards lost on sacks and lost yardage he netted just 16 yards. . . . Dartmouth held Harvard to a season-low 110 yards rushing on 34 carries.
Wide receiver Ky’Dric Fisher had by far his busiest day of the season with 10 targets and five catches for 51 yards. Nick Lemon was targeted eight times and caught four passes for 52 yards. Tight end Chris Corbo caught three balls for 56 yards with his 21 yards after catch more than the rest of the team combined.
Harvard QB Jaden Craig was 21-for-32 for 322 yards and four touchdowns with two interceptions. Interestingly, while Dartmouth had just 41 yards after catch, Harvard had 125.
Linebacker Zyion Freer-Brown once again led the Big Green defense with 12 tackles. Joshua Johnson had eight while Teddy Gianaris and Harrison Keith had six apiece. Gianaris had Dartmouth’s lone sack and 1.5 tackles for loss.
Sean Williams’ interception was his team-high fourth of the season. Keith also had a pick, his third of the year.
Harvard finished with a 23-15 advantage in first downs. That’s the fewest first downs the Big Green has had this fall. . . . While the Crimson was 9-of-15 on third-down conversions, Dartmouth wasn’t far behind with 7-of-16. . . . Harvard had a 7-minute, 38-second advantage in time of possession, just the third time an opponent has had the ball for more time than the Big Green. . . . The game was largely devoid of whistles with Dartmouth flagged three times for 35 yards and Harvard just once for 10 yards.
Dartmouth drives in order (plays/yards/result) :3/2/punt; 9/30/punt;4/24/punt/4/21/punt; 10/51/missed field goal; 12/75/touchdown; 10/24/field goal; 4/9/downs; 8/19/downs/2/1/end of game.
Harvard drives in order (plays/yards/result): 12/71/touchdown; 3/0/punt; 3/75/touchdown; 12/75/field goal; 10/54/interception; 1/-3/half; 3/11/interception; 11/79/touchdown; 1/34/touchdown; 10/41/downs.
THEY SAID IT (Lightly edited for clarity and brevity)
Harvard quarterback Jaden Craig, who broke the Crimson career touchdown pass record on being intercepted twice by Dartmouth: “We knew they were going to make some plays and they did. That just can’t change our mentality, and you've got to stay in attack mode all game.” (Per a story in The Harvard Crimson)
Dartmouth quarterback Grayson Saunier: “In the first half, that wasn't us. We came out, and we didn't do Dartmouth football. We didn't play Dartmouth football the way that we usually do, and the way we should have. You could see in the second half, we came out firing. That's what we're all about, making the right blocks, making the right reads, the right throws, just being aggressive every play. We didn't have that at the beginning. And that's where I really think we went wrong. I mean, respect to them, but we weren't playing our game.”
Dartmouth safety Sean Williams: “I think from the jump, we’ve just got to weather the storm, whether the momentum is going one way or the other way. We've just got to bring our energy from our own sideline and find a way to win at the end of the day, whether that be on the defensive side of the ball, offensive side of the ball, special teams. As a collective, we've got to find a way to win.”
Dartmouth coach Sammy McCorkle on Harvard’s Jaden Craig: “He's a good quarterback. He did a good job of finding the open receivers. They did a good job of getting open, but he did a good job of getting out of that pocket as well. . . . I thought we put some good pressure on him. I felt like we got after him, got him moving, but that's where he's dangerous, and that's where he can hurt you. And he did a good job of finding open guys while he was scrambling, and hit some key third downs.”
McCorkle on the linemen who filled in for the injured starters: “We tell our guys you've got to be ready to go, and I thought the guys who stepped in for both those guys . . . played well. There was a lot more to that game than that. But I was really proud of the guys who stepped up this week and the way they went out there and performed.”
McCorkle on the loss: “It is what it is. There's nothing you can do about it. We didn't play the game we wanted to. It's not the outcome we wanted to. But we can't let this game beat us this week. We're going to forget about it. And our guys do a good job of that, good and bad. And our staff does a good job of that, and that's what we're going to do.”