HANOVER – Here’s your weekly six-plus-one thoughts on Dartmouth football and the Ivy League after three weeks.
1) Finish is a word Sammy McCorkle uses frequently with his team. Whether it’s converting in the red zone or shutting down an opponent at the end of the game to lock up a win, finishing is a regular point of emphasis for the Dartmouth coach. Against Penn last Saturday, his defense stepped up and finished when it mattered, forcing a four-and-out after the Quakers earned a first down at the Big Green 23 in the final two minutes.
The defense then finished the job when Uche Odimegwu made sure the visitors couldn’t steal away the win with a Hail Mary by recording Dartmouth’s first sack of the year.
2) The Big Green offense had a little more trouble finishing. Although it recorded almost 100 more yards of total offense than Lehigh did a week earlier in a 20-7 win over the Quakers, Dartmouth managed only 14 points. The potential Hail Mary at the end wouldn’t have been a possibility if the Big Green offense had been able to finish Penn off by getting a single first down after taking possession at its own 16 with 1:22 remaining. They'll be hearing the word finish again this week.
3) Luke Armistead doesn’t see much action, but the junior punter has shown himself to be a weapon. His 74-yard punt against the Quakers might have challenged Jay Bennett’s school record of 83 set against UMass in 1970 if it hadn’t rolled into the end zone. Armistead is averaging 45.14 yards per punt.
The Dartmouth season record for punting average is 42.9 by Alex “Fred” Ware in 2001.
4) Having a placekicker like Owen Zalc with a strong leg and All-Ivy League resumé is a double-edged sword, as the Penn game showed. Because he has the range, McCorkle had him try 51- and 53-yard field goal attempts against Penn. Because the kicks on fourth-and-six at the 35 and fourth-and-six at the 33 both missed, the Quakers got the ball back each time exactly where they would have if Dartmouth had tried to throw for first downs to keep potential touchdown drives going and the passes fell incomplete.
McCorkle made it clear after the game that he still has complete faith in his kicker, but it’s hard not to wonder if the two misses played into the usually unflappable Zalc's third miss from just 37 yards out. To his credit, the kicker nailed the critical extra point after Dartmouth’s fourth-quarter touchdown, leaving the Quakers needing a TD on their final drive instead of a field goal to potentially force overtime.
5) Dartmouth proved against Penn’s stout run defense that the ground game that came around against Monmouth a week earlier was the real thing. Myles Craddock was a workhorse with 21 carries for 85 yards, and Chris Roper showed something with three runs for 20 yards. Don't be surprised if Roper gets a little more work this week, both because he's earned it and to take some of the wear-and-tear off Craddock.
6) Penn quarterback Miles Teodecki is going to be a terrific Ivy League player, but his 69.2 completion percentage (27-of-39) Saturday must be concerning for the Dartmouth pass defense. Granted, he was throwing mostly underneath and to the sidelines, but he was completing just 50.7 percent of his throws coming in.
Through three games, the Big Green is allowing opponents to complete 74.5 percent of their passes. For comparison, Yale is holding opponents to 48.3 percent, Columbia to 49.2 and Penn to 50.8. Princeton is closest to Dartmouth at 66.7 percent. Playing into the success opposing quarterbacks have had is Dartmouth being last in the nation in sacks per game (.33) as well as tackles for loss (2.7 per game).
And just because . . .
7) Here’s an apparent disconnect for you. The Big Green is second in the nation in third-down conversion success, earning a first down 57.5 percent of the time. That said, the Big Green is 119th in the NCAA statistics for first downs. What’s up?
Blame the NCAA because while it breaks a lot of its statistics down to per-game averages, when it comes to first downs, the organization simply goes by the total number. Given that the Ivy League has played two fewer games than most other schools, it shouldn’t be a surprise that five of the six schools with the fewest first downs are from the Ancient Eight.
Cornell is 121st, Penn 122nd, Brown 123rd and Princeton 124th and last. In case you are wondering, Columbia is 83rd, Yale is 108th, and Harvard 115th.
It's an absurd metric and the NCAA should do better.