HANOVER – With the Harvard game Friday night this is a short week but Monday is Monday and that still means it’s time for your half dozen – or so – hebdomadal collection of notes and observations.
And you are free to look up hebdomadal before continuing on. ;-)
1) When the run game is clicking the way it was Saturday at Columbia with 247 yards, pointing to the running backs and offensive line makes sense. But be sure to give credit as well to the Dartmouth receiving corps for the unheralded work it has been doing to spring tailback Myles Craddock, quarterback Grayson Saunier and the rest of the ballcarriers for first down runs and long gains.
2) It’s not just the wide receivers who are making a difference in the run game. The tight ends are as well. But with Harvard and its always stocked tight end room coming to town it’s also a good time to wonder if and when the Big Green tight ends will be more involved in the pass receiving end. Combined this fall they have just 13 catches. Granted, Chris Corbo ’26 was a bit of a unicorn but regardless, he caught 77 passes over this final two years.
3) With help from the pass rush, Dartmouth’s secondary has picked off five passes over the past two games after going the first four games without an interception. It can’t be overlooked that the two picks against Merrimack were against a turnover-prone quarterback and against Columbia the takeaways were late enough in the game that they were more icing on the cake than helping bake it. The challenge for Dartmouth this week will be to force a young quarterback who has 12 touchdown passes to just four interception to put the ball up for grabs and then swing momentum by taking it away.
4) The Big Green scored a season-high 38 points against Columbia despite four three-and-outs, a drive that covered two yards, and another that lost three yards. That was balanced by drives of 61, 75, 80, 80 and 83. It really was a boom-or-bust kind of day.
5) In the first half at Columbia, Saunier ran the ball just twice. Once was on a called pass play when he rolled right, tucked and sprinted for five yards when no one was open. His only other run was a one-yard sneak for a touchdown when he reached the ball up and over the line. But with his first half of action after returning from injury successfully behind him, Saunier was the Saunier of old in the second half. He kept the ball and ran right on the Big Green’s first play of the third quarter, kept the drive alive by diving for the sticks to get a first down on a third-and-eight play midway through the possession, a few plays later ran 10 yards for a first and he added a six-yard run to the one before finishing the drive off with a one-yard run. A drive that Columbia coach Jon Poppe said was one of the best he’s ever seen was a reminder about how valuable Saunier’s feet – and the threat of him using them – can be to the Dartmouth offense.
6) Dartmouth had eight penalties for 85 yards at Columbia while the Lions were whistled just twice for 13 yards. It’s the fourth time in six games where the Big Green was flagged at least seven times. That’s something that can be costly against a team like Harvard.
And just because . . .
7) Through six games Dartmouth has lost just one fumble. With just two interceptions, the Big Green has lost three turnovers this fall, the fewest in the Ivy League by a half. Harvard is one of two Ivies with six turnovers (four fumbles, two interception) along with Princeton (one fumble, five interceptions). Brown has lost the ball an Ivy League-high 15 times (six fumbles, nine interceptions) while Week 5 opponent Merrimack is one of the worst in the country with 19 turnovers (11 fumbles, eight interceptions).