HANOVER – Another baker’s half-dozen thoughts, observations, and opinions after Dartmouth’s loss at Princeton Saturday, starting with an interesting twist in the FCS Playoffs situation.
1) There’s a delicious irony in how the Ivy League race is shaping up. While Harvard obviously wants to win the outright championship, if it stumbles in one of its final two games, Dartmouth wins its last two, and Princeton drops one of its final two, the Big Green and Crimson would tie for the Ivy League title. Dartmouth would win the conference's automatic bid to the FCS Playoffs because it won the head-to-head battle with Harvard on Oct. 30.
So in the event the Crimson loses and the Big Green wins out, Harvard has to hope Princeton also wins out, making it a three-way tie. Here's why: The first tiebreaker is head-to-head, and that resolves nothing because while Dartmouth beat Harvard, Princeton beat Dartmouth, and Harvard beat Princeton.
The second tiebreaker is the “average ranking of metrics” from six services. As of today, that would seem to favor Harvard, although that could change if the Crimson and the Tigers both finish 8-2.
The only near certainty is that with a 6-4 record it's unlikely the metrics would favor Dartmouth.
There's also a possibility the Big Green would like to avoid. Brown can be part of a two- or three-way tie for the title if it wins its final two while Harvard and Princeton are each losing a game. But with wins over both Brown and Princeton, Harvard has the edge on the other two.
3) And speaking of impressive adjustments, after not having an interception through the first four games of the season, Dartmouth has now picked off 11 passes in the last four games. With a little help from Harvard tossing five picks on Memorial Field, the Big Green is actually second in the Ivy League with 11 interceptions. Only the Crimson with 15 have more.
4) The pass rush was something of a concern for Dartmouth coming into the season, and that has been borne out. The Big Green has just six total sacks this year. Brown leads the Ivies with 22 and everyone else is in the teens except Columbia, which is next-to-last with 10 sacks. That opposing quarterbacks have had more time than in the past to pick out their receivers makes the secondary turning into a ballhawking unit that much more impressive.
5) It was windier on the field Saturday than it probably appeared from the stands, and unless you were passing, catching, or kicking the ball, you can’t be sure how much of an impact it had. But it’s worth noting that of the 35 points scored in the game, 28 were with the wind. The only touchdown into the wind was the third Princeton score. Dartmouth had the wind on its final drive of the game but couldn’t take advantage. Again, it might just be coincidence, but both teams missed field goals with the wind at their backs. The win also was at the Big Green's back when a mistake in the operation cost a potential field goal attempt at the end of the first half.
6) Quarterback Grayson Saunier got his first significant playing time against Yale his sophomore year when a battered and perhaps overworked Nick Howard couldn’t go. Saunier hasn’t suffered nearly the kind of punishment that Howard invited, but you have to believe the 84 carries and 14 sacks he’s had this year have taken a toll. The Big Green captain is a warrior, but he has to be worn down and Dartmouth continues to ask an awful lot of him to be successful.
And just because . . .
7) It’s been three years since we lost Buddy Teevens, but Princeton coach Bob Surace still has a BT sticker on his headset honoring the only other person to play on an Ivy League championship team and then coach his alma mater to an Ivy title. You can be sure Dartmouth people who spotted that were rooting for Surace to break the Princeton record for career coaching wins. But this week. Not last week.