Big Green in Ivy driver’s seat after victory
Published: 10-27-2024 6:03 PM |
NEW YORK — The football bounced once off the Columbia logo at midfield before nestling into the arms of Dartmouth senior defensive back Sean Williams.
Williams had recovered the Lions’ onside kick, the hosts’ last-ditch effort to potentially extend Saturday’s game in front of their homecoming crowd. It was now all over, needing only one quarterback kneel from sophomore Grayson Saunier to stamp a sixth consecutive win for the No. 22 Big Green.
Dartmouth flirted with disaster in the fourth quarter but ultimately left Manhattan with a 24-21 victory over Columbia to remain unbeaten in Ivy League play.
The win, propelled by the Big Green’s running game, moved coach Sammy McCorkle’s squad into sole first place in the Ivies. Dartmouth rushed for 214 yards in the second half and finished the game with 271 yards on the ground — the most ground yards Columbia has surrendered to an opponent since a 59-24 loss on Oct. 25, 2019, to the then-No. 16 Big Green, who rushed for 273 yards that day in Hanover.
It is also the program’s first 6-0 start since the 2019 season.
“Playing Columbia and (its) coaching staff and (its) players, you know every play was going to be important,” McCorkle said of the two teams’ tactical chess match. “You knew that every yard was going to be big and every point that you got was going to be big. So we just wanted to make sure that we tried to execute every time we were out there.
Offensively, defensively, special teams, we wanted to execute.”
Here are three takeaways from Saturday’s game:
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Big Green defense hauls in multiple interceptions for first time this season: With 48 seconds left in the first half and facing a third-and-5 on the Dartmouth 37-yard line, Columbia quarterback Chase Goodwin rolled left out of the pocket, trying to extend the play.
Feeling the pressure from Big Green sophomore linebacker Cameron Lee, Goodwin tried to fling a pass toward Bryson Canty, who was streaking across the middle of the field. Goodwin must not have seen Dartmouth junior nickel back Tyson Grimm.
Grimm had been tracking Goodwin’s eyes the whole way, ultimately leaping to pick off the pass and ensuring the Big Green would enter halftime with a 10-0.
“We had to get a stop going into halftime because we knew (Columbia was) getting the ball coming out of halftime. We know (Columbia) is a great team, and we just had to make the plays that come to us,” said Grimm, whose interception Saturday marked the first of his career. “And it just came to me.”
The Dartmouth defense’s struggles to force turnovers this season have been well-documented. The unit entered the game with league-low totals in interceptions (one) and fumbles recovered (one).
Following the win against Yale on Oct. 12, senior linebacker Braden Mullen said the Big Green needed to do a better job of “making stuff happen” and remedy an area — forcing turnovers, in particular — he felt the defense had been “lackluster” up to that point. Mullen, who recorded two sacks against Columbia, saw the defense force multiple turnovers for the first time this season.
For Grimm — one of three Dartmouth players, alongside senior defensive back Zach Farris and fifth-year linebacker Danny Cronin, to nab an interception — the defensive playmaking breakthrough has been a long time coming.
“We’ve been waiting on these turnovers all season long,” Grimm said. “We had a great week of practice harping on the fact that we need the ball. We need to turn the ball over, so finally getting it going today, and putting together some turnovers there, was great for our defense.”
Top rushing defense in Ivies no problem for Jones and Co.: Just as he has all season, senior running back Q Jones pointed all the credit postgame to his string of blockers.
From the offensive line to the tight end and wide receivers, “they continue to block their butts off,” Jones said, paving the way for the Colorado native’s career day. Jones rushed for a career-high 182 yards on 19 carries against the Lions, including a 35-yard touchdown in the third quarter.
“Like I always saw, my one job is just to hit the hole,” Jones said. “And fortunately today, in the trenches, (the offensive line was) handling their business. And for me, I was seeing the hole, and I was just hitting it.”
Entering the game, Columbia boasted the conference’s top rushing defense, allowing only 102.2 yards per game to opponents. The Lions largely held Dartmouth’s rushing attack in check in the first half, conceding just 57 yards on the ground.
But the holes really opened up for Jones and junior D.J. Crowther, who rushed for 52 yards on eight carries Saturday, in the third quarter. The pair of running backs each ripped off touchdown runs of 33 yards or more to help secure a 17-point lead for the Big Green. It was all a part of Dartmouth’s prolific rushing day, one that eclipsed the season-high 233-yard mark set against Fordham in the season opener.
Columbia first-year coach Jon Poppe said his team ran into “a buzzsaw” Saturday, unable to contend with the Big Green offensive line or Jones. Poppe said “it came down to block destruction and tackling,” two areas the Lions “didn’t do a job” in as he offered a simple diagnosis of his team’s struggles stopping the run.
“It really was a basic offense: They were just running power,” Poppe said. “And power probably went for 150 rushing yards today. If you can’t stop that, you’ve got other issues and that’s what we really have to evaluate.”
Penalties hinder Dartmouth once again, allow Columbia to make late push: Through six games this season, Dartmouth has been flagged 45 times, which is the most in the Ivies. The Big Green’s noted penalty struggles came to bear once again Saturday as they were flagged eight times in the second half, allowing Columbia to extend drives and chip away at a 17-point lead.
“Those are the things that gives a team a chance to come back,” McCorkle said. “And hats off to Columbia. (It) battled back and put (itself) in the situation to potentially tie the game there at the end.”
The spiral started toward the end of the third quarter, when senior stalwarts Josiah Green and Micah Green were whistled for a trio of unsportsmanlike conduct and unnecessary roughness penalties. Those three penalties combined to move the ball 37 yards down the field for Columbia, a drive that ultimately ended in a 1-yard rushing score for backup quarterback Cole Freeman to put the Lions on the board.
The Green brothers were each whistled for roughing the passer calls on Columbia’s second scoring drive of the game late in the fourth quarter as well. McCorkle reiterated once again that players need to be in control at the end of plays.
“Josiah plays with a lot of energy and that’s the one thing, that’s the advantage he has,” McCorkle said. “He plays with a lot of energy, a lot of intensity, and he’s an aggressive football player. You don’t ever want to extinguish that, but you’ve got to be able to control that.”
On the heels of a win over Central Connecticut State in which the Big Green (6-0, 3-0 Ivy) were penalized just twice, the nine penalties against the Lions are a step backward. Still, in spite of the penalties, Dartmouth remains unbeaten through six games.
Ahead of their homecoming game against Harvard (5-1, 2-1) on Saturday, the least penalized team in the Ivies this season, McCorkle and his staff will once again be looking to remedy the team’s penalty woes.
“When you play hard, you play fast, you’ve got to be in control,” McCorkle said. “But our guys were pinning their ears back and putting pressure, and just got to do a better job. … You’ve got to stay on your feet. A couple of those we’ll see it on tape and we’ll see what it was all about, but we’ve got to clean that up.”
Alex Cervantes can be reached at acervantes@vnews.com or 603-727-7302.