Nolan Grooms was flushed out of the pocket, rolling out to his left after escaping a diving sack attempt from Dartmouth senior defensive lineman Shane Cokes.
The Yale quarterback thought he had a man open 25 yards downfield, but junior linebacker Macklin Ayers had other ideas, making a diving interception that appeared to halt a Bulldogs offense that was clicking on all cylinders in its tracks.
Not so fast, however — a split-second after Grooms released the ball, senior defensive end Charlie Looes hit him with the crown of his helmet, a textbook targeting call. Looes was ejected from the game, and instead of the Big Green’s offense taking over, Yale moved inside the Dartmouth 20-yard line with the penalty. It took just four more plays for the Bulldogs to score their second touchdown in a three-minute span and take a 17-point lead in the third quarter en route to Saturday’s 24-21 win.
Grooms made few other mistakes, completing 19 of 22 passes for 170 yards, many of which came on screens and other short throws to the outside. With Yale’s offensive line helping the Bulldogs average upwards of five yards per rushing attempt and 270 yards in all on the ground, the Big Green defense had to keep more players in the box, which opened things up on the outside.
“Ideally, you want to stop the run with fewer people and be able to defend the pass,” Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens said. “If you’re getting hit with the run, you keep a linebacker a little bit closer. If the box numbers are greater, you’re putting greater pressure on your defensive backs to get rid of blocks and make a play. If we don’t separate, you’re picking up six, eight, 10 yards.”
The Big Green (1-3, 0-2 Ivy League) have allowed opposing quarterbacks to complete 73% of their passes through four games, easily the highest rate in the Ivy League. From a pure yardage standpoint, it hasn’t come back to bite them — they’ve actually allowed the third-fewest passing yards in the conference, at 215.8 per game — but it has impacted their ability to get off the field. Dartmouth is giving up 21.3 first downs per game, the most in the Ivy, and are second to last in average time of possession.
Sacred Heart may have provided other teams a blueprint for how to attack the Big Green defense in Week 2, with quarterback Marquez McCray getting the ball out quickly to the outside and completing 31 of 36 passes for 274 yards. Dartmouth lost junior safety Cam Maddox for the season in that game with a dislocated hip and have relied on less experienced players to fill that void.
“We just have to be more physical up front and in the secondary,” senior safety and co-captain Quinten Arello said. “The secondary has to be on top of their guys to give our defensive line enough time to pressure the quarterback. If the play does get extended, we need our D-line to get there.”
Freshman Sean Williams made his first start opposite Arello at safety the following week against Penn, then had a breakout game at the Yale Bowl, making seven tackles and returning a fourth-quarter interception 56 yards. Juniors Vachon Raye and Leonard St. Gourdin have provided much-needed depth.
At cornerback, senior Tyron Herring is starting for the first time, nabbing his first career interception against Sacred Heart and making 12 tackles, including nine solo stops, against Penn. He did give up a 25-yard touchdown last week to Yale receiver Mason Tipton, who beat him down the left sideline.
Opposite Herring is fifth-year Robert Crockett III, who is tied with Maddox for the team lead with three pass breakups.
“We want to make sure we keep everything in front of us,” defensive backs coach Sammy McCorkle said. “Obviously you don’t want drives that continue to happen, and that’s something we stress as a staff and as a defense. We’ve got to get (offenses) off the field. We do have some inexperienced guys on the defensive side of the field, and sometimes it takes seeing it live and seeing it fast to realize what we have to continue to improve on.”
Against New Hampshire (4-2) on Saturday, the Big Green will face quarterback Max Brosmer, whose 62.57% completion rate is right in line with other passers Dartmouth has seen. But running back Dylan Laube, who rushed for touchdowns of 75 and 53 yards against the Big Green last year, is the Wildcats’ biggest offensive weapon. In addition to 573 rushing yards and six touchdowns, Laube has also made 23 receptions out of the backfield for 219 yards and another score.
“The bottom line is (how) people have attacked us, UNH will do the same type of thing,” Teevens said. “We’d better have an answer for that, but the simple answer is get off blocks, make tackles and play it more aggressively in the back end.”
Benjamin Rosenberg can be reached at brosenberg@vnews.com or 603-727-3302.