The Bulldogs emerged victorious on their first road trip of the season defeating the Big Green 31-24 in Hanover.
Although the offense was inconsistent and could not generate a rushing attack, Grooms and company delivered big plays in clutch moments. Grooms finished 15 of 22 for 239 passing yards and 2 touchdowns. He had a few errant passes that were nearly intercepted but was on point when needed the most. Lindley had an outstanding afternoon with 7 receptions for 128 yards and a touchdown that gave Yale the lead in the fourth quarter. Tipton hauled in 5 catches for 67 yards and a touchdown in another impressive display. Hawes had 2 key catches for 34 yards. The running game was a disaster with 1.3 yards per carry on the day. The decisions to run the ball on two 3rd and long situations were baffling and did not seem to catch any defenders off guard. The offensive line struggled to open holes and allowed 3 sacks on Grooms. Grooms absorbed hard shots and was harassed in the pocket for much of the contest. There were snapping issues with Bluhm at Center that plagued the timing of plays allowing defenders an extra step in pursuit prior to the play developing. The offense finished just 2 of 10 on 3rd down conversions with 11 first downs total. Yale found ways to exploit small mistakes from Dartmouth to generate big plays, yet much work remains to get this offense firing on all cylinders.
The turnovers that the defense was able to create were backbreakers for the Big Green. Guyton’s return was a pleasant surprise and he killed two Dartmouth drives with interceptions, one of which he returned for a 70-yard touchdown just when it seemed as though Dartmouth had gained all the momentum in the first half. Vaughn had another tremendous contest with 15 tackles. Moore has settled back into being a top pass defender adding another interception to go along with 5 tackles. Shaber started again at defensive tackle and notched 4 tackles. Egodogbare was back in the mix but will likely need a few more weeks to reach peak form. Dylan Yang had a nice sack that deflated a Dartmouth drive and Mitchell Tyler made a few solid plays at end. Turnovers aside, it was far from a great defensive showing as Dartmouth gashed us for 5.1 yards per carry and completed far too many passes to open receivers. The pass rush was nonexistent at times giving Dartmouth’s backup QB Proctor far too long to scan the field. Playing our corners so far off the ball gives opponents easy opportunities for short passes on 2nd or 3rd and short.
Bosman nailed a 43-yard field goal and averaged 39.2 yards per punt. Our punt team did an excellent job preventing blocked punts and recovered a fumbled punt that bounced off a Dartmouth returner.
2 replies on “Dartmouth Notes”
Another good review by the moderator. Beating Dartmouth has never been easy and our team played with the persistence and heart to attain this important win. However the moderator is correct in stating that much work remains for Yale particularly in the the running game which is no where near pre-season expectations. Losing Gargiulo to graduation (now a starter for South Carolina) and Karhu to injury certainly has a negative impact on the OL. For whatever reason none of our three All Ivy rbs have displayed thus far the kind of explosiveness they had last season.
I wonder if using three running backs is a actually a bit of a negative. It doesn’t seem like any of the RB’s can establish a rhythm. Having two running backs in the mix, like last year, it seemed like they complemented each other. Maybe three is too much of a good thing. Not enough carries to go around.