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Dartmouth Notes

The Bulldogs fell to the Big Green 43-44 in painful fashion on Saturday at the Bowl.

With Jackson Proctor inexplicably out of the lineup and a slew of mishaps on special teams for the Big Green, it seemed like a golden opportunity for Yale to earn its first Ivy League win of the season. Jordan had a tremendous day through the air with 32 completions for 412 yards and 5 touchdowns. Pantelis was dominant with 8 catches for 117 yards and 3 touchdowns. Felton burned the Big Green for a 71-yard touchdown reception and Nenad had his top performance of the season with 6 catches with one touchdown. Shipp, Santiago, Yates, Pitsenberger and Foster all played great in the passing game. The only true weakness for the Bulldogs offensively was along the offensive line where Dartmouth was able to shut down the running game and constantly harass Jordan on passing plays. Jordan was very elusive and was only sacked one time but was often running for his life. Yale’s play calling left much to be desired in the 3rd and 4th quarters as drives stalled without burning much time off of the clock and allowed the Big Green to have just enough time to mount a historic comeback. Two-point conversions have been disastrous all season for the Bulldogs, so it was a baffling decision to put the game on the line in the first overtime. The play call itself was decent as Pantelis had some space on a defender, but clearly Jordan did not have the muscle memory in place to complete the pass in the pressure filled moment.

Yale’s defense held strong for the first two and half quarters before completely melting down. McDonough was cited for a targeting penalty that forced him out of the contest, while Yang was injured and did not return. With half of the starting defensive line out, Dartmouth was able to run and pass at will in the second half and overtime. The defensive line was manhandled while linebackers could not get off blocks or provide support on cutbacks often leaving a lone safety to make a touchdown saving tackle. Kamara did not wrap up a tight end who took a short throw for a 32-yard touchdown. Guyton was beat for a touchdown and struggled with pass interference. Daniyan appeared to be injured early on and played through the pain but was often out of position leading to a touchdown reception on him and a terrible pursuit angle on a QB scramble that cost the Bulldogs another touchdown. The Bulldogs did not respect Paxton Scott enough at wideout leaving Shaffer in deep coverage against him that led to a long reception. With no ability to pressure quarterbacks or cover simple routes, the defensive schemes need to be completely overhauled. Tarver has outplayed Daniyan by a large margin through the first four games at safety, so the coaches need to consider sitting Daniyan until he can improve physically and mentally. Haaland was a bright spot for the Bulldogs with a pair of crucial tackles.

The performance of the Bulldogs’ special teams units needed to be perfect to secure a win and unfortunately fell flat. Yale was fooled by an onside kick that gave Dartmouth all of the momentum and a later score. If Conforti would have made just 1 of his 2 field goal attempts, this contest would have had a happy ending. Conforti’s attempts were long, but he was aided by a strong wind at his back. Florio averaged just 26.0 yards per punt as a horrible 9-yard punt brought this average way down.

37 replies on “Dartmouth Notes”

Good Analysis, I’m still shaking my head on that fake field goal attempt. Apparently so was Jack Sidlecki.! This game reminded me of the 4th and 23 against Harvard . Or The Giants Joe Pisarcik. Fumbling the ball in victory formation against the Eagles. Tony Dungy running it back for the winning score.!! (Sigh).!!

Gentlemen; I am completely baffled by the failure of the linebacker coaches to teach the linebackers how to get into the proper passing lanes and hit the right gaps on running plays. Maybe it’s time to give some of the younger prospects at this position a chance to play The seniors are just not cutting the mustard .

Unless you count the last game of 1968 as a defeat, this was the worst loss in Yale football history.

The losses that were worse than a mid season Dartmouth loss not including the THE TIE. I probably don’t need to really explain each.

Harvard 1974 – Harvard drove the length of the field in the last minute against undefeated Yale and the Ivy League’s best defense.

Harvard 1979 – Undefeated Yale didn’t show up.

Princeton 1981 – lost a 21 point lead and an undefeated season.

Harvard 2005 – lost in triple OT to H for the 5th straight time after having a 21-3 lead and multiple chances in the first two overtimes.

Harvard 2009 – 4th and 22

Honorable mention:

Princeton 1966 – Blocked kick returned by P for the winning TD.

Harvard 1975 – You had to see the winning Harvard FG to appreciate this one.

Harvard 1987 – Fumble on the last drive.

This was painful to write, but perspective was needed.

I would add Dartmouth 2017, Princeton 2006, Harvard 2007 and Dartmouth 2024 on any list of ignominious Yale defeats.

All very painful. I always thought that Harvard 2005, Princeton 2006, and Harvard 2007, ultimately caused Jack Siedlecki his job.

By the way, SOE. I’m typing this in a hotel room in Oklahoma. It was great to meet you. Hope to see you next year.

Very good points all, and I’m aware of all those games (and watched the ’68 Harvard game on closed-circuit TV at the old New Haven Arena). I guess I am just struck incredulous by losing a 21 point 4th quarter lead.

To rub salt in our wounds, the ’89 Elis didn’t show up vs. Harvard at The Bowl either. We had to settle for a tie for the title.

The 2019 Harvard win consoled me for prior Y-H disasters to a certain extent.

The thing I remember about 1989 was Harvard taking a big lead, it was 21-0 if I remember correctly. Yale stormed back to score 3 TD’s, but missed the extra point on the 3rd TD. For some unexplainable reason you could feel the momentum shift. It was like the bubble was burst and Harvard took over at that point and won easily.

I do think that the Princeton game that year was one of Yale’s great victories.

One game I didn’t mention because it was a season opener was Brown in 1999. Brown score late, had their conversion try blocked, but picked up the lose ball and score two points to win 25-24. That freak play cost Yale, again, an undefeated season.

By the way I was also at the Arena fir the ’68 tie.

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I was worried about the Dartmouth game even when we were way ahead. It was a slow motion train wreck right before my eyes.

Old Blue nailed it once again. It has to be difficult to sit seniors, including the team captain. But the current linebacker core group has not performed well. Lehigh offers a non-league game opportunity to shake things up on the defensive side of the ball and play some other people. More rotation on defense would keep our heretofore non-existent pass rush fresh in the fourth quarter where Dartmouth did pretty much whatever they wanted.

I wish I was able to say I was wrong — and hope to still be proven wrong by season’s end — but my pre-season projection was that Team 151 was destined for a 5-5 or 6-4 season. The loss of Grooms and the entire LB corps plus a lack of returning 1st/2nd team All-Ivy’s (outside of Pitsenberger) were the main reasons for my prediction.
When the first 2-deep was released, seeing a lineup that was senior-heavy but lacking experience was concerning. It seemed to imply “we’ve got a lot of players who weren’t capable of cracking the starting lineup the past 3 years, but now they’re all we’ve got.” Concerning for this season, but also for the future (why a lack of underclassmen studs?).
The win in Worcester raised my hopes that I was wrong; the next two games seemed to validate my fears. I’m not sure what to make of this past Saturday’s debacle. An impressive 2/3rds was wiped out by a disastrous finish. The angel on one shoulder tells me that the team is capable of great things down the stretch. The devil on the other says that Dartmouth tried to give the game away (bad snaps, no starting QB) more than Yale earned the 30-7 lead.
An aside: shame on Coach Sid and the play-by-play guy for stating in the past tense what a stinging defeat this was for Dartmouth while there were double-digit minutes left on the clock! You just don’t do that.

I share your views. My dread began when the captain of Team 151 turned out to be someone who hadn’t started, let alone starred as a junior.

New to the board so bear with me. Was on the voy forum site and someone posted that Dartmouth lives rent free in Tony Reno’s head. What is the background on this?

Is Coach Reno “cooked”?

I can’t make sense of any of these tic tac pieces of slang either.

Not sure the real story there, but at least some of it likely stems from the fact that over a decade ago, the Ivy office was alerted during the week prior to the Dartmouth-Yale game that Yale’s star player, RB Tyler Varga, was potentially ineligible due to his transfer from a Canadian school, and had to sit out that game. Dartmouth didn’t pack a kicking tee for the trip to the Bowl and asked to borrow one of Yale’s. Reno, suspecting that Dartmouth had fed info to the Ivy office specifically that week to keep Varga on the sidelines, refused to loan a tee. Dartmouth had to use a cut-up 2 liter soda bottle for kickoffs, and proceeded to dominate Yale, 34-14. Since then, there always appeared to be a strained relationship between Teevens and Reno — barely acknowledging each other during post-game handshakes, and each team occasionally running up the score when the opportunity presented itself. I’m not sure if the animosity dated back farther than the Varga incident, or if that was the origin of it. But apparently, beating Dartmouth has always been a high priority for Reno and his staff. The fact that Dartmouth wins the game more often than not during his tenure likely also fuels the animosity. There’s your backstory, Boolas…or at least, some of it.

Guys one quick idea When MR coach had a big lead over a team the last few years he never put underclassman in the game to get experience and thats the truth .Reno is to blame and thats the truth. End of story

Gentlemen; on the linebacker note, there is only one sophomore and one junior listed on the squad. Recruiting in this area has been sorely lacking for several years.

…and most of the LB’s on the roster were listed at another position in prior seasons.
24, 8, 35 were all formerly DB’s.
7 was a WR xfer from Utah.
36 was a DL, and a TE before that.
22 was a RB.
It’s like the staff forgot that they needed LB’s and, upon realizing, held open auditions.

Gentlemen; as an adjunct to close the loop missing from last year’s roster are two linebackers who would be a sophmore Mr. Schultzman and junior Mr. Thomas.

I have to say that the D Line, supposedly the strength of the team coming into the season, has been less than stellar.

Given the problems all across the defense – linebacker, d-line, secondary – how do you fix this?

Gentlemen; part of the fix may be for the defensive coordinator and other defensive coaches to put the players in the right position to make a play. Not to beat the dead horse, the problem starts with the linebackers.

When Mason made one of his gains tonight, the national radio commentator said when he played in the NFL, guys were always glad when an Ivy Leaguer made the team because you knew they’d be smart, know the playbook, be a good teammate etc.

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Thanks a bunch!

I too watched the 1968 Harvard game on closed circuit TV, having scalped my student ticket (to my eternal regret). As painful as that tie was, it immortalized the game way beyond what a Yale victory would have accomplished. The 29-29 tie has spawned at least one book plus a movie. Is there any other game in 151 years of Yale FB history that can say the same? In my opinion only the Iron Men’s 7-0 victory over an undefeated Princeton team in 1934 comes even close to the enduring notoriety of the ‘68 Harvard game.

One thing that the ’68 game did was affirm Harvard as The Rival. For several years before that, Princeton was the team to beat. Never again.

Of course the 14 straight wins against Princeton also helped marginalize the Princeton rivalry.

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