Big Green Get Big Test at No. 21 Harvard Saturday

Saturday, October 30

Cambridge, Mass. / Harvard Stadium

12:00 PM

Dartmouth College

Harvard

Photo by: Gil Talbot

Big Green Get Big Test at No. 21 Harvard Saturday

10/27/2021 10:36:00 AM | Football

Saturday, Oct. 30 NESN ESPN+Live Audio Live Stats Teevens TeleTeaser @DartFootball Dartmouth Notes Harvard Notes Series History

Dartmouth has won the last two games against the Crimson

By: Rick Bender

Dartmouth (5-1, 2-1) at #21 Harvard (5-1, 2-1)
Saturday, Oct. 30, 2021 | 12 PM | NESN/ESPN+
Harvard Stadium | Cambridge, Mass.

Climbing Back in the Saddle
The Dartmouth Big Green are looking to keep their Ivy League title hopes alive with a trip to 21st-ranked Harvard. Both teams are coming off their first loss of the season, both of which were hard to swallow but for different reasons.
For the Big Green, they suffered their first shutout in 10 years, dropping a 19-0 contest against Columbia at home on national television. The Crimson, on the other hand, lost in five overtimes at Princeton, 18-16, but should have won in the third overtime. A replay that should not have occurred gave the Tigers a timeout that negated what would have been the game-winning play.

Not only is Harvard reeling from that defeat, but assuredly has a long memory from the last meeting with Dartmouth. Derek Kyler threw a 43-yard Hail Mary on the final play of the game that landed in the arms of Masaki Aerts in the end zone to lift the Green to a 9-6 victory, their first win in Cambridge in 16 years.

The memory of that game will always last, but Dartmouth will need to regroup following last week's loss to the Lions. The offense was limited to season lows of 60 rushing yards, 262 total yards and 13 first downs. The team committed a season-high eight penalties, four of which gave Columbia a first down and another that cost the offense one. Seemingly everything that could go wrong did, the exact opposite of the previous week's 38-21 win at No. 23 New Hampshire.

Kyler ended up throwing a career-high 45 passes, completing just 24, well below his season and career accuracy marks of nearly 70 percent. Nick Howard was held to 23 yards rushing on eight carries after picking up nearly 400 yards and scoring nine touchdowns in the previous four games.

Senior RB Zack Bair was limited by an injury but is hopeful to be back at full strength against the Crimson this week. If not, Noah Roper has shown that he can carry the load, topping 100 yards at UNH.

Sophomore WR Paxton Scott continued to have the most throws come his way, catching seven passes for 78 yards, and he ranks among the top 10 in the league in both receptions and yardage. Both Jamal Cooney and Isaac Boston hauled in six passes, but most passes were completed underneath the coverage for short gains.

The defense overall played well aside from the costly penalties, holding Columbia to 239 yards. Jalen Mackie continued to pile up the tackles, making a career-high 13 stops to add to his league-leading total (54). Fellow LB Marques White added a personal-best nine tackles as well, but Dartmouth was unable to force even one turnover for the first time this year.

Scouting the Crimson
Prior to the agonizing 18-16 loss in five overtimes last week at Princeton, Harvard was beating its opponents by an average of nearly four touchdowns, including a 38-13 triumph over then-24th-ranked Holy Cross at the beginning of this month.

The Crimson turned to veteran QB Jake Smith last week when starter Charlie Dean was injured early in the game. He finished the game 21-of-37 for 184 yards and two interceptions, and the duo has combined for just over 1,100 passing yards with seven TDs and six interceptions on the season.

In a Stan Musial like coincidence, Harvard has amassed exactly as many yards on the ground as through the air (1,112). Aaron Shampklin continues to pile up the yards, averaging six yards per carry and over 100 per game with seven touchdowns. On top of that, Aidan Borguet, the 2019 Ivy League Rookie of the Year, tacks on 70 more yards every week at 5.5 per carry with five TDs.

Four different receivers have at least 10 catches on the season, led by Kym Wimberly and B.J. Watson with 19 apiece and a combined three TDs. Freshman wideout Kaedyn Odermann had 11 receptions for 149 yards and two scores in the first four games as well, but has missed the last two contests.

The defense has been excellent, allowing a league-low 70 points on the season and no more than 17 in regulation. No team in the FCS is better than Harvard against the run, yielding less than 50 yards a game. And no FCS squad has made life more miserable for opposing quarterbacks with the best passing efficiency defense, the most sacks (4.83 per game) and the seventh-most interceptions (11).

Linebacker Jordan Hill and safety James Herring lead the Crimson with 42 tackles apiece, while DE Nate Leskovec and DT Jackob Sykes are the sack leaders with 5.0 and 4.5, respectively. Cornerbacks Khalid Thomas and Alex Washington each have three pickoffs as well.

Harvard is coached by Tim Murphy (Springfield '78, now in his 28th year in Cambridge and 35th overall as a collegiate head coach. The boyhood friend of Dartmouth head coach Buddy Teevens is 183-82 during his Crimson tenure with nine Ivy championships to his credit, and 215-127-1 in a career that included stints at Maine and Cincinnati. In 2007, he was inducted into his alma mater's Athletic Hall of Fame.

Shutout Scarcity
When Dartmouth failed to score against Columbia on Oct. 22, it was first time the Big Green were shut out in 10 years. In the 91 games in between, Dartmouth posted a 68-23 record and were held to single digits just three times, losing two of those contests by a total of seven points while winning the other (the 2019 Hail Mary game at Harvard). And the last time the Lions shut out the Big Green? That would be 1947 in New York, 15-0.

Mugging for the Cameras
Even with the 19-0 loss to Columbia on Oct. 22, Dartmouth has still fared quite well in televised games of late, winning nine of its last 11 on the boob tube (I guess that phrase is no longer in use without vacuum tube television sets … hello, I'm old). Overall, the Big Green are 44-62-1 and 6-13-1 against Harvard on TV. But the Crimson have won the last seven televised meetings, including an epic 14-13 game in Cambridge six years ago.

Let's Go Streaking!
Despite the 19-0 loss to Columbia, Dartmouth still has an enviable winning streak in road games that sits at nine games following the 38-21 triumph over No. 23 New Hampshire. That is the second-longest such streak among all FCS teams. Only Princeton (11) has a longer one, only because the meeting with the Tigers in 2019 — a 27-10 Dartmouth win — was played at Yankee Stadium instead of Hanover.
The Big Green also have won 19 straight games against non-conference opponents, a streak that won't be contested again until next season. It is the longest such win streak for Dartmouth in the Ivy League era. You would have to go back to the 1922-28 seasons to find a longer win streak against teams that did not eventually form the Ivy league (26).

Lone Pine Helmet
For the first time since the final game of the 1998 season, Dartmouth took the field in something other than their distinctive helmets with the two stripes on each side and D logo on the front. The Big Green debuted the Lone Pine helmet with the alternate mark of the athletics department (lone pine logo) gracing each side of the helmet against Columbia on Oct. 22. The current helmet design was introduced for the 1965 season under head coach Bob Blackman and utilized through the 1986 campaign. After 12 seasons with "Dartmouth" written on the helmet, the D helmet was re-adopted in 1999.

Stingy Defense
Dartmouth has made quite the name for itself the past few seasons as staunch defenders. In both 2018 and 2019 when the Big Green ended the season ranked among the FCS top 25, only one other team surrendered fewer points per game each season — Colgate in 2018 and North Dakota State in 2019. And Dartmouth was ranked both years in the top 15 in total defense (4th and 14th) as well. Seems like the Green have picked up after the pandemic right where they left off; entering this game, Dartmouth is second in pass defense (146.2 yards), fifth in scoring defense (14.2 points) and sixth in total defense (267.4 yards).