Penn Postmortem

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This is a promotional sign made up by the Dartmouth marketing and promotions folks for this weekend's Upper Valley United Way promotion that will see Dartmouth Athletics donate $2 for every adult ticket sold for the Yale contest. (If you'd like a larger scan, email me and I'll send it along.)

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Play Penn and there's always a lot of press from The Daily Pennsylvanian and this year is no different. ... One story comments on Dartmouth's failed fake punt:

It should have been a routine play, a no-brainer. Down just a touchdown with more than 14 minutes left to play, Dartmouth faced 4th-and-10 on its own 38. What ensued should never have decided the game.

This story writes about Penn tailback Mike DiMaggio, whose emergence in the second half (123 of his 129 rushing yards) made a huge difference for the Quakers.

Still another story says, "The Big Green lost because they weren't just outplayed, they were also outcoached."

Agree or disagree with what the Daily Pennsylvanian says in print, it's hard to disagree with the DP blogger doing live updates for who told it like it was after the first 15 minutes of the game. He typed:

"That honestly might have been the most boring and poorly-played offensive quarter in the history of football."

In case you are wondering ... Dartmouth ran 12 plays for a total of 10 yards in the first quarter and did not have a first down. Penn should have had to pay property tax for taking up residency in Dartmouth territory, but despite 81 yards passing (six rushes for 13 yards didn't help) couldn't score or get in the red zone. The teams combined for seven punts in the first quarter alone.

For the Penn sports information take on the game, click here.

The Daily Dartmouth, which rarely has someone travel to road games, has a followup-game story.

Next opponent Yale defeated Holy Cross Saturday in overtime, 31-28. Not that the Dartmouth coaches and players didn't already know what to expect, but this quote from Yale coach Jack Siedleck in the Yale Daily News story removes all doubt:

"We have to run the ball to be good, and we didn’t run the ball in the first two games."

They were much better at it Saturday as Mike McLeod finally broke out with 39 carries for 131 yards. The Yale tailback had run for 436 yards in three games against Dartmouth with 198 in 2006 and 155 a year ago.

The New Haven Register's Yale football blog Portal 31 mentions McLeod having to leave the game for a spell with an ankle problem, so his condition will be worth watching.

You want to take things like the Sagarin ratings with a large shaker of salt, but last week's Dartmouth-Penn prediction (Sagarin had the Quakers by just about 12 points and they won by 13) merits a look at what this week's numbers say. And that is ... Yale by about 11. For what it's worth, this week's Sagarin ratings (245 total Division I teams):
140 Cornell
144 Harvard
152 Yale
170 Brown
172 Princeton
175 Pennsylvania
208 Dartmouth
216 Columbia

Break up the Miami Dolphins! No one is chanting that yet but the Fins won another big one yesterday by beating the San Diego Chargers. Dartmouth grad Casey Cramer doesn't show up in the box score but he does show up in this Palm Beach Post story that says:

Brown got the handoff right up the middle, with fullback Casey Cramer as a lead blocker, and the first down was earned the hard way, along with the Camarillo touchdown that came two plays later.

It's Optimist-Pessimist tonight on Green Alert premium