Saturday, September 24, 2011

Game Day At Sacred Heart

Heading out shortly for Fairfield, Conn., and today's game at Sacred Heart. (Details on when BGA should be updated at the end.)

Can't say that Harvard's win over Brown last night was a shocker because I picked Harvard. The shock was the final score (24-7) and the fact that it came with Colton Chapple, not Collier Winters, at the controls for Harvard.

Brown hurt itself with five turnovers, including two inside the Harvard 2, and a dropped pass in the end zone. Chapple, starting for Winters (reported to have a hamstring pull) threw two touchdown passes and set up a TD by running for a first down on a fake field goal. The Boston Globe has a story here. The game drew 18,565 despite a nasty forecast and heavy rain.

Find a highlight package here.

Harvard is now 5-0 all-time in night games.

A few thoughts. You had to know Harvard was going to regroup behind a patched up offensive line as the season wore on. The Crimson will always be dangerous when it takes care of the football.

And don't write Brown off. Like most teams playing a good opponent, they couldn't win when they badly lost the turnover battle, but the Bears had a 20-19 edge in first downs and Harvard just a 366-352 advantage in total yards. ...

Harvard is now 5-0 in home (left that out the first time) night games, which might give Dartmouth reason for pause since this year's game at Harvard is under the lights. ...

It would be interesting to see the won-loss records of teams that play only one game a year under the lights. The guess here is that it's pretty good thanks to the "play with their hair on fire" effect, which is why it was a surprise that Penn agreed to play in the first night game at Dartmouth next Saturday.

The guess here is that the win percentage is somewhat lower for teams that play more than an occasional home game at night.

The Norton Patch has a story about "town resident" Nick Schwieger running for 175 yards last week. Interestingly, I interviewed Nick for a program story this week and he told me it was a rare second case of mono that sidelined him for last year's game against Sacred Heart. He said he never really felt as good after getting sick as he did before getting sick, but that he's feeling 100 percent this year. That's not good news for Dartmouth opponents.

Maine Athletic Director Steve Abbott on the trickle-down effect of the cannibalization of athletic conferences as quoted in the Portland Press Herald:
"Right now at each of the 341 Division I schools in the NCAA, there should be these discussions on what is changing and how it affects them. With the possible exception of the (Ivy League schools), everything is going to be different."
Green Alert Take: There's no "possible" to it. The Ivy League is way too valuable a brand for the member schools to ever allow anyone else into the club.

As for tonight's Big Green Alert premium: It's a down-and-back day with Mrs. BGA driving on the way home while I write on the laptop. (That's how we often did it when I worked at the paper and the kids were little.)

Given that the game is slated to start at 1 it should be over a little after 4. The way these things work, it could be close to an hour before we are out of there so make it 5. Then it's a four-hour drive home (counting a fast-food stop) so it could be 9 or so before the first story gets posted. Long day ;-)

Once again, there will be a game story and a sidebar tonight, and a follow tomorrow. Then a visit from the always popular (and always despised, in that order) Optimist and Pessimist on Monday.

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