The sound resonated from Philadelphia to Hanover and wherever Dartmouth football fans found themselves late Saturday afternoon at the conclusion of the Big Green's 10-6 loss to the University of Pennsylvania.
It was not a comet, an earthquake or even the construction on Collis.
Instead, the thud that shook the Dartmouth football team right to the bottom of its three straight Ivy League titles was the crashing of a lot of lofty expectations for the 1993 season.
"We came into the season with an optimistic view point. A lot of people thought initially we would roll over teams," said quarterback and team captain Jay Fiedler '94. "Obviously, that's not going to be the case. One of the positives from the game is that it brought us mentally back down to Earth."
Fiedler, for all his prodigious talents, might not have heard the disturbance. His ears were probably ringing from the two sacks and handful of knockdowns he absorbed on Saturday. Fiedler spent much of the day either on his back or running from a swarm of dark blue jerseys.
"Jay was under pressure all day long," second-year coach John Lyons said. "He didn't have enough time to set and throw the ball."
If Saturday's game was a litmus test for Dartmouth, the offensive line came up green ' green and decidedly ill-prepared. Penn's front four jammed themselves in Fiedler's face mask all day long and also held Dartmouth's ground attack to just 34 yards on 33 carries.
"The offensive line has been the heart and soul of this team for so many years," defensive tackle Gerry LaMontagne '94 said. "It's disheartening not to have them be a dominant force."
Indeed, the lost battle in the trenches only highlighted the most serious shortcoming of an otherwise strong squad for the Big Green ' the running game.
Dartmouth lost its top four players from the backfield in Greg Hoffmeister '93, Neal Martin '93, Devon Arsenault '93 and Russ Torres '93 from last year's squad. That quartet accounted for 1,569 yards on the ground last year.
To further compound the fracture, Pete Oberle '96 and Brian Bajari '95 were slowed by injuries. Both will miss the next two games.
The only bright spot in the backfield was Chris Umsheid '94, who managed to eke out 33 yards on seven carries.
"The reason we were so successful last year is because we had a balance between the run and the pass," Lyons said. "We don't have that so far this year. It just hasn't clicked."
That means the burden of getting any kind of momentum going on offense falls on the right arm of Fiedler, who simply couldn't do it alone on slippery turf during a steady rain storm against Penn.
Lyons hopes Fiedler's status as the most feared quarterback in recent Ivy League history will force defenses to spread themselves out enough to allow Dartmouth to establish a running game.
Fiedler is probably the biggest reason why expectations were running so high in Davis Varsity House over the pre-season. He put together a '92 campaign that did a redecorating job on the Dartmouth record books with an average of 293 total yards per game and a passing efficiency rating of 169.35 that led all Division I-AA and Division I-A signal callers. All told, Fiedler broke or tied 12 Dartmouth records.
On Saturday, the 6-foot-3, 220 pound senior completed just 13 passes in 31 tries for 227 yards with one touchdown and one interception ' a decidedly un-Fiedlerish performance.
While Fiedler will surely bounce back this weekend for the home opener against Holy Cross ' a team Dartmouth shredded 48-0 on the road last year ' the most glaring of Dartmouth's weaknesses, its kicking game, could take a few weeks to snap into place.
Punter Geoffrey Willison '95 took over the place kicking duties for the graduated Dennis Durkin '93, but it's apparent he can't completely fill the shoes of a departed All-American.
"I think Geoffrey's a good kicker," Fiedler said. "We've been very spoiled with Dennis over the past few years. It's just a case of Geoffrey getting his timing down and the line not allowing as much penetration."
With the offense pestered by early question marks in the backfield and on the line, the most solid part of this '93 squad can be found on the other side of the ball, where the Big Green return 21 letter winners, including All-Ivy selection George Neos '93 and seven other starters.
"Our defense defended bad field positions well all day," Lyons said. "We're a very good defensive team."
Although Lyons felt the defense gave up a few too many yards ' Penn gained a total of 317 ' the result was nonetheless impressive, with Penn limited to a touchdown and a field goal.
The loss puts Dartmouth in the precarious situation of having to win the rest of its Ivy League schedule if it wants a piece of the Ancient Eight crown. It's a trick Dartmouth has pulled before; in 1990, the team lost its first game of the season to Penn, then came back and won its remaining six Ivy League games.
At this point, however, Dartmouth can't afford to look ahead. It can just hope that the next loud noise in the Hanover area is the roar of a packed stadium as it celebrates a Jay Fiedler touchdown pass.
