There is a new red scare in Hanover this fall. No, communists have not taken over Baker Library. This scare is taking place at Memorial Field, home to the Dartmouth football team, and it would be more fittingly called a red zone scare.
The red zone is the area on the football field inside of the opposition's 20 yard-line. Offenses are sometimes stymied in the red zone because the defense becomes much more compact, not needing to defend against long pass plays.
In recent weeks the Big Green has become one of those frustrated teams, failing to capitalize on opportunities from inside the red zone, and this has cost them victories.
The inability of the offense to put up points can be attributed to two missing ingredients in the offense -- a passing game and a kicking game.
Without these options, the opposition knows that Dartmouth is coming on the ground allowing them to blitz with little fear of being burnt by a pass over the middle. Such blitzes have succeeded this year in stifling the Dartmouth running game inside the red zone.
Dartmouth, with a kicking game that has been shaky at best, cannot even capitalize on these situations with field goals; thus missing out on at least three points.
Missed field goals and missing confidence have forced Dartmouth to go for it on fourth down in the red zone.
The passing game, while hampered by the rainy weather last Saturday, has also been shaky. Dartmouth has 36 pass completions and a .391 completion percentage, while opponents have completed 78 passes for a completion average of .542.
The passing game was set back last week again by an injury to receiver Will Bergman '97 who is out for the season with a broken left fibula.
"Teams are going to start putting 10 defenders on the line to stop our running game, daring us to throw the ball," Coach John Lyons said.
Against Lafayette last Saturday Dartmouth once again displayed its weakness inside the red zone. On four trips inside the 20, Dartmouth failed to score, and three of these trips were inside the three.
"It's just that we're not executing," quarterback Jon Aljancic '97 said. "We got good calls, a good plan ... We might be tentative right now but we have got to get the ball in [to the end zone]."
Lack of execution has cost the Big Green two games already this year. Against Penn the offense was held scoreless in the second half after putting twelve on the board in the first.
Playing against Cornell, Dartmouth had several chances to win the game, but was constantly stopped. Frustrations increased after Aljancic threw the ball after crossing the line of scrimmage on fourth down again turning the ball over to the opponents within the 20.
Fortunately, the defense, which was spectacular on Saturday, was able to hold Lafayette following offensive lapses. But at Yale this Saturday, the offense might not be able to depend upon the defense as much against a strong quarterback led offense.
"We've got to hold onto the ball and get confident, and we've got to step up and kick the ball with confidence," Aljancic said. "The weather conditions really hampered the passing game last week, and so Lafayette was blitzing all of the time."
"There are no gimmes in this league," he added. "Yale is a solid team with a great quarterback [Chris Hetherington]. They've got a solid defense. But we're going to go down there and play."
