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The Dartmouth
March 29, 2024 | Latest Issue
The Dartmouth

Football should trounce Tigers, but third place out of reach

Tom Bennewitz '08 should lead the Big Green to victory over Princeton.
Tom Bennewitz '08 should lead the Big Green to victory over Princeton.

Last Saturday in their game against Brown, Big Green football took a devastating hit in its drive to take third place in the Ivy League, falling to the Bears 56-35. The outcome is particularly demoralizing in light of the fact that the Big Green jumped out of the gates to a 14-0 lead with less than half the first quarter in the books, only to see Brown score 28 unanswered points by the end of the half. The Big Green were forced to play from behind the entire rest of the game, and never got within seven points of the Bears.

As it stands now, Dartmouth and Brown are tied for third place in the Ivy League standings, but Brown has the heads up advantage thanks to its victory over the Big Green. Thus, it will require a Brown loss to Columbia and a Big Green victory over Princeton this Saturday for Dartmouth football to finish the season in third place. Unfortunately for the Big Green, while a victory over Princeton is perfectly feasible, a Brown loss to Columbia doesn't look like it's in the cards.

The Lions are clearly the Ivy League's worst team, with a conference record of 0-6 and a season point differential more than -100. Columbia's smallest margin of defeat in conference play stands at nine. Alas, all Big Green football fans can do is enjoy our team's final home game and hope for Columbia to pull a miracle and upset Brown.

All other considerations aside, Big Green football is in good position to emerge victorious on Saturday against Princeton. Senior quarterback Tom Bennewitz '08 is coming off yet another stellar performance in which he completed 28 passes for over 300 yards. Throughout the entire season, Big Green football's quarterback situation has been murky, but Bennewitz, through his standout performances over the last couple weeks, has established himself as the team's go-to quarterback. The Big Green offense, over the last four games, has exactly doubled its average offensive output from the first five games of the season, from 19 points per game to a much more robust 38. Its point total over the course of these four games, 156, exceeds its total points scored in all ten games last season (147).

Regardless of the outcome of this weekend's game, it's clear that Dartmouth football has made significant strides from previous years. Since the beginning of the Teeven's era, Big Green football has never entered the final weekend with a shot to finish the season with an in-conference record above .500, much less even an outside shot at taking third place. I've written throughout the season that in order to achieve a "breakthrough" Dartmouth football would have to finish third. Perhaps in the truest sense of the word "breakthrough," this is the case. However, between the increased offensive production and win totals, any Big Green football fan would be hard-pressed to characterize this season as anything short of encouraging, and the 2007 season has provided future squads with a positive building block on which to drive success in future seasons.