After opening the season with a tough 34-15 loss against Colgate University, the Dartmouth football team will battle the University of New Hampshire in the Granite Bowl this weekend.
No. 6 UNH (2-0, 0-0 America East) is coming off of a 23-16 win over Ball State, and will be a formidable opponent for the Big Green, which is winless in its last 18 games against the Wildcats.
In order to break that streak, Dartmouth will need to perform better on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball. Last year, the team combined for only 214 total yards while allowing UNH's potent offense to amass 525 total yards in a 42-6 loss.
This year, the Big Green will look to keep possession of the ball and limit the number of scoring opportunities for UNH.
"The focus for this year's game is to keep our offense on the field and keep their offense off the field," running back Nick Schwieger '12 said. "They can't score points and can't get yards if they're not on the field. Our job as the offense is to stay on the field and eat up a lot of clock and keep our defense on the field. If we do that, we're going to have a good shot."
Dartmouth will need to do a better job converting on third down and establish an effective running game. Last week against Colgate, the Big Green offense was unable to stay on the field for long stretches and control the clock. The team's longest drive of the game lasted only 4:56, and Dartmouth converted on only two of 11 third downs.
The Big Green's running game was also ineffective against Colgate. The team was held to a lackluster 36 rushing yards.
"Last game we didn't get to establish a run," Schwieger said. "I think first and foremost, we need to establish a run this week. We've been doing a lot of practice with the run, and we've been getting the ball a lot as running backs."
On the defensive side, Dartmouth will need to contain an extremely athletic and dangerous UNH offense that features junior quarterback R.J. Toman, who produced 263 yards of total offense during last week's upset of Ball State.
"Playing such a potent offense gives our defense the opportunity to play some of the best players in the nation," free safety and co-captain Peter Piderman '10 said. "It really gives us a test of our physical abilities."
Head coach Buddy Teevens also stressed the importance of solid defense in this week's game, and said that overall the defense has made great improvement.
"I like to think we're playing better defense," Teevens said. "We're tackling more securely. We need to ramp it up, and just play solid defense, because they're very explosive with what they do. We need to keep [the Wildcats' offense] on the sideline as long as we can."
The team will also need to make fewer lapses with the ball and commit fewer penalties. In last year's match, the Big Green was called for six penalties and failed to execute in big moments.
"I think the main problem is the mental errors," Piderman said. "We tend to be beating ourselves out there almost, I think. This week, we've been able to simplify things and just let our athletes be athletes and play football."
Last week against Colgate, Dartmouth seemed to improve its mental game from last season and execute its plays, committing only three penalties and scoring on both of its opportunities in the red zone. This allowed the Big Green to keep the game close and hold a lead for the first time since Oct. 18, 2008.
"That's a big thing for us this year, not making a lot of mental mistakes. I can see us not making a lot of mistakes at all because I see the character of our team has changed from being mentally weak to not making as many mistakes," Schweiger said.
In this week's game, Dartmouth will need to play cleanly in order to stay with UNH and make a statement with this game, heading into Ivy League play.
"Coach Teevens has been saying all week this is a turning-point game," Schweiger said. "We need to make a statement as we head into Ivy League ball. Next week we go into Penn, and we have to win that game. So we need to set the tone this week and play good football."
Kickoff is set for noon on Saturday in Durham, N.H.
