ON THE SIDELINES: Macik picks up lethargic offense

Mark DeRosa is no mindreader, but sitting in the locker room at halftime, the junior quarterback had a pretty good idea of what the Quakers faithful was thinking. "I knew they couldn't be saying too many good things about me," DeRosa said. The truth was, outside of Miles Macik's seven first-half receptions, there wasn't much good to say. Penn's vaunted veteran offense managed only a Jeremiah Greathouse 21-yard field goal, and for 28 minutes appeared downright mystified by Dartmouth's new-look 4-3 defense. And even after the Quakers ripped off 46 yards in their two-minute drill before halftime, DeRosa dumped an interception into the hands of Dartmouth's Mark Abel at the 7 yard-line to bring the miserable half to a fitting end. That, combined with an earlier fumbled snap and a botched handoff in the backfield, marked DeRosa's third turnover of the quarter. Take away Macik's catches and he threw for negative yardage in the half. Add the fact that DeRosa was sacked twice, and doing the math, it's easy to see how Penn's offense went nowhere fast. "Dartmouth came out with a brand new defense in that 4-3," Penn coach Al Bagnoli said, noting that the Big Green had rolled its coverage to Macik's side of the field. "We had an idea that they might do it, but we didn't know for sure. They came out and blitzed much more than they've shown in past years." "They showed me some things I hadn't seen before," DeRosa added. Enter Macik, the all-everything receiver with goose-down hands and a flagpole frame. He had only accounted for more than two-thirds of the Quakers' offense in the first half, so obviously his teammates would expect him to take his game to another level in the second half. "At halftime I said to him, 'Miles, no one can stop you. If you think that, no one will,' wide receiver Mark Fabish said. "The bottom line is no one can can or no one will stop him. I'm going to be lucky to say that I played with Miles Macik." Sure enough, with the Big Green leading 12-6, it was Macik who curled into a soft spot over the middle and scampered 39 yards to the Dartmouth 9. Two plays later, after tight end Matt Tonelli dropped an easy touchdown on second down, Macik stepped inside of single coverage at the goal-line pylon for the go-ahead score. "He is the difference," said DeRosa, who threw more than half his passes in Macik's direction. "We needed a big play and that curl route to Miles turned out to be it. We have a lot of fine receivers, but he can step our team up a level." But Macik, who would tie his own school record with 12 receptions for 158 yards, was not finished yet. Nursing a one-point lead, the Quakers again isolated Macik one-on-one on a fade pattern to the corner of the end zone. The 6-foot-4 Macik easily won the jump ball for his second touchdown of the game, this one from 24 yards away. "We noticed when I was split wide all by myself, there would be more double coverage," Macik said. "So we put a receiver inside to open it up a little more for me." Dartmouth's Macik-phobia also opened up the Quakers' running game, and although Penn failed to find a chairman for its running-back-by-committee, the trio of Aman Abye, Jasen Scott and Dion Camp collectively gained a respectable 124 yards on 34 carries. Scott led the Quakers with 63 yards, mostly on well-designed draw plays. DeRosa, in the final tally, turned in a palatable 18-for-31, 190-yard performance, and, more importantly, showed his poise with a mistake-free second half. One notable absence from the Quakers' offense was Fabish, the deep threat, who had only one ball thrown his way all day and did not catch a pass. No matter -- Macik was there to pick him up just as he did everyone else. "He's definitely the best receiver in this league," DeRosa said. "I'm just glad he's on my team."

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