From shootout to defensive struggle

Early on in Penn's 21-20 victory at Dartmouth Saturday afternoon, it looked as if the first team to settle for a field goal would lose the game.

Each team's offense looked unstoppable in its first two possessions, as Dartmouth's passing attack and Penn's running game accounted for two touchdowns each by the time three minutes had elapsed in the second quarter.

Yet, something happened that prevented the triple-digit combined score that everyone in Dartmouth's Memorial Stadium expected after witnessing the game's first four drives -- the defenses showed up while the offenses sputtered.

"[The game] had every indication that it was going to be a shootout," Penn coach Al Bagnoli said.

"Eventually, I thought we'd settle down and start making some plays [defensively], and obviously I thought they would settle down and make some plays. It wasn't going to go like that, where you'd have 1,400 yards total offense."

In the first quarter, however, 1,400 total yards seemed like a conservative estimate for the rest of the game, as Dartmouth quarterback Greg Smith showed the Quakers the kind of high-octane air attack that almost knocked off a powerhouse New Hampshire squad last week.

On Dartmouth's first possession, Smith gained 66 yards in the air on 6-of-7 passing, including a 28-yard bomb to wide receiver Matt DeLellis that put the Big Green into Quakers territory.

Two plays later, on the Penn 14 yard line, Smith took the snap, rolled right out of the collapsing pocket and found tight end Casey Cramer in the back of the end zone for a touchdown in a play that was eerily similar to "The Catch," the famous 1982 play in which then-San Francisco 49ers quarterback Joe Montana connected with tight end Dwight Clark in the end zone to win the NFC Championship.

After Penn had tied the score at seven, the Dartmouth offense looked impressive again, as it drove 71 yards in just over four minutes to score, this time with Smith throwing ahead of DeLellis just enough so that the large wideout could make a pretty over-the-shoulder catch while crossing the goal line for a 14-7 Big Green lead.

To the Penn defense's credit, it made the adjustments necessary to prevent Smith from continuing to slice it up.

"We were trying to play it out of a three-man rush type of thing," Bagnoli said of Penn's early defensive strategy. "But we were finding out we weren't getting enough pressure on [Smith] and he was way too comfortable in the pocket after our first couple series."

The Quakers began to send more players up front to rush Smith, a move that paid off in Dartmouth's subsequent two possessions.

Penn linebacker Steve Lhotak forced Dartmouth running back Michael Gratch to cough up the ball on a run up the middle at the Dartmouth 24-yard line, and Penn defensive end Chris Pennington fell on the pigskin.

After Penn scored on its subsequent possession, Smith turned the ball back over to the Quakers when his throw over the middle was picked off by Penn linebacker Vince Alexander.

"When you're coming in [against] a team that's averaging 500 yards a game, number one in the nation, you've got to step up as a defense and say `We have to make plays and stop them from getting into a constant rhythm,'" Alexander said. "I think we did a good job of that."

Indeed, after the two turnovers, Smith and the Dartmouth passing attack did not look anywhere near as sharp as they were in their first two possessions. Only in Dartmouth's furious final drive with under two minutes left in the game did Smith find success again.

The Dartmouth offense, however, was not alone in looking shaky after being impressive early on. The Penn offense also shut down after initially dominating the Dartmouth defense.

After notching its 21st and last point in the second quarter, the Quakers seemingly couldn't do anything right on offense for the rest of the game, keeping a perpetual open window of opportunity for Dartmouth.

First downs began to come few and far between, and Penn quarterback Gavin Hoffman passed for a very un-Hoffman-like 155 yards, while running back Kris Ryan -- who ran for 134 yards and three touchdowns on the day -- fell off dramatically in the second half.

"We kind of lost all semblance of efficiency [offensively]," Bagnoli said. "In the end, both defenses negated what the other guys were trying to do."

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