Dartmouth Runs Past Harvard as Eight Passes Get Picked
Eight interceptions in one football game. Harvard threw five of them, Dartmouth three, and the team that ran the ball 56 times is the one that won, 24-14. Dartmouth moved to 4-3, and Harvard, which came in with a better record, left at 5-1 after its first loss of the year.
The first half is where it all happened, and Dartmouth never trailed. Grayson Saunier scored from a yard out at 9:33 of the first quarter, then threw a 2-yard touchdown to Dylan Elder and a 9-yarder to Nick Lemon to make it 21-7 Dartmouth. Harvard's Charlie Smith found Nate Bailey from 13 yards and Ryan Tattersall from 38 (with 1:02 left in the half) to cut it to 21-14. Then neither offense scored again until Owen Zalc's 30-yard field goal with 4:22 left in the fourth made it 24-14. Take that kick away and it is still a seven-point game, which tells you how little the second half had in it.
Dartmouth passed for only 42 yards, and Saunier threw three interceptions himself. It did not matter, because Dartmouth ran 56 times for 229 yards, 109 of them Saunier's own. Harvard actually out-gained them 404 yards to 271, with 277 through the air, but five picks will undo a lot of yardage.
The fantasy lesson is a familiar one. Smith threw two touchdowns and still scored 23.3 points, because the interceptions hurt. Saunier threw two touchdowns, ran for one more and finished with 30.6 on a 5-of-12 passing day. Rushing yards cover a lot of sins.