Football | Front seven fluster Jenny

With 10 seconds left in Penn's 23-10 win over Dartmouth on Saturday, the Big Green offense took the field one last time - merely a formality.

But quarterback Alex Jenny dropped back instead of taking a knee and was promptly sent to the turf by junior linebacker Jake Lewko. The sack, Lewko's second of the game, punctuated an outstanding effort by the Quakers' front seven, which gave Dartmouth fits all day long.

"We schemed well against their blocking patterns," Lewko said. Defensive linemen Guillermo Ruffolo, Joe Goniprow and Drew Goldsmith "really did a good job of spreading it out, opening it up for me."

The Red and Blue's ability to keep the heat on Jenny and the rest of the Big Green offense helped hold Dartmouth to a mere 191 total yards on offense, including just 46 in the first half.

Jenny seemed to be constantly flustered in the pocket by Lewko, linebacker Jay Colabella and the Penn defensive line. He hurried passes, missed his targets and led the Big Green approximately nowhere.

Jenny ended up 20-for-41 for 169 yards, but could hardly lead a scoring drive - the Big Green's only touchdown was on a drive of one yard.

Dartmouth usually comes out with a pass-happy offense, and this ineffectiveness led coach Buddy Teevens to call upon backup signal-caller and erstwhile wide receiver Tim McManus to take over for a series during the fourth quarter.

These problems were exacerbated by the Big Green's complete lack of an effective running game. The Quakers' push up front held halfback Milan Williams to only 38 yards, and Dartmouth only gained five total yards on the ground in the contest.

According to Penn coach Al Bagnoli, this was predicated on an effort to deny big plays - the dominance was an unintended side effect.

"Our whole game plan was around trying to pressure them . and I think we did a good job," Bagnoli said. "They made some underneath throws and they made some check-downs, but they didn't really get up top."

To hear Teevens tell it, they didn't do much else, either.

The coach was frustrated with his team's effort on offense and was altogether exasperated by game's end.

Whatever the play call, the Penn front seemed to disrupt it.

"The play-action pass, the three-step pass, drop-back stuff, inside plays, outside plays, and there was just no regularity at all," Teevens said.

"And again, with reason - left guard misses a block, bad shotgun snap, QB throws the ball away, worries about the rush, doesn't see the open guy downfield. And that was just play after play."

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