Three-plus seasons of the unexpected (and the outright ridiculous) has made me hesitant to draw broad conclusions whenever Penn beats an unremarkable team like Dartmouth, especially in a game lowlighted by a 7-7 half. So I'll refrain from doing that. What, then, does one say about Saturday?
The consensus in the pressbox and my inbox pegged the big developments as (a) Penn's inability to sustain drives, and (b) kicker Andrew Samson's three-for-three afternoon on field goals - notable only as a contrast to seasons past. Neither explained Saturday's outcome.
The Big Green lost because they weren't just outplayed, they were also outcoached.
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Dartmouth is just a few steps above doormat status in this league, but Buddy Teevens' 17 years as a head coach, Stanford pedigree and quirkiness - he biked from San Diego to New Hampshire two summers ago, raising cancer awareness - usually give him an outsize character among his by-the-book peers.
After the game, and only once his players left the room, Teevens all but admitted that coaching was indeed a factor. Exhibit A was his call for a fake punt when Dartmouth was down seven points but had over 14 minutes left in the game.
"I should be committed for that," he said, without much irony. "It was a bad decision. It's my responsibility to put my guys in a position to have success and I didn't do it."
(Bagnoli offered an obligatory explanation of why Teevens would do such a thing, but about all he could muster was a "you're trying to win the game.")
Teevens said that, before the contest, he felt his team could match up physically with the Quakers "for the first time in a while." Yet his staff's judgements about stopping backup running back Mike DiMaggio were way, way off.
And on offense, the Big Green showed no flexibility when Penn shut down their running game cold. Even a gift of a touchdown on a fumble recovery after a missed forward progress call did not give Dartmouth the jump-start it needed.
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Here is what smart coaching looks like: The Quakers changed their game plan once Bradford Blackmon was injured, and the team rushed for 120 yards in the second half after posting 17 in the first.
Bagnoli called a fake punt, too - but at the right time, and with a much better bet running the play, backup quarterback Kyle Olson. Olson hit defensive back Tyson Maugle for 16 yards to get the ball out of Penn territory late in the third quarter.
We like to think of Dartmouth as a foil for Penn - remote, cold, small. It also has different sets of men managing its football team, a fact apparent to anyone who opened their eyes on Saturday.
As for those conclusions, check back with me in November.
Andrew Scurria is a senior Political Science major from Wilmington, Del., and is former Senior Sports Editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian. His e-mail address is scurria@dailypennsylvanian.com.
