Guest blog: Sunday with Mr. Blackmon

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Editor's note: Sometimes, the Saturday Roundtable isn't enough. So to add a little more to your weekend, The Buzz would like to formally introduce Mr. Bradford Blackmon, Penn football 2011 alumni, as a contributing writer to our blog. Bradford will offer his analysis of Quakers' football games, with the occasional dabble in our Saturday roundtable. He fittingly joins us with his take on the first Ivy game of the season in the Red and Blue's quest for a three-peat. From our two-time All-Ivy Honorable Mention, all the way from law school at Ole Miss:

After two less-than-Penn-like performances, the Quakers looked to right the ship with the Ivy-opener at Dartmouth. Speaking with several players over the week, the consensus was that the team wasn't playing with enough energy and was just going through the motions.

They came out in the first quarter more fired up than the last two games combined. The defense looked like your typical Penn defense and was flying around making plays and, more importantly, letting everyone know they were making plays. There's nothing more demoralizing to a team than getting stopped and seeing how much fun your opponent is having while doing it.

With the early success the defense was having, the offense came out with just as much energy. They were continuously moving the ball but had to settle for field goals. Perhaps the weather played a role, but it was still encouraging to see the team come out with the energy they had been lacking in their first two outings.

As always with Dartmouth, both teams were fighting for every inch and the game came down to the wire. Penn showed what type of team they are capable of being by driving down the field with less than 2 minutes left and getting the go-ahead touchdown. They seemed to have recaptured the energy that has been missing and have overcome the sense of entitlement they had from being members of the two-time defending Ivy champs.

Two important observations I made from watching the game were about the aggression of the defense and the predictability of the offense. The defense has seemed to regain its form and was flying around in the controlled chaos that is a Penn defense — blitzing from all angles and making the offense go where the defense wants them to, the bend but never break mentality. The Penn offense, on the other hand, seems to be a bit predictable. Dartmouth loaded the box because they knew Penn would run the ball 70% of the time. The times Dartmouth had trouble with the Penn offense was on the 2-min. drill at the end of the first half and the end of the game when Penn drove down for the winning score. Opening up the offense makes Penn's running game — its bread and butter — that much more of a threat. Billy has proved he can throw the ball when necessary, now they just have to give him free reign to make plays.

Hopefully they can ride this momentum into next week's game and continue to return to make strides toward another championship run.