Game 3: at Dartmouth — The Good, the Bad & the Ugly

Penn football picked up its first win of the season Saturday, defeating Dartmouth, 28-21, in the first Ivy game of the year for both teams (see game recap). The Quakers jumped out to a 20-0 lead at halftime and held off a Big Green second-half surge.

THE GOOD: Penn's mistake free offense. Zero turnovers. Not even a fumble that was ruled an incomplete pass by the referee, but just a simple, clean sheet for the Quakers’ offense. Backup quarterback Andrew Holland came close to ruining the party, throwing two near-interceptions in a row, but he was then quickly pulled out of the game. The memory of the eight-turnover debacle against Lafayette is probably still deeply ingrained in everyone’s head, so we’ll wait to see if this unit can produce 60 minutes of mistake-free football again. But no giveaways in the first true meaningful is promising.

Related: Bagherzadeh | Stick with the ground game

THE BAD: Colavita is hurt … again. After sitting out most of the first two games with injuries, running back Brandon Colavita was in fact in the starting lineup against the Big Green. But then, one series later, he was back on the sidelines again, this time on crutches. Will the Quakers ever have a full, healthy stable?

THE UGLY: Dartmouth's botched field goal at the end of the first half. With three seconds remaining before halftime, the Big Green were set to attempt a 41-yard field goal, and Penn coach Al Bagnoli called two consecutive timeouts to ice the kicker. Whether the timeouts affected the kicker, however, was made negligible when the snap sent the football sailing off the holder's helmet. Dartmouth jumped on the loose ball, but the half ended with Penn up, 20-0. See the video.