Harvard Set To Face Winless Dartmouth

Both teams have a zero in their records, but that’s where the similarities end for the Harvard and Dartmouth football teams.

No. 20 Harvard (6-0, 3-0 Ivy) is fresh off its two biggest wins of the season, and the tandem of quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick and sophomore running back Clifton Dawson has the offense clicking quite nicely.

Meanwhile, Dartmouth (0-6, 0-3) has endured consecutive losses to winless teams, and the outlook is bleak for the Big Green.

The storyline is familiar. Last year, a dominant and undefeated Crimson squad took on struggling Dartmouth in Cambridge. Harvard was ranked 16th in the nation, and the Big Green seemingly had little chance of pulling off the upset.

But the Crimson came up short in the David versus Goliath matchup, losing 30-16 in the first loss of what would become a three-game skid. The game began Harvard’s decline from Ivy title contender to merely one of four teams tied for second place.

Though history is known to repeat itself, this Crimson squad is not about to let that happen. Last year’s Fitzpatrick sat on the sidelines, still limited by a broken hand sustained two games prior. The offense sputtered in his absence, and by the time he took over control of the offense in the third quarter, it was too late for Harvard to play catch-up.

This year’s Fitzpatrick? He’s thrown for 1,255 yards and seven touchdowns and sits second on Harvard’s all-time list in passing yardage. A Dartmouth defense that surrenders nearly 378 yards per game will certainly have its hands full with a Crimson offense averaging 37 points per contest.

The Big Green—like all Harvard opponents—will have difficulty containing the Dawson-Fitzpatrick duo, but the Crimson will also have to contend with a talented quarterback. Dartmouth signal caller Charlie Rittgers torched the Harvard secondary for 344 yards and two touchdowns last season. This year, he has already tallied 1,409 passing yards.

“We remember how we played against him last year,” said junior defensive back Keith Howell. “He had a career game against us and we don’t want that to be repeated. And he’s got two of his receivers from last year, and one of them [Andrew Hall] had a career day against us, too.”

Rittgers is one of the lone bright spots on a offense averaging just over nine points a game and only 66.5 yards on the ground. But if the Crimson can pressure the pocket and keep an eye on receivers Bob Murphy and Hall—the pass-dependent Rittgers doesn’t like to run—the Big Green offense will have a hard time getting settled tomorrow.

“We’re just going to try to give him a lot of different looks—man, zone—just mix it up,” Howell said. “We don’t believe we have to blitz to stop them.”

While blitzing might be unnecessary, Rittgers will still require the attention of the Harvard defense. The only option on an anemic offense, Rittgers continues to perform despite weekly attempts to contain him—and only him. Atlantic-10 contender New Hampshire surrendered 349 passing yards to the Big Green quarterback, and Yale gave up 249 yards in the air.

But the Crimson defense still has every reason to be confident. Despite several injuries, the defensive line has stepped up the last two weeks, surrendering just 14 points to both Northeastern and Princeton. Combine that with the one-dimensional attack Dartmouth emplys, and it could get ugly in a hurry.

And Harvard has more than a little incentive to take this one running away.

“Even though the Dartmouth game last year was horrible, it was definitely a great lesson for us to take with us,” Fitzpatrick said. “Lucky for those of us who went through it last year, we’re going to get another chance at it, and I think it gives us that much more focus this week.”

Offensively, the Crimson shouldn’t have to focus much more than usual. A 34-point effort against Cornell was Harvard’s lowest output of the season, and the prolific Crimson offense—which rolled up 416 yards against Princeton—has found a perfect balance at the perfect time. And the Dawson-Fitzpatrick duo has proved harder to contain as the season has progressed, despite opposing defenses’ preparation.

The Harvard offensive juggernaut spoiled its chance last year, however, compiling 545 yards offense against Dartmouth while finding the endzone just twice.

And though the teams enter tomorrow’s contest in a situation nearly identical to that of the 2003 game, a more efficient and experienced offense won’t play tentatively against its weaker Ivy rival. Add in Fitzpatrick’s two healthy hands, and it starts to look one-sided.

The players are quick to say not so fast.

“In the Ivy League particularly, you can’t sleep on anybody,” Howell said. “You have to come ready to play every weekend and bring your A-game.”