Dartmouth at Cornell Varsity Football, November 16, 2024

[mike1960]

Dartmouth scores a touchdown quickly, and adds a two pointer.

Cornell 36-22, 2:28 left.

Let's see if Cornell can run the ball a little and call it a day.

[mike1960]

Cornell field goal.

39-22 with 58 seconds left.

Great win by the Big Red!! Let's keep it rolling next week!

[tycho]

What a game. Great for these guys on senior day. Defense came out.

[Ken711]

I hoped the Big Red could keep Dartmouth under 24 and the defense stepped up.  Nice win!

[billhoward]

Incredible. Cornell, with a win next Saturday over Columbia,  has a chance, maybe, to finish in a multi-way tie for second. Requires only one team in first, Harvard, no other ties for first, and the 4-2 teams, Dartmouth and Columbia, to lose.

Code Select Expand

[b]Team         Ivy   Finale      Time[/b]
Harvard      5-1   Yale        12:00
Dartmouth    4-2   Brown       12:00
Columbia     4-2   Cornell      1:00
Cornell      3-3   @ Columbia   1:00
Yale         3-3   @ Harvard   12:00
Penn         2-4   @ Princeton  1:00
Brown        2-4   @ Dartmouth 12:00
Princeton    1-5   Penn         1:00

Regardless, a win over Columbia moves Cornell to a winning Ivy record, 4-3, and a 5-5 finish overall. Big improvement on 2023's 1-6 Ivy, 3-7 overall. Brown making the end-of-game, winning field goal is costing us a chance to go from worst to second in the league.

I was kinda thinking of the Dartmouth opponents this weekend working out: win hockey, lose football. Instead, we get a football team that has put up 137 points in 3 games. There have probably been times in the previous decade when we had trouble generating 137 yards total offense in a football game.

[Ken711]

Beating Columbia will be no easy task. They are a balanced team offensively and defensively.  Swanstrom has the Cornell Big Red Football program headed in the right direction regardless of the outcome of the Columbia game.

[billhoward]

Beating Columbia will be no easy task. They are a balanced team offensively and defensively.  Swanstrom has the Cornell Big Red Football program headed in the right direction regardless of the outcome of the Columbia game.

Absolutely true. If you want to be paranoid, and who isn't when it's our own team: If Cornell gets too good in football, too quickly, some mid-level D1 teams will come sniffing around and offer something on the high side of a half-million a year. The Swanstroms have 3 children and that, at an Ivy-caliber private school, could cost a million dollars to put the trio through, so you can't have too much in the bank.

I worry the same about Nicki Moore. She has the skills and outgoing nature that could land her at a B1G school as AD. Every one of those schools that hasn't hired a female AD will have to sooner or later, whether they like it or not, and it will be more palatable if you find an AD who's the most qualified, period. One recent factor favoring staying in the Ivy League for Moore and Swanstrom: NIL money is going to put more loud-mouth alumni in the AD's and coach's face. Do you want to make the most money, or have a decent life. I mean, the kinds of major issues an AD faces at Cornell is trying to explain to the Ithaca Coalition for the Environment that no matter how you will it, natural grass will not grow inside a field house.

[billhoward]

Story in the Cornell Daily Sun:
Football Upsets Dartmouth in Triumphant Salute to Seniors

It's nice to have an additional view of the game beyond the Cornell PR story.

[Ken711]

Cornell played two freshman on the OL for most of the game, in addition to freshman DB Tyler Gibson who made two great plays on defense (QB sack and an interception). OL play has improved greatly under this coaching staff.  Going into a full offseason under their new strength coach, it should provide even more improvement going forward.

[Trotsky]

Are we... good?  Bad?  Cromulent?

[Ken711]

Are we... good?  Bad?  Cromulent?

We certainly aren't bad.

[Local Motion]

A great win on Saturday against a very good Dartmouth football team.   The key was running the ball for 175 yards and winning time of possession by nearly 10 minutes, thus keeping the Big Green offense off the field.  In terms of the running game, we didn't have many long runs just ongoing gains and enough yardage to move the sticks.  Go Big Red!