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NOTEBOOK: For Once, Ground Game Proves Crucial

“We knew coming in [that Winters] could beat us,” Dartmouth linebacker Bronson Green said. “We gave him some big lanes, we didn’t compress the pile on him, and we didn’t make tackles when we needed to.”

MEAGER SCHWEIGER

Coming in, it was supposed to be the Big Green that dominated on the ground.

Dartmouth features running back Nick Schweiger, the reigning Ivy League co-Player of the Year, who came into the contest as the Ancient Eight’s leading rusher with 708 yards and seven touchdowns through six games.

The senior had picked up 100 yards in five of those six contests, including 125 against a strong Penn defense and 157 last weekend against Columbia.

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But a swarming Crimson front seven was able to contain Schweiger all night, forcing him outside the tackles and holding the running back to just 51 yards on 3.4 yards per carry.

“Their front four is tough,” Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens said. “They’re physical up front, and they contained us. The run game was ineffective.”

It was the second consecutive year the Crimson handled Schweiger, as Harvard held him to just 69 yards in its 30-14 win a year ago.

“Schweiger’s the best back in the league numbers-wise,” junior defensive tackle Nnamdi Obukwelu said. “We just played hard all game with a pretty simple game plan [to stop him] ... Guys stayed in their gaps.”

HISTORY IN THE MAKING

With the win, Murphy tied former Crimson coach Joe Restic for the most victories in program history, with 117.

Murphy accomplished the feat in his 18th season, while it took Restic—whom Murphy replaced in 1993—23 years to win the same number of games.

“To just be mentioned in the same sentence as Coach Restic is a source of pride,” Murphy said. “I’ve always admired and respected Joe—he’s a man’s man, a class act, a very humble guy and just an outstanding football coach.”

Murphy can break the record next weekend when the Crimson takes on Columbia in New York City.

—Staff writer Scott A. Sherman can be reached at ssherman13@college.harvard.edu.

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