Good, Bad, and Ugly From the JMU Beatdown of Richmond

For the second week in a row, JMU just ran away from a long time in-state CAA rival. This time it was the RU Spiders on the receiving end of an absolute beat down. JMU scored touchdowns in all 3 phases and handed Richmond a 63-10 defeat. It was glorious. Despite the fact there were thousands of purple & gold fans, it was technically an away game. And the 53 point margin was the largest on the road in JMU football history. Here’s the good, bad, and ugly from the big win.

Good

Scoring in All 3 Phases – Juwon Hamilton got things started with a bang, taking the opening kick-off 93 yards for a TD. It got JMU out to a lead, the Dukes never surrendered. In addition to scoring on special teams, Nooch (and Gage Maloney) and the offense got in the endzone 7 times. And for the 3rd game in a row, Jimmy Effin’ Moreland had a pick 6. Fun fact, Jimmy has outscored JMU’s FCS opponents 18-17.

Spreading the Ball Around – In the win over William & Mary, 8 different Dukes caught passes. JMU upped the number to 9 against the Spiders. Riley Stapleton and Kyndel Dean lead the way with 5 catches each. In the opening quarter, it looked like many of the JMU receivers were struggling to create separation. Beginning in quarter 2 however, something clicked, the guys started getting open, and Nooch proceeded to hit them in stride. And in mop-up duty, Gage Maloney went a perfect 3 for 3 and connected with Jake Brown for his first career TD. It all added up to 343 yards of passing for the Dukes.

Marcus Marshall – Now that Marshall has full grasp of the offense, it’s a joy to watch him run. He sees holes that other guys are blind to, and somehow manages to squeeze himself through them. Before breaking into the open field for his long TD run, he darted through what I swear was only half a hole. And he jumped through. He’s got such great vision and scary breakaway speed. We got to see both yesterday, as he went for 99 yards and 2 TDs on only 10 carries.

John Daka – It was a bit of an up-and-down day for the defense overall. For stretches they were dominant, but they also got caught out of position several times and got beat for big gains. But John Daka was pretty much a beast all day. He’s gotten off to a great start to the season, but took things to another level agains the Spiders. He was in the backfield all day and finished the game with 5 tackles overall, including 3.5 for losses, one of which was a sack. He’s a bad man.

Jimmy – He got beat on a big play and responded by picking off a pass on the goal line and running it all the way back for a touchdown. Because of course he did.

Bad

First Quarter – Take this with a grain of salt, but that opening 15 minutes was the worst quarter JMU has played this year. Hamilton’s opening kickoff return for TD, was beautiful. Aside from that, the Dukes looked rather pedestrian. The offense didn’t do much of anything, with 2 drives ending with punts and one with a pick. The defense managed to grab an interception, and only gave up a FG, but let Richmond go over the top for some big pass completions. Of course, it’s a good thing when the single worst quarter JMU has played thus far, ended with the Dukes up 7-3.

Ugly 

Jahee Jackson’s Suspension – The Dukes were missing a number of players yesterday, so when we heard big offensive lineman Jahee Jackson wasn’t dressed, we just assumed he was injured. Then Coach Houston announced that Jackson had actually been suspended indefinitely for a violation of team rules. We have no idea what he did, but not having him in the lineup is a big loss. Hopefully it’s nothing major and he’s back soon.

And that’s about it. JMU beat the Spiders by 53 points. We’re not going to pour over the film to identify mistakes and things they could have done better. There were plenty of mistakes and the defense looked downright shaky at times. But the team managed to right the ship during the game and pull it together. And then they proceeded to win 63-10. That’s absolutely bonkers. Plenty of teams, really good teams, might shake off a bad first quarter and win comfortably by 2 or 3 touchdowns. The Dukes shook it off and won by 53 damn points. On to Elon we go.