Three Thoughts On JMU 63 – Morgan State 12
The Dukes did what they had to do in their week three contest against an overmatched Morgan State squad. Coach Cignetti and the boys stuck out a weather delay and soundly defeated the Bears by the score of 63-12. It wasn’t as close at that sounds. Ben DiNucci got the start at QB, but both Cole Johnson and Gage Maloney got reps behind center. And all three guys made plays, combining for a JMU record-tying 6 touchdown passes. Overall, JMU compiled 507 yards of offense and limited Morgan State to 2.3 yards per carry on the ground. Overall, it was another positive step forward in the journey to prepare for CAA play. Here are three quick thoughts on the win.
The Nooch
Caveat it all you want, but Ben DiNucci had a great game. While a large portion of the fanbase can’t move past his disappointing playoff performance against Colgate, he seems to have put it behind him. He opened the season making some big plays against WVU, but also had a few mistakes and a pick. Then last week against St. Francis he made some nice throws, but had decisions in the red zone that Cignetti wasn’t thrilled with. Against Morgan State though, the Nooch was dropping dimes and hitting receivers in stride all game, plus making plays with his feet. And he responded well to Cignetti’s criticism, leading the Dukes to touchdowns on all redone possessions while he was in the game. Yes, we know it was just Morgan State, but he was making the exact sort of throws that everyone claimed he couldn’t make. He’s not perfect and he’s going to make mistakes. But he’s the Dukes’ QB folks. It’s time to get behind him and root, instead of picking apart his games or waiting for the other shoe to drop.
About That Defense
Like the Nooch, the JMU defense sured up some things and took another step forward against Morgan State. Despite two solid performance to open the season, the Dukes had failed to generate much pressure on the QB. JMU was able to get after the Bears’ signal callers to the tune of 3 sacks. The front four was aggressive and in the backfield all game. When the guys on the d-line wasn’t getting to the QB, they were suffocating the running backs. Aden Atariwa is going to be headache for CAA teams and John Daka is a handful. And while D’Angelo Amos is known for his return abilities, he was all over the field and showed everyone how valuable he is on D with his 9 total tackles.
While the run D looks ready for CAA play, the pass D still has some room to grow. Now it’s only week three, so there’s no need to panic. JMU has faced a Big 12 team, and two overmatched FCS teams that had to air it out to attempt comebacks. Against Morgan State though, the Dukes once again gave up multiple big plays in the passing game. We’re still confident in the defense, but there are clearly a few things the team needs to work on to prevent potentially game turning plays.
Developing Depth
One of the great things about winning big, is that it gives Coach Cignetti a chance to pull the starters. Combined with the new redshirt rule, and you end up with a situation where young guys get game reps. And lots of them have been making plays for JMU. We don’t expect JMU to play this deep into the roster come CAA play. And we’ve discussed our desire for a feature running back to emerge. But through three games, it’s been exciting to see how many backups look capable. Six running backs carried the ball against Morgan State. Eleven different players caught passes. And 25 total players got snaps on defense. Sure, some of these guys will end up redshirting and won’t likely see the field during the core of the season, but it’s encouraging to see regardless.
Another positive: I thought Arthur Moats did a great job as color commentator. He was put in a hard position with the rain delay – where he had to talk for a long period of time without any game action. But he kept things moving and was very engaging and provided great insight. Would love to have him on all the JMU games.
A shout out for Devin Ravenel too! Great TD catch and kick return TD! Agree with the comment about Moats too – caught the end of the game on TV after deciding to head back during the weather delay – he and Curt were a great team!
Now that we’ve gotten two inferior opponents out of the way, the real football can begin. Chattanooga isn’t as strong as they’ve been in years past, but they’ve still got talent and the capability of giving the Dukes a good challenge (just ask Georgia Tech about overlooking a darkhorse FCS squad).
What I’ll be watching for in the Chattanooga game (and the following games as well) is whether, win or lose, an opponent shows the ability to adjust and adapt to the Dukes and exploit their vulnerabilities. We saw several examples of this last year (Elon, New Hampshire, Stony Brook, Rhode Island) where teams without as much talent as the Dukes still found ways to shut us down on defense and put up some big plays on their side of the ball. A lot of that was good coaching, which of course in Elon’s case probably got Cignetti hired. But in my opinion, those vulnerabilities were there all season, and ultimately foretold an early exit in the playoffs to Colgate (which again, was a team with inferior talent that followed those blueprints of success against the Dukes that were there all season).
Having a great quarterback can be a season changer that can take us back to the championship, so lets hope DiNucci is a late-bloomer and finally breaks out this season.
Also of note, Mike Houston’s Pirates got clobbered by Navy while Chris Kliemann’s KSU squad beat Mississippi State to go 3-0. Just seeing if there’s merit to my theory that FCS coaches are better off sticking around and building a great program rather than jumping up to the FBS at their first chance.
Pump The Brakes
Last season you guys discussed how extremely high expectations can make it difficult to enjoy watching the games, instead of simply appreciating the product we have on the field. For the first time, I’m sympathizing with those feeling this year; the timing of the schedule with NDSU as close to a rebuilding year as they ever get and the talent on this team will make me disappointed with anything but an appearance in the Championship Game. I’ve attended the first three games, and, even after the blowout win last night against a team that is arguably close to the bottom of the FCS power rankings, still have some real concerns with this team. Here are my three concerns, in ascending order, as we start to face some real competition:
1. Punting and Punt Return- Harry paled in comparison to his fellow Aussie punter at WVU and has been overall underwhelming in a season where I thought he’d be competing for All-American status. The coverage itself has been solid and kickoff coverage has been great. I expected Amos to have the type of swagger “Prime Time” had at FSU. He doesn’t look confident and started off making some very suspect decisions when receiving. I would look to putting Hamilton or Polk back there if he continues to struggle.
2. QB- take a deep breath- this is not a call for sacking Ben. Everyone seems to think the indictment against Ben is his ability to throw the ball down the field. I’ve been critical of Ben’s technical flaws which become exposed especially when he’s under pressure but have pointed out that when he sets his feet he can deliver a solid deep throw. The issue with Ben is that he has never shown the ability to push the ball down the field in two-minute drill type situations against quality defenses. Name a single game winning drive since Ben became the starter. Name a single crunch time two-minute drill against a quality team when we needed a score to try and win or extend the game- end of NC State?- nope; end of Elon? – nope; end of Stony Brook? – nope; end of Colgate? – nope; end of WVU? – nope. Bryan Schor was absolutely money week in and week out in those situations; maybe the most clutch QB in the history of JMU. If our two best receivers hadn’t dropped wide open passes on our final drive in the 2017 Final, he would have led us to back-to-back Titles. I’ll be rooting for Ben but won’t be convinced we can get to the Title Game this year until he shows he can be clutch and not simply a guy who dominates average to below average teams.
3. The secondary, and I’m not only referring to the second team guys who got torched the past two games. There were at least two plays where we were beaten badly on deep patterns against WVU. If their QB had any accuracy with his deep throws, they would have been up by a couple more scores. We have yet to play a solid passing attack. Maybe our front four won’t let any passer get comfortable, but I am not confident at all in our ability to stop the pass. Again, maybe JFM and Raven have ruined my perspective; however, I’m going to have to see how we handle a real passing attack before I can finally relax when I watch these games.
@Steve – very well-stated post. I agree that all roads to the championship go through NDSU, and with the stars uniquely aligned this year (all of our returning talent and NDSU’s losses in players and head coach) it would be frustrating to settle for anything less than a good run through the playoffs. I’m also seeing the same little mistakes you noticed, I’m hoping these aren’t early red flags and rather we can chalk it up to us playing down to the level of our competition.
Game summary:
Boooorrrrrrrringgggggg…
@Steve, all valid points and legitimate things that need to be improved. I think you’re misunderstood point regarding high expectations. We were simply saying that for the past 2 years, fans (us included) treated every game as some sort of referendum on Frisco readiness, so we’re not even going to attempt to determine if this is a championship team at this point. At the risk of sounding argumentative, which I’m sincerely not trying to be, I don’t think we need to “pump the breaks” because all we’re saying is that we saw improvements in some areas from week 2 to week 3. Again, you make some valid points and if you’re looking at things from the perspective of “is JMU playing at a championship level” then we absolutely agree that improvements are necessary. But we’re not looking at it like that, because that’s what we did last year and it was kind of a drag. And as far as Nooch goes, we all saw what he did last year. We won’t know how he’ll play in similar big games this season. But we can point out when we think he makes improvements.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with constantly looking ahead and assessing if JMU is playing at championship level. And it’s the best part for some fans. It’s just not what we’re trying to do. Here’s a spoiler though: JMU isn’t playing at a championship level. Not even close. But it’s week 4 and fortunately, that’s not the week the championship is played.