Dukes Destroy Richmond 55-20 (Warning: Playoff Talk Ahead)
Well now wasn’t that just about a perfect afternoon? Ok, maybe that end of the second quarter was like a tracker-jacker hallucination, but JMU beat the Ticks by FIVE touchdowns in a must-win situation for both teams. FIVE. Anyone still not feeling this squad?!
Yes, you can now officially begin using the P word at your convenience. Yes, the Dukes can’t afford another bad loss next week, but is there a team in the CAA you’d rather be playing, at home, to get a ninth win than Elon? We’re planning a huge tailgate next week and more to come about Celebration Saturday and playoff implications and expectations later this week. But for now, let’s enjoy reviewing yesterday’s pure ownership of the Ticks.
The Good
Taylor ‘effin Reynolds! – There is no way to overstate Reynold’s impact on this game. Basically, as a DB, he single-handedly accounted for 28 points. That’s Deion-esque. He scored two TD’s on pick-sixes and prevented not one, but two TD’s with incredibly smart hustle plays when he twice punched the ball out from moronic Spider ball-carriers. The first was great, but the second punchout was THE play of the season. As many of you felt (more to come later on this of course), the combination of the Ticks and the referees had completely stolen JMU’s momentum on either side of halftime and with the Ticks cruising in for a TD that would have pulled them within three points, Reynolds miraculously punched the ball out right before the goal line through the back of the end zone for a touchback. Put simply, from that moment on the Dukes were playoff bound! It’s just wonderful to see a kid that’s really had a rough road after being such a highly touted recruit tap his considerable talent and potential at the moment it was most needed. Way to go Taylor!
In case you were wondering what National Defensive Player of the Week looks like in action.
Second-Half Shutouts -Two weeks in a row the Dukes have struggled to keep an opponent off the board in the first half. And now two weeks in a row they have flat-out slammed the door shut in the second half. This team can go a looooong way if they can limit an opponent’s scoring to one half because this team will keep scoring in all quarters!
The O-Line – Despite the final score Richmond did one of the better jobs all year of keeping Vad Lee contained to the pocket. But thanks to the O-Line, he was given time to throw for a school-record 433 yards. He had time to let plays develop which led to huge gainers for Dukes receivers. It’s just wonderful to see the line coming together this way as line play has always been the main hallmark of JMU’s best seasons and is really the difference between good and great.
Backup Tight Ends – When Deane Cheatum went down last week, we were nervous given that he’s been a huge contributor and the team leader in catches. But development appears to be a strength of this staff and team, and Jonathan Kloosterman and Brandon Brown who chipped in with five important grabs and didn’t let the offensive juggernaut miss a beat.
This Machine – Vad Lee is breaking all kinds of records you can read about here, but we don’t want to focus on him this week because this winning streak is an all-around team effort. Clutch kicking from Maglio, less mistakes in all three phases, improved play on both lines, great play-calling and adjustments from the staff, and seemingly an inexhaustible ability to keep progressing as a team each week. This team has become a machine, capable of scoring points by the truckload and equally capable of settling in and shutting people down when necessary. It’s been exhilarating to watch and we’re starting to pick up a real us-against-the-world-we-don’t-care-what-is-thrown-at-us vibe from this group. Actually feels more ’04ish than ’08ish. We can’t even tell you how impressive it was to recover from that end to the first half and come back even stronger in the second half. That was a level of mental toughness from the staff and players that was, needless to say, considerably greater than our own ability to not lose our cool.
NBCSN – As a fan, it really is fantastic when we get the high-quality production of the national game on NBCSN after weeks of Stretch Internet’s bullshit on JMU’s side and last week’s elementary school level production from Stony Brook. That said, NBCSN signed up for a CAA that doesn’t exist anymore and it’ll be a miracle if they extend the deal with a conference that looks more small-time with each passing year thanks to insane officiating (more on that below) and a slew of high-school style stadiums and less-than-high-school crowds.
Purple Helmets – Those things are just perfect.
The Bad
Really, there’s almost nothing bad about not only beating up the Ticks, but doing so in a way that was absolutely soul-crushing. Just a beautiful thing. Oh yeah, I guess one bad thing was the giant red condom look RU’s Coach Rocco had going yesterday.
Thanks to Varina HS for the halftime entertainment!
The Ugly
There is no possible way for us to even write about the back-to-back targeting penalties called on the Dukes at the end of the half yesterday without risking cardiac arrest. We do sort of apologize for losing our damned minds on Twitter and feeding every conspiracy-theory beast that the most crazed of our own fans were pondering at the time. The truth is the first flag on Peak was probably warranted, and at least understandable as there seemed to be clear helmet-to-helmet contact even if Peak didn’t seem to have any intent or even necessarily be aware of exactly where he was in relation to the receiver before the hit. But the second one, oh the second one. On Marlowe, which amounted to his third ejection of the season for a horsesh*t call. We can’t even possibly deal with this properly, but just know that the Targeting rule is ruining the game. When an offensive player has the ball and turns to charge forward with his head down, what in the world is a defender supposed to do? Stop himself in mid-air? It’s just ridiculous. And the fact there was replay yesterday and it wasn’t overturned is just further evidence of the amateur-hour status of CAA officiating and the conference as a whole. And the craziest part is we wouldn’t be surprised if ole Tommy Yeags turns around and suspends Marlowe beyond the half he’s already sat out by the rule for “multiple infractions.” Well fine then. Just like the team did yesterday, they’ll just say screw it and proceed to throw another half-a-hundred on another opponent!
Last Word
Finally, just feels worth mentioning, we’ll both be in The ‘Burg for next week’s game and you’re all welcome to come tailgate with us! Purple Kool-Aid all around!
Great Win !! Humiliated the Ticks and that is for their own good. The bullsh*t targeting penalties punctuate the need for JMU to separate from the CAA as soon as possible.
Being there yesterday was incredible. The fellow Dukes there kept Bridgeforth East/Robbins High School Stadium loud all day long. Gotta love the spontaneous GOOOOO (one side) DUUUKES (the other side) that broke out multiple times in the 2nd half. The Spider morons even had the audacity/stupidity to try it themselves with the videoboard and announcer when most of their fans had left or were cowering in the stands hoping the pain would end. It was quickly drowned out by GO DUKES.
I loved the passion Withers showed as he basically had to be restrained at halftime and then sprinted into the locker room yelling at the top of his lungs. Gotta stand up for your players and I think they have really bought in as the season has rolled on. The intensity is palpable.
Let’s not sleep on Elon.
I would like to call ‘Targeting’ on the CAA ref’s. They are clearly out to get Marlowe ( in particular ) and JMU ( in general ).
This whole Targeting thing is a sham!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMKmO3wp-p4
This is the game from the RU Ticks perspective – the woman cheering for the Spatters in this video is hilarious.
The targeting penalties were both BS. Peak was literally falling backwards in an attempt to avoid hitting the UR guy, and Marlow GOT hit. That whole rule is asinine and needs to go. In defense of the officials, I think they probably are calling it just to emphasize how stupid it is in hopes that people will change it….or maybe I’m just being optimistic, who knows.
I will say, while its odd for an FCS university not to have a marching band, when I was in high school, my marching band had the opportunity to play at a Richmond game (conveniently against JMU ’08, Hail Scotty). And playing in front of a sellout college crowd (of JMU fans nonetheless) was one of the coolest things I got to do in high school and was one reason I decided to join the MRDs. I guess what I’m saying is props to UR for taking a strange situation and turning it into a very cool opportunity for high school marchers.
On the football side of things: LOL 55-20.
As one of the fans who has probably ripped Taylor Reynolds the most over the past 2 seasons, I want to go on the record with a huge CONGRATULATIONS to TR for stepping up yesterday. He single-handedly won that game, and had an absolutely epic performance. Outstanding job.
Now that we have seen what you are actually capable of, there shall be no more blown coverages to give up game-winning TD’s against mediocre teams, k? You have the ability to be THE best DB in FCS football… play like it every week. You definitely have the ability.
I was completely lost in the purple haze and ready to tattoo the new helmet logo across my back until I read today’s blog post. Reading it made me realize three concerns for the playoffs:
1. Our defense is inconsistent week to week
2. We cannot run the ball
3. Our epic win was due to a 28 point swing by one player. Take that anomaly away and it was more like a 34-34 or 41-31 game….in other words, a toss-up.
Seeing how much this team has improved since the turds they laid against Maryland and Delaware has been awesome, though.
2004 Duke, take a deep breath. We didn’t run the ball because they completely sold out on stopping it. And we were smart enough to take advantage of that fact.
Awesome game and glad I was there for the beatdown. Loved seeing all the passionate fans in purple take over that stadium. I was great seeing the excitement as the team ran over the sing the JMU fight song – post game to the fans in the stands with EW out front leading the way.
This coaching staff is doing a great job game planning and then building upon that with halftime adjustments. Way to coach up and prepare two new freshmen safeties at halftime.
I too have been critical of Taylor Reynolds in the past — but way to stepup in this game and play like a champion!!
Now let’s not sleep on Elon and go out there and show them why they ARE NOT A PEER of ours!!!
Jonathan, thank you so much for sharing that. That woman was hilarious/annoying to listen to.
Great win, lets keep building on each win.
V. Lee was a beast… he made a mockery of the Spiders D. I have actually seen the Spiders play a couple of times this year and he just picked them apart. Seems to have some pretty good vision in the pocket. Very impressive.
Men’s Soccer team won the CAA champs on Sunday as well.
Go Dukes.
GREAT weekend for JMU SPORTS!!!
Way to go Football, Men’s Soccer, Womens BBALL!!!
and the real season starts for Men’s BBALL tonight — hard to judge anything from the UVA game. Although I really liked what I saw from Hari Hall and Joey McClean.
Looking forward to see if the coaches’ voting lackeys watched any football this weekend — maybe we can inch closer to inclusion in their poll….
“Awesome; way cool!” The comments of my step-mother-in-law, who is a Big Blue Nation sycophant and watched our game out here in Derby City, regarding the purple helmets. High praise indeed from a women who wouldn’t wear a T-shirt with a Cardinals logo shirt to support her granddaughter’s middle school basketball team….can’t like anything Univ. of Louisville if you are in BBN.
I will fire up the dvr today and watch it again!
On to Tobacco Road for the soccer Dukes. Good luck and thanks to Dr. Martin!
Watching those Reynolds highlights again, I love that he is the only guy in the stadium completely aware of the ramifications when he makes the second punch out. (Former QB for you there). Even watching on tv, it took me a second to process: 1) Was it out before he crossed, 2) is it gonna get through the end zone, 3) what does that mean. You can almost see the other players doing the same calculations, but Reynolds knows right away. So happy for him!
Glad to see the pollsters finally giving the Dukes some love. Not really sure though how there are co-defensive players of the week in the FCS and Reynolds isn’t one of them.
Some love for the Dukes, but the coaches poll has JMU (22) ranked behind both Richmond (21) and William & Mary (19). So, I guess they are not only to busy to watch football, but too busy to even look at the sports page.
Yeah, the coaches poll is so biased in the FCS that I don’t even look at it anymore. I’ll take #17 in the FCS poll though.
Vad the Impaler added to the Payton Watch List!
How are we behind UR after the drubbing we just gave them??
Zac-
Disagree. We haven’t established the run at any point this entire season.