JMU Salvages Win, Playoff Berth With Last Second Victory at Delaware
The Good
Earl getting some great run on Sunday Night Football too!
Men’s Hoops! Let’s just start here before we get to football. Such a sweet, sweet morsel of revenge against the tourney-hopeful Ticks to start the men’s hoops season Friday night. Now let’s hope we get a shot at the main course somewhere down the line in the postseason on the gridiron (although incredibly The Ticks have played themselves onto the wrong side of the bubble the last two weeks and might need a win over the Nerds to even make the field, not that we’d mind!). Check out the highlights here and let’s hope this team can keep building as they wait for Yohanny Dalembert to recover. The boys have arguably their most marquee game of the non-conference schedule Monday night in Charleston (“neutral” site) vs. WVU.The Women’s team also won their opener but it was a blowout of Longwood so nothing to get excited about just yet.
The Dukes locked up a playoff a berth. It may have been ugly and it may not have done a thing to calm our nerves about the season’s trajectory at the moment, but in beating Delaware and getting their eighth win, there’s no doubt now that JMU will hear their name on next Sunday’s Selection Show on ESPNU at 11 a.m. If JMU can beat Villanova this weekend to get to 9-2, there’s still an outside chance at a seed and avoiding the first round. Here’s the ticket info from JMU.
Purple Helmets are back, though “satin” instead of chrome this time. Thank goodness we can get out of the white-helmet rut.
Bryan Schor led his first comeback in dramatic fashion! And he sort of had to throw two great TD passes to do it after a drop on the play before the Ravenel score (by the way, how great is Ravenel playing?!). Schor and the offense struggled a lot on Saturday for really the first time all year, but you can’t deny they never quit and produced when it mattered most.
The Defense. No really, the defense earned their way into The Good for really the first time all year and their timing couldn’t have been better with the Offense finally flailing a bit. They weren’t perfect, although Kyre Hawkins and his 17 tackles were darn close, but after allowing their customary first-drive TD to open the game, they really settled in. They allowed only 14 points (UD’s third and nearly game winning TD was the long fumble return), none in the fourth quarter after JMU fell behind, and Raven Greene, who seems to be in on every big play when the D actually comes up with one, made a huge stop to give JMU the one last chance it needed. As Coach Withers noted after the game, let’s not all forget the Chickens beat William & Mary and UNH this year, so let’s take the win and move on.
Only two penalties. Nice to see that get cleaned up during the bye.
Gunnar Kane – it’s never a good sign when the punter makes The Good section, but he did do a great job considering how often he was called upon during a blustery day.
The Bad
Bye Week preparation – Well so much for the idea that the bye week would allow the staff to cook up something special and the kids to reenergize. This was right up there with the Albany game as the sleepiest and least crisp this team has looked all year. Let’s hope a normal schedule gets them in a better mindset last week.
The offense. We’re not going to over-analyze what went wrong because it’s the first time all year they’ve struggled so mightily, but it wasn’t the Death Star that was still blowing up planets even during the two losses. It will be interesting to see if Andy Talley, who earlier this year said essentially “ain’t played nobody PAWWWLLL” about JMU, can get his team to replicate UD’s performance.
The Ugly
ANOTHER blocked FG. Maglio does occasionally kick a low ball, but after the debacle at W&M a few weeks back, it’s tough to fault the kicker when the line looks like a sieve.
Delaware’s passing game. Thank goodness the Chickens QB can’t throw. Needed all the help we could get in this one.
And Nova looks feisty! The’re playing for a slot themselves. Might be a tough game.
Not only does Nova look fiesty, but they should be extra motivated this week as they still have an outside shot of winning the CAA. It’s incredible to me that they can win the conference and we can’t, but that’s the situation we find ourselves in.
Also, the men’s team looked great Friday night! Can’t wait to see what this team does
Can we heap those white helmets onto a pile and burn them? I almost puked when I saw them on Saturday. Glad we won, but those helmets… gosh I hate them.
I quite like the White helmets. I don’t think they should be worn a majority of the time but once or twice a season wouldn’t be bad. Excited to see what they come up with for the new Purple lids. How many FCS (hell, FBS) schools have 4 helmets?
Haha love the Finebaum reference
A win is a win is a win. They don’t paint pictures on the scoreboard. Chance to go 9-2. I can’t believe we might go 9-2 with a win over a D1, ok it was SMU, and not get seeded. Have to take care of Villanova first, though and then just wait, because it will be out of our hands.
As someone mentioned in the another thread, it seemed like we only used 1/2 of our play book in Delaware. The weather may have been a factor, but …
what’s up? The game was dull and frustrating to watch. We have been spoiled by our previous 10 outings.
Villanova is coming to town with a string of wins … hope we are up to our “Old Tricks” this week.
GO DUUUUKKKKEEEESS!
Where are the Purple Helmets featuring the Duke Dog?? Dammit??
I like black jerseys and chrome helmets
Just looking on Withers’ Twitter account and the CAA Sports photo he put up. It seems to be the logo for CAA Sports agency. I figure most coaches at this level and above have agents, but I really hope he isn’t looking into a “bigger” job. It seems he is really focused on building a legacy and changing the culture so perhaps there’s no need to worry.
“The Ugly – another blocked field goal” from my TV it looked like the field goal was blocked due to low trajectory not a porous line. Basically a linemen jumped at the right time, he was a big boy so its not like his vert is like Stevie Francis…
Its on Maglio – keeps kicking it low like he’s kicking a 50 yarders… One of the blocks at wm was due to low trajectory as well..