Dukes Big Plays Beat Villanova 38-29, Ticket Punched

We’re writing this just before the Selection Show so we’ll have bracket breakdown later, but of course we’ll be on Twitter @JMUsportsblog during the announcements if you want our real-time reactions (or at least us retweeting funnier people than us).

The Good

Well really these first two should go in “Great.” First, the Defense and Special Teams with HUGE, game-changing, game-winning, (possibly seed-clinching) plays! Brandon Ravenel ran the opening kickoff back for a TD with some great blocking and his own great vision and speed. Needless to say, when the Dukes spotted the Wildcats the customary first-drive TD right after this, the blow was softened. Then CB Jordan Brown made a great break on a ball to the outside, stayed in bounds after making the interception and returned it for a pick-six. And then to seal the game just when it looked like we might be headed for another last-second nervy finish, the Dukes caused a fumble by the Villanova QB and Taylor Reynolds scooped and scored from distance. Say anything you want about poor tackling, soft schemes, and all the rest, but when you get three scores from your D/ST, you lose the right (at least for a week) to complain about them. And these were “made plays,” not fluky things. And that doesn’t even take into account another great play by Raven Greene with an interception or the beautifully designed and executed surprise onside kick the Dukes recovered. It was also clear on both INT’s that the players understood what the offense was trying to do and baited the QB into the mistake – and that deserves full credit to JMU’s defensive coaches. We’ve been arguing in the stands for weeks that if you’re going to give up huge yardage and points playing a base defense, you might as well take more chances and hope you make enough big plays to balance out the negatives. That worked to perfection on another day the offense looked more than mortal.

So good to see these old friends (and all of their future Dukes – talking to you Miles!)

The Duke Club – we’ve always wondered whether they love or hate us, and maybe we’re still not sure, but when you’ve been members a long time, you’re bringing 20-25 friends and family (including  a dozen future Dukes), and it’s a week with no students, they can help you out! Huge thanks to them for a parking upgrade that allowed a lot of old friends from around the country (NY, TN, NC, etc.) to have a memorable day in the Valley!

The season – Pretty sure most of us had an expectation between 8-3 and 9-2 before the season. Check. An FBS win? Check. Overcoming the loss of one of the nation’s best players? Check. Earning a decent spot in the playoffs? Likely check. And that’s without mentioning the preseason loss of three players on defense, two of whom likely would have been enormous contributors. Coming back from the Lee injury/UR-loss-on-Gameday low to right the ship? Check. So quit whining and get ready to ROOT as hard as you ever have in the tourney.

The Crowd – All things considered – lower stakes, students on break, potential home game next week – the crowd was pretty great. Filled in nicely on Godwin side and in the end zone where we moved today to accommodate the day care we were running as you’ll notice in the above picture. It was a beautiful day and of course the MRD alums helped a bunch, but we were very pleasantly surprised by the solid turnout. Gotta imagine actual ticket sold were really strong to make up for the missing 7k students or so. We’ll appeal to them about playoffs later in the week.

The Bad

The offense. Schor was just fine with an open playbook vs. UR and W&M. The last two weeks it feels a bit like he’s being protected by a timid scheme. Take the training wheels off and see what happens. As the missed read on a  3rd and goal to Ravenel shows, it might not work, but as the game winner last week and the late throw to Ravenel this week show, the upside is there.

Villanova’s backup QB. Look, Schor and the offense have struggled the last two weeks (although Villanova is legit good on D and we shouldn’t be so quick to jump ship), JMU played a very strong offensive game at fellow co-champ W&M and managed to get the wins they desperately needed to get the season back on track for greatness the last two weeks because they had a capable and prepared backup. Villanova lost Robertson earlier so that makes it harder, but they just didn’t have the backup they needed that could have hit a few open receivers downfield yesterday and other games along the way to turn it all the way around. We should be thankful.

The Ugly

Tackling. The scheme actually seemed to put Dukes defenders in position to make plays yesterday, but when they got there, ugggghhhhh.