Dukes Down Maine, Complete Successful Trip to the Great North
The Good
Simeyon Robinson – Absolutely dominant performance. Took over the game in the second half and wrecked Maine’s interior offensive line and psyche. We’ve seen flashes over the last few seasons, but this was DJ Bryant/Arthur Moat-ish in terms of taking over a game from the D-Line.
Defense – The group that showed up in the second half is the group we can only hope we’ll see the rest of the season. Adjustments were clearly made at a top-notch level in the locker room.
QB Pressure – Amazing how much easier the game becomes when you apply pressure to the QB. See the two notes above, but the interceptions that turned the game all came as a result of pressure on the QB. It did seem JMU had to dial up some blitzes to finally get going, but Robinson got going even without the extra rushers later and hopefully that continues.
John Miller – This game was really about the D and the offense was disappointing for huge swaths of the game, but WR John Miller deserves special mention. He showed up from the get-go and made a great catch in the first half before his score in traffic in the second. The depth at the receiver position is fantastic.
The running game – Even on a day it “felt” like the Dukes were struggling offensively and throwing cute passes too much, Abdullah ended with 172 and Johnson went well over 100 and both scored. Do not sleep on this team’s ability to wear people down and pound ’em late.
Maine’s preparation – Not often we mention an opponent in the recap, and they were coming off a bye (more on this later), but the Black Bears’ staff had a GREAT gameplay and their squad executed it to a tee for about 40 minutes. At some point, though, too much Abdullah and Johnson and the Robinson explosion was just too much for them.
That color commentator – unintelligible enthusiasm? We’ll take it. As opposed to that Stony Brook clown on NBCSN, this guy’s clear prep made his producer’s-nightmare volume shifts tolerable and funny. If we have him again, we’ll definitely come up with a drinking game for his signature style.
The Bad
Whatever defense is ending up so much with MLB Kyrie Hawkins covering deep downfield. Hawkins is a stud and we love him, but last week at UNC and again this week he’s somehow ended up covering guys 30 yards downfield and that spells trouble. Someone smarter than us can probably explain the scheme, but that is terrifying.
Simplicity of the passing game – Domo Taylor was pretty much taken out of the game by that stud Maine DB and the Black Bears were clearly well prepped for our bubble screen game. The Dukes seemed to have no other arrows in the passing game quiver. We may be wrong, but it sure looks like Schor is in command enough to handle opening up the playbook a tad more in the air attack.
The Ugly
That first 35 minutes – 800 mile trip, opponent off a bye, tiny stadium/high school atmosphere after two weeks at BFS and a week in Chapel Hill, noon kick. All true, but we’re really hoping the Dukes learned they need to get off the bus ready to roll from now on. After RU’s loss to Stony Brook last week and William & Mary’s home debacle against Elon this week, it’s pretty clear there are no layups in the CAA this year. Gotta be ready.
The CAA setting JMU up to play THREE teams off their bye weeks, including this one and this next week against the Blue Chickens. JMU isn’t leaving the CAA in our lifetimes and that’s obvious to everyone at this point, so the league office can probably stop taking the realignment noise out on the Dukes at this point.
Nice summary.
— Robinson was beast in the 2nd half.
— Keep the play-calling balance but don’t get too cute and out-think ourselves with the play-calling.
— Great job with halftime adjustments and waking the Dukes up at halftime.
— Holding an opponent to 20 points and 341 total yards — I will take that anytime.
Schor completed a pass into triple coverage during the first half that was one of the best completions I’ve ever seen by a QB. On the other hand, I’m still not clear why he threw into triple coverage.
Maine is always a good team. If they played in any other conference they would be in the playoffs every single year.
In one of the JMU promo videos they played on the broadcast, Coach Houston mentioned that their goal was to win a league championship.
I don’t think that is the alumni’s goal…unless by “league” he means the “NCAA FCS League”. Maybe we should tell him….
All conditions considered – JMU won the game bc of all the hard work put in earlier this year. OL physically wore their defense down, RBs punished the 2nd tier defenders and Maine’s LBs were limping at the end.
It wasn’t pretty but a W is a W.
Pack Bridgeforth on Saturday; I want to see the 121st passing offense in the FCS get dominated by JMU.
Facts about the Blue Chickens vs. Wake Forest:
– Managed 8 First Downs ALL GAME
– 94 TOTAL YARDS OF OFFENSE (38 Passing, 56 Rushing)
– QB Blake Rankin was 6/20
Go Dukes!
a transitive comparison for those who believe in that stuff: in 2004, the Dukes scored 14 fourth quarter points to rally from a 20-10 (end of 3rd quarter) deficit against…..
Maine, in….
Orono.
Hard place to win; tiny town, middle of nowhere, high school atmosphere. Double digit win not a bad thing at all.
Great point Ken…..that really puts an 11 point win at Maine in perspective.
Don’t know exactly what difference we run week to week (they say 4-2-5 but they also admit to running what is best suited that week). Could be a coincidence that both times they were in a Tampa 2 coverage (where the MLB has deep middle) that they happened to throw deep middle on us. That would explain why the MLB is covering the deep middle but I’m just guessing.