Dukes Pick Up Huge Win in New Hampshire (And Barely Avoid Catastrophe)
Phew! Everyone exhale a bit after that near debacle in the last ten minutes. But once we all take a step back and look at the big picture, no matter how you look at the mistakes down the stretch, the end result is the same: a HUGE win for the Dukes in a really tough place to play that sets them up for the bye week, the midseason scrimmage against URI for Homecoming, and then the two major tests of the season at Richmond and Villanova.
The Good
On the big picture side first, the Dukes snapped UNH’s 17-game home winning streak. Kind of speaks for itself in terms of the Wildcat’s quality of play and the way those constant noon kickoffs affect teams that have endured pretty ridiculous travel itineraries by modern college football standards to make their way to Durham, NH. But even more than that, the Dukes now sit at 6-1 with home games remaining against URI and Elon. Taking nothing away from the allegedly improved Fightin’ Christians – strike that – taking everything away, this means the floor for the Dukes now likely sits at 8-3. Enormous road tests at RU and Nova make up the rest of the slate but even a split of those games could have the Dukes in great position for a seed again as only JMU and Stony Brook are still undefeated in conference play.
When we all assumed it was over, and clearly the players did too.
Ready to play – The noon kick at Maine earlier this year showed how tough it is to play these games beyond the wall. The Dukes were sluggish then. They clearly had learned their lesson as they were ready to go in the first half of this one despite an opening drive three-and-out for what seems like the first time in forever.
Just better – Before the-quarter-that-shall-not-be-named this was really our big takeaway from this game. At halftime I jotted a note to myself that said “just better.” What I meant was that both of these teams were clearly prepared and well-coached with gameplans they meant to stick to. But whereas in years past under both Mickey and Withers, the Dukes may have squandered their considerable talent advantage against a disciplined team sticking to its plan like UNH, this year, JMU was also a disciplined team sticking to its plan and the talent could make the difference. The Dukes don’t turn the ball over or commit the penalties at horrendous times the way we’ve seen before and that puts them into position for things like their elite-for-FCS talent to make plays like the Terrance Alls TD grab or the Simeyon Robinson XP block. It’s such a pleasure and truly gives us hope that JMU can really compete in the postseason this year.
Simeyon Robinson – D-Line was the biggest concern coming into the season and the Dukes failure to generate pressure on QB’s for huge swaths of games – like the entire first half of this one – is still the one glaring weakness (kicking is a concern right now too) of this squad, but Mr. Robinson is capable of taking over for a series or a quarter in a way we haven’t seen since D.J. Bryant. To us, he might be the most irreplaceable player on the team right now.
O-Line – What can you say? Well, you can probably say something more intelligible than color commentator Brian Baldinger’s CTE-induced, incoherent rambling about the road graders up front. But we agree with his enthusiasm about the way Kirsch, Rigney, Frank, Stinnie, etc. are playing right now.
Passing Game – Schor was great and has deservedly picked up the CAA Offensive player of the week, but the most important thing is the Dukes showed just how complete they are on offense this week. UNH threw everything at slowing down the run game and it worked. Last year after Vad went down, the Dukes couldn’t really prove they could win the game in the air. This week they showed how great they can be and it’s unlikely anyone will be able to solely focus on any one thing going forward. Huge step for the team.
Rush Defense – On the other side of the ball, while we all get frustrated with how many short passes in open space the Dukes give up, we should keep in mind the gameplay. UNH’s best player was RB Dalton Crosson. UNH had 57 yards rushing. 57. The Dukes forced UNH to try and win with the passing game and they couldn’t do what Schor and co. did.
The Bad
UNH’s “crowd” – New stadium. Good team. 17-game winning streak and one of the CAA heavies in town on a perfect fall afternoon in New England. Some things never change.
The Ugly
ASN – Basically everything about this telecast was some high-school A/V Club level nonsense. The whole first half the sound wasn’t synced with the picture. They lost the feed entirely to start the second half. And lots of folks were actually having better luck with the YouTube feed than the cable broadcast. #CAA4lyfe!
The last ten minutes – Look, there are a million things we could say about this, but we’re not going to waste our time. When Charles Tutt ran in the fumbled kickoff to put the Dukes up 42-12 with a backup QB in the game, the ENTIRE team thought it was over and turned their motors to “Off.” Honestly, so did we as fans. I took the dog out, lit the grill, and casually watched out of one eye till the second UNH score when I paid full attention again. And this wasn’t just the defense. The offense did nothing to keep the ball. Bottom line is the 42-12 score didn’t do justice to how good the Wildcats actually were. The Dukes had to play mistake-free football to obtain that lead, it wasn’t just that they were worlds better. And when they stopped doing that, the wheels came off. Thankfully they had already done enough.
“Enormous road test” at Richmond? The game is played at the Bridgeforth Stadium- Richmond annex in front of a hostile crowd of 500 football parents and band moms…. with about 7,000 JMU alumni who are enjoying not having to make the haul to Harrisonburg.
IDK about the OL. On the one hand, we did rush for 195 (really 125 b/c I don’t count the QB either running for his life or “tricking” the defense with a pull-and-go). On the other hand, when you cannot run the ball and ice a game, the first place you look is the OL. They played ok, but I didn’t get the feeling that they ever took over the game or dominated.
I’ve enjoyed watching Schor come into his own this year as a solid starting QB. Also Alls is an underrated WR, and Abdullah is one of my favorite RB’s in JMU history.
04- we couldn’t run the ball like usual but the OLine gave Schor all day to make all those plays
My daughter was getting married on Saturday and I had to stop watching the game. It was 42-12 when I left. What the hell happened? I am glad I didn’t suffer through those last 10 minutes, but I am really curious to know/see how it ended up 42-39.
OBXDuke1983, congratulations on your daughter’s wedding. I’ll take one for the team and summarize the last 10 minutes (i.e., after JMU kicks off after the 42-12 scoop-and-score TD) as follows:
1. 70-something yard, prevent defense-aided drive by UNH for a TD, aforementioned (and YUGE, as it turned out) blocked extra point by Robinson. 42-18.
2. UNH unsuccessful onside kick (yay!), JMU ball at the ~50, but Schor fumbles on 1st down and UNH recovers (YOU HAD ONE JOB!).
3. UNH’s BACKUP QB enters, leads 2 minute-ish TD drive. UNH coaching braintrust successfully does the math, but 2 point conversion fails. 42-24.
4. Successful onside kick by UNH, recovered at JMU 45, big pass play to the 10, UNH punches it in and converts XP. 42-31.
5. Unsuccessful onside kick by UNH, JMU ball at the -40, 3-and-out but at least UNH burns all 3 timeouts. Punt for a touchback. Three minutes and change left.
6. 80-yard, 13 play drive with only two 3rd down conversions, takes less than 2 minutes off the clock. 2-point try good. 42-39.
7. UNH makes the worst onside kick attempt you’ve ever seen (kicker does the ridiculous thing where he runs back and forth on either side of the ball, kicks it far-side with zero bounce and 5 yards too far, Taylor catches it cleanly with no UNH player within 10 yards and walks OB).
8. Victory formation, get on the plane back to SHD.
I’m totally on board with the OP’s analysis except for the travel argument. Even the Maine trip couldn’t have been more than a 2.5 hour plane ride and the night before in a hotel. Sorry, but in my opinion that isn’t that taxing. Four hours on a bus to Williamsburg seems worse to me.
The comments on the ASN coverage were so funny I almost spit out my drink laughing. Well done! About all I’ll say is that it beats a strictly audio feed.
#CAA4Lyfe y’all.
From where I was sitting (On the Rox, Richmond), it seemed as though Schor’s butt was on the ground before he “fumbled.” Given a few more camera angles and a little more time spent on the review, a reversal of that call would have drastically changed the outcome of the game. Nevertheless, he did lose the ball and it is what it is.
#CAA4Lyfe
Offense- good to see ability to throw for 40+ points when opponent puts 8 in box to stop run game. This performance will help keep other teams from trying that plan. Need to be able to close it out with rushing game at end though.
Defense- (repeat of last week’s advice) We don’t have the d-line to put pass pressure on QB, so more blitz packages MUST be used. I saw a few corner/outside backer blitz plays that WORKED! Why not do it more? Another option is bringing corners up to jam WRs at line with cover-2 safeties over the top in case blitz doesn’t get QB quickly; either way the timing patterns are thrown off. SOMETHING MUST CHANGE FOR BETTER PASS DEFENSE.
Special Teams- Please tell somebody to just grab the onside kick! I would rather see someone mishandle it than everyone watch it bounce around until other team gets there. Also, 2nd week in a row that holder moved spot after kicker set spot for field goal; strange.
A BYE Week and Rhode Island scrimmage are perfect time to try some new things listed above. What do we have to lose?
Go Dukes!
Hopefully because of the bye week, the players won’t be looking ahead to Richmond. But as fans, we have the ability to look forward. I don’t remember a time that I wanted them to crush Richmond so badly, just to avenge that loss from last year.
This is my chance to say I hate prevent defense. the only thing that happens is you are scored on and give up to much yardage. Play the regular defense and stop them. Having said all that a win is a win. We now have a week off to correct some glaring mistakes. GO DUKES!!!
Thanks Gene. Great recap. I am sure it was painful to put in writing.
Special Teams – I think someone above hit the nail on the head. I think we need to be more aggressive attacking onside kicks, especially those little squibbers that barely go 10 yards.
The one UNH recovered on that style straight ahead last week, I am not even sure still that the ball went 10 yards when they jumped on it. It was like we waited at the 45 yard line waiting on the ball rather than going to get it. With onsides have everyone fire off knocking the ‘crap’ out of kicking team and have one guy designated to jump on the ball.
Against W&M one of our starting o-line had to come out for a play because he lost his helmet. He knew right away and came out so there was no confusion (we’ve had problems with that in the past). The backup goes in and makes a great block on a pass on a bull rushing DT. Comes off the field and is mobbed on the sideline by guys congratulating him on the block. That is three things this team can be proud of and three things I don’t think happen last year or under Mickey.