Dukes Stomp SHSU & Earn a Date With the Defending Champs
We certainly enjoyed that game on Friday. How about y’all? JMU locked the damn gates and ran all over Sam Houston State to the tune of a 65-7 shellacking. If you can imagine an aspect of a football game, JMU dominated in it. The defense continued its later season resurgence and shut down the FCS’s top offense from the regular season. JMU held the Bearkats to only 270 total yards and forced 3 turnovers. To call JMU’s performance dominating, would be doing it a disservice. The win earned JMU a trip to Fargo to take on five time defending national champion North Dakota State in the semifinals on Friday night. Giddy up.
Here’s our good, bad, and ugly from the game.
Good
Pretty much everything JMU did on the football field – You might think we’re mailing it in with this, but seriously, what did JMU not do well on Friday night? Bryan Schor was 13 of 17 for 251 yards a TD. The rushing attacked amassed 356 yards. Khalid Abdullah and Trai Sharp each ran for over 140 yards. Six different Dukes caught passes. They had two special team touchdowns, including a spectacular Rashard Davis punt return to the house. They forced a SHSU team that had punted only 53 times all season heading into the game, to punt 10 times. They prevented Jeremiah Briscoe without a passing TD, after he had tossed 57 all year. They played physical with the receivers and completely took them out of the game. It was pure domination.
The Bridgeforth Faithful – In addition to the outstanding play on the field, we’ve got to give it up for the crowd. Friday was brutally cold and many of us were unable to make the trip back to the ‘burg after work. The die hards that did make it, sure made it loud. And the student support was simply fantastic. They showed up in a big, big way for the team.
Earning a chance to take down NDSU – This is so, so good. NDSU is a fantastic program that deserves every bit of praise that has been thrown its way. They’ve proven very difficult to beat in the Fargodome in the playoffs. But they’re not invincible and as the cliche goes, to be the best, you’ve got to beat the best. We believe this JMU team has what it takes to win the whole damn thing. Beating NDSU on the way to doing it, would be icing on the cake.
Bad and Ugly
Pretty much all the stuff on the field not being done directly by the Dukes. No need to belittle the opponent, but JMU made a very good team SHSU look not very good.
That’s about it. Again, there’s just not much we can say about this to make it any better. JMU stepped up and showed everyone that this 2016 team is the real deal. And now the Dukes have a dream date with an FCS dynasty Friday night.
This one stays on the DVR for a LONG time — children will be disowned for deleting it…
I got to watch the 1st half late Friday night (after school athletic commitments) and the 2nd half Saturday morning. I am so impressed with what our defense is doing at this point. Looks like Coach Trott’s stuff has finally clicked and the kids are just flat out ballin’ now!
I’ve often been the defense’s biggest non-believer, but no more. I won’t expect them to be like this every play of every game, but I know they won’t not show up like they have in the past.
Jimmy F’in Moreland was everywhere and he was good; Oliver was killing it and Carter was a monster on special teams.
Fargo is a place we can win; if it’s a fast track — if we can play lights out D on 3rd down (not give up a 12-minute, 20-play drive) and don’t turn the ball over, our athletes will beat them.
Hope last Friday is Disc 1 of the 3-disc set chronicling the 2016 JMU national championship season!
Not to be a ‘Debbie Downer’, but Fargo is not a ‘Happy Place”. The noise level is crazy, the outdoor weather is crazy, and visitor’s experiences have been crazy awful.
Our coaches have to work miracles … and they just might! This season has seen quite a few!
Put cotton in your ears, wear more than 5 layers, and get ready for one of the most important games in the history of JMU Football …
GO DUUKKEEEESSSSS!
Quick question about Fargo….
They have gates there, right?
GO DUKES!
LOCK THE DAMN GATE CITY BANK FIELD
That was a great game on Friday night! Glad I was there to witness it. Now that one is over, so let’s get busy resetting for this week’s challenge. Just one more obstacle standing in the way of where you want to be fellas! Let’s go beat the #1 at their place!
I will leave you with two more thoughts regarding the SHSU game that made me laugh late Friday night. After I got home from the game, I was browsing the game day thread on the SHSU comments board just to see what their fan-base were saying, and this is one comment I saw from one of their homers: “If we play that game at our place, I think we win…” (REALLY?)
And then there was KC Keeler on his post game presser insinuating that the Refs let the Dukes get too physical with his kitty-cats!
Let’s GO DUKES!
We did not get good pressure without blitzing. Most sacks this season have been coverage sacks. NDSU will run on this defense. SHSU attacked our defensive strength. NDSU won’t.
It’ll be a good game Friday night…South Dakota State was giving them problems in the 1st quarter by alternating with the running game, a big WR and TE, and a mobile QB (sound familiar). They are going to run the rock and try to play keep away from our offense so it’ll be interesting to see how this plays out..Go Dukes!! Bring the damn gate from Bridgeforth to Fargo and LOCK THE DAME GATE!!
Glad I was there friday night. Dukes played an amazing game. We need to stay focused and go beat the Bison at their place. We can do this!
M@ — I noticed that as well, but I wonder if Trott doesn’t bring more bodies up to the line for NDSU and let the back end play with less help. It’s not like NDSU is going to throw it 50 times like Sam Houston.
Fargo then Frisco!
Dukes win by 3 TDs
I too was ecstatic to be able to attend that complete demolition of the pretenders that are SHS. We did our job, now let’s get real. I watched the SDSU-NDSU game after returning home and this is a whole different animal, my keys to the game:
1. We MUST have a fast linebacker or extra safety spying their QB, he will kill you with his feet;
2. We MUST be able to get away with manhandling their WRs so that we can play man to man and stack the box against the run, if those refs up there are calling ticky-tack fouls, we are in for a long day;
3. We MUST swarm to the ball and tackle well – they are going to pound the ball on us all day long.
4. We MUST protect the passer, I believe our athletes on the outside can beat their coverage if we give Schor time.
It is going to be a colossal task to win at their place but this team has the ability, let’s see if they can execute for one more week and get us to Frisco.
Go Dukes!
Sunchase – I agree that he will bring someone up to help with the run, but if the refs don’t let em play in the defensive backfield (as Sekudog mentioned) it could be a looooooooooooong day.
I think we’ll either win by 3+ tds or lose close. If we can get up by two tds, they may panic (though maybe not; not like they haven’t had some tough games). But I don’t see their offense hanging a lot of points on us in a hurry. That’s just not the way they’re built.
I think the last 4 games have really given our defense some confidence. The corners did an amazing job last week. NDSU’s plan will be to have those long drives, but we can score quickly. I like the fact that it’s a dome which works with our speed in all 3 phases. One thing I’ve noticed is when punters are trying to punt away from the returner, they have been shanking them or just not getting the distance. Just one of those small things that makes a huge difference.
Good news that JMU was able to host 2 home playoff games. Home games = more revenue for the athletic program = more money to hire a better basketball coach. They need to fire Louis Rowe!
I agree. Louis Rowe is a total disaster. The team is off to the worst start in program history. I can’t believe Rowe was the best head coach they could find.
Brief break to let y’all know that the “Lock the Damn Gates” shirts are available now. We’ll do a full post about it tonight, but you can check them out and purchase them here: https://www.spreadshirt.com/lock+the+damn+gates-A107495249?productType=812&appearance=506
Our coach said at the press conf. today that they have been and will continue to practice with speakers blazing to create noise so they players will get used to communicating in that place. I think our coaches will have them ready. I will not be surprised if we whip the Bison.
Hey Withers, how is everything in TX?