JMU Cruises to Easy W Over ETSU

Last night, the Dukes dropped 52 points on ETSU to extend the win streak to 14! #GoDukes pic.twitter.com/yxgxHqjxhg

— JMU Football (@JMUFootball) September 10, 2017

JMU easily defeated East Tennessee State University 52-10 Saturday night. The fact that so many of us were somewhat underwhelmed with a 42 home victory says a lot about exactly how good things are with the program right now. First up, it was a glorious day to take in the game at Bridgeforth. Absolutely beautiful weather and a near capacity Bridgeforth crowd that was pretty much lit. The Dukes reached the endzone on their opening possession and never looked back. The defense was outstanding, holding ETSU to only 3 points on offense. Schor and the receivers were efficient all night. And the run game? Well it was spectacular against ECU. Here’s the good, bad, and ugly from the win.

Good

Dukes Defense – Just dominant. The term smothering defense might have been better used to describe a performance. JMU owned the line of scrimmage from start to finish and the defensive backs continued their aggressive and physical play we saw last week. ETSU’s QB was on his heels all night and the running backs were going backwards. For the game, JMU had 2 sacks. one forced fumble, one pick, and 8 tackles for a loss. Dukes D crushed.

Passing Attack – Bryan Schor threw for over 300 yards and 5 TDs. He is good. So are his receivers. The Dukes entered the seasons with the wide receiver position a bit of a mystery. We weren’t exactly sure how the passing game would deal with losing virtually all of its weapons from last year. Thus far, it looks like there’s no drop off. There were a few drops that guys would want to have back, but overall the receivers were outstanding. One of the overlooked aspects of last season’s success was how Schor frequently relied on receivers to make plays on what were basically 50-50 balls. He hasn’t done that through two games this year, but he’s definitely squeezing the ball into tight windows and trusting his guys to catch it. Go back and look at David Eldridge’s TD catch for a perfect example. It’s really fun to watch the way Eldridge, Ish Hyman, Riley Stapleton, and John Miller all go get the ball, instead of waiting for it. And Stapleton is going to be a real threat in the red zone all year.

T-shirt Cannon – “When we win championships, we get new toys.”

Special Teams – No missed kicks and an impressive rugby style punt from the Punter from Down Under, Harry O’Kelly. The returns of John Miller were the real highlight though. He took one to the house for 6 and had another 41 yarder for good measure.

The Crowd – Students and fans showed up, were mostly seated before kickoff, and were loud. Well done all around. (But folks need to zip it when JMU is on offense.)

ETSU Run D – Yeah, this is supposed be all about JMU, but we need to give the Bucs’ D some credit. They came into the game ready to sell out to stop the run. They did just that. The pass D ain’t gonna be on the season highlight reel however.

The Bad

Running Game – After treating us to a performance for the ages against ECU, JMU’s rushing attack was anemic against ETSU. It appeared to be a rather vanilla scheme, but the offensive line failed to open up holes consistently. And several times when they did, the backs failed to find them. Credit to ETSU for playing physical in the trenches all night, but it was rather shocking that JMU wasn’t eventually able to wear them down and start running downhill. It’s tough to get too upset about anything after a 52-10 win, but we expected much better than 122 yards on the ground at a 3.1 yards per carry clip. This will likely be nothing more than a wake up call, because the backs and o-line are too good for it to be anything else.

Flags – While the special teams deservedly landed in our “Good” section, there were still too many penalties on returns. It cost the Dukes in terms of field position. Fortunately, Schor and the receivers were able to overcome things and it ultimately didn’t hurt on the scoreboard. Dumb mistakes will be much harder to overcome against better CAA teams though.

The Ugly

JMU won by 42 points. The D held ETSU to 1.8 yards per carry rushing and only 44% passing. Schor passed for 5 TDs. Yes, the rushing game was disappointing, but there is no ugly. We have high expectations, but we’re not lunatics.