{"id":6912,"date":"2014-09-01T11:21:53","date_gmt":"2014-09-01T15:21:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=6912"},"modified":"2014-09-01T11:21:53","modified_gmt":"2014-09-01T15:21:53","slug":"breakdown-of-a-beatdown-maryland-recap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=6912","title":{"rendered":"Breakdown of a Beatdown: Maryland Recap"},"content":{"rendered":"

So obviously that wasn’t pretty. In fact, it was just awful. Not even exactly painful, just really unentertaining, undisciplined, awful football if you can call it that. \u00a0But we’re going through our normal Good, Bad, Ugly process of recapping the game and we all need to calm down about this one until we see the Lehigh game.<\/p>\n

Reality Check\/Reminder<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Remember<\/a>

Remember this was the start of a shitty year.<\/p><\/div>\n

In 2004, when JMU won the Championship, the Dukes lost to West Virginia 45-10, and that was in Week 3 after two games to iron out the kinks. In 2008, when JMU had it’s best season ever (where it didn’t win the NC of course), the Dukes opened up with a similarly uninspired 31-7 loss to a then punching-bag Duke team. This weekend the following happened to other CAA squads picked ahead of the Dukes: CAA favorite New Hampshire lost 52-20. Delaware lost 62-0 to Pitt. Towson lost at home to CCSU. Stony Brook lost 13-7 at home to Bryant. William & Mary played well and still lost 34-9 to Virginia Tech. Maine won by the oh-so-flattering score of 10-6 at home over a MEAC team. Only Villanova’s painful 2OT loss in the Carrier Dome Friday night looked like any sign that a team might be really good. We’re not saying that justifies or excuses this game in any way, but it’s just to say I think we can reserve judgment on this season and the Withers era for at least one more week.<\/p>\n

The Good<\/strong><\/p>\n

The secondary actually looked improved. This seems counterintuitive in a beatdown like this, but there were bright spots in the back (in fact, the avalanche of points in the first half was largely on the offense’s mistakes). In particular, Jimmy Moreland looks like a true baller and it was nice to see both Taylor Reynolds and Aaron Peak contributing positively at times.<\/p>\n

Major injuries seem to have been avoided. No way we can overstate how big this is. Whether that was 52-7 or 31-20, \u00a0a loss to an BCS team is just a loss to a BCS team when it come to FCS playoffs so this is big.<\/p>\n

The Bad<\/strong><\/p>\n

Discipline and Penalties, especially early. Simply killed any chance the Dukes had of being competitive.<\/p>\n

High snaps. Hate to pick on an individual player, but hard to ask Lee to do anything when he’s leaping to bring it down every time.<\/p>\n

Both of these items are in the Bad, not the Ugly, however, because they can be fixed. On the other hand…<\/p>\n

The Ugly<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gameplanning. It’s tough to say, but it sure looked to us like Vad Lee had instructions not to keep the ball (to protect himself?) on any read option action. Other than the over-amped, undisciplined start from the defense and special teams, it sure looked like the coaching staff trotted out the ole Mickey vanilla-in-our-FCS-take-our-check-and-get-on-the-bus game plan. New era?<\/p>\n

Lack of pressure from the front seven. Maryland returned almost every starter on O from last year and we’re really hoping this is just a massive talent advantage on the O-Line, but for a unit that the coaches were touting as JMU’s best, the complete lack of pressure on Maryland QB CJ Brown was shockingly disturbing. This makes the ugly because I don’t know how you fix this one. Just an awful performance that put the secondary in dire straights all day. Not even the most improved secondary can cover forever. It should be noted that at least in the run game, the missing Gage Steele probably would’ve made a huge difference and we hope he was smartly held out and is on track to make it back soon, but even he probably wouldn’t have effected the missing rush.<\/p>\n

Dukes in the League!<\/strong><\/p>\n

On a positive note, lots of good news on former Dukes in the pros this weekend.<\/p>\n

Josh Wells made the 53 for the Jags. Akeem Jordan held on to make the 53 for the Skins (Mike Caussin was also IR’d by the Skins so may not be done yet). Jordan Stanton was signed to the Giants practice squad. And of course Arthur Moats will be suiting up for the Steelers and Earl Watford is expected to play a much bigger role for the Cardinals this year. Great work from all these guys and Go Dukes!<\/p>\n

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