27 POINTS? 27 POINTS! Dukes Win!
Not gonna bury the lead here. The JMU Dukes scored 27 points and beat Liberty 27-24 on a last-second field goal in a thrilling game in Lynchburg Saturday night. And they didn’t do it on the strength of lucky breaks or huge turnovers, but rather by producing a number of creative, sustained drives the likes of which we haven’t seen in a few seasons. In the course of a performance that gives all Dukes fan a chance to breathe a sigh of relief, they also answered a TON of questions. What a difference a week makes.
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Does Justin Thorpe have a chance to be a big time player? Sure looked like it. On two of JMU’s long drives, JT missed wide open receivers for huge plays (likely a TD on the overthrow to Sharp). But you know what? He came right back on both drives and threw darts to convert 3rd downs leading to touchdowns. Also made a few nice plays with his feet and generally led the team with a confident calm in a tense game. (Does need to clean up his option decisions and pitches though)
Will Mickey Matthews ever open the playbook? At least for one night he did. It’s really amazing how much better a QB, and for that matter an entire offense, can look when allowed to throw in non-obvious passing situations. Also took MM till midway through the third quarter to find TE Brian Barlow, whom he calls his best player, but once he did, that opened thing up even further. The opening drive of the second half was an absolute thing of beauty that Dukes fans have been craving since Rodney Landers left the field against Montana to end the ’08 season.
Are we going to get anything more than “god-awful” out of the kicking game? Who knows, but that was a MONEY kick by Cameron Starke to win it and you’d have to think that’s going to be an enormous confidence boost that has the potential to spread throughout the special teams.
Are the Dukes tough enough to navigate the always difficult CAA year better than the last two years? Signs are certainly trending upward. On the road, loud crowd, seriously tough opponent led by an All-American talent in top form in QB Mike Brown, two weeks of bitching and moaning from a grumpy, impatient fan base, two missing defensive tackles, four leads given up thanks to an uncharacteristically atrocious showing from the defensive backfield, and a batshit crazy refereeing crew handing out personal fouls like condoms at the Bunny Ranch. NONE of it phased the Dukes. They fought through all of it mentally, phyically, and emotionally and came through in a huge way. They also came to hit in a big way.
Things we don’t want to hear: 1) Any more about Liberty. Dukes don’t play them next year. They have a great stadium (not Bridgeforth by a country mile though), a building fanbase (albeit sober), and a tough, experienced team. But unless they join the conference or enter into potential playoff scenarios, can we shelve all the obsession with the Flames and move on to the low-rent Monarchs? 2) Dukes only won because of LU penalties. Look, this game was exhibit A on the monstrosity that is FCS officiating, but it was horribly inconsistent both ways and the Dukes won. 3) Any more jumping off the bandwagon for at least the next two weeks. The Dukes are now right where we all thought, and hoped, they’d be. 2-1 headed to top-ranked W&M. Regardless what happens this week, coming back to BFS for Homecoming agains the Ticks will be the real test on how they rest of the season will play out so show some support and don’t panic. And last, but not least, 4) W&M is somehow an easier task because they barely snuck by D2 New Haven on Saturday. CCSU, please reference. Going to be a great week!
Awesome post! Best line of the year:
“a batshit crazy refereeing crew handing out personal fouls like condoms at the Bunny Ranch.”
Friggin’ loved it!
Epic win for the JMU kicking game.
JT played really well. I’m not gonna sit here and say the man has “arrived” yet, but he can avoid the bench for at least another week. If you aren’t consistent in this league, you finish 6-5… kind of like us recently.
I’m worried that our 245 lb. D-Line is going to give up 250 yds rushing to Grimes this week. Just gonna go ahead and thow it out there.
FYI- The Fighting Nerds benched their QB last week, and the backup is expected to start this weekend. It might not mean anything, but then again the backup didn’t play through 2 weeks of training camp with the 1st team, either.
Great win for the Dukes. I was really pleased with JT’s play. The pass to Long on the final drive was great. Just a gutsy throw with the game on the line.
Grimes is a beast, but I’m not too worried about the JMU defense playing against the rush. The struggles have really come against the pass. Getting a chance to face a back-up QB might be just the thing the secondary needs to step its game up.
Thorpe was 13 for 18 / 141 yards, and no picks. Another 30 yards on the ground. We don’t need our passing game to be devastating – just efficient enough to keep the safeties honest. If our OL continues to come together and form some cohesiveness and JT can continue to keep defenses honest, we just might be alright.
Great win. Have to admit I didn’t like our chances of avoiding OT at the end. Also didn’t like our chances if it did go to OT. Great kick.
Surprised Anderson got no carries, and I’d still like to see DS in the slot some.
Just a comment about competition. I am a firm believer that it is sometimes just human nature to play “down” to ones competition. It happens to me in pickup basketball and I know it happens to organized teams both on the collegiate and professional level. Not worried we only beat CCSU by a little when we played Liberty strong. Same can be said about W&M – I wouldn’t look too much into them barely beating New Haven. They will have a much stronger showing against us this week and we just have to match and exceed their effort.
Check out the DNR for Bourne’s surprisingly open comments on moving to 1A.
I think Jason is right to be cautious about reading too much into the W&M – New Haven score. The margin of victory doesn’t mean much to me. The fact that the much heralded transfer QB, Mike Paulus, was benched at half-time does interest me though.
@KingCranium, we’re pretty excited about Bourne’s comments and will have a reaction posted by tomorrow morning.
Rob, thought you guys would. Love the blog, by the way- I’ve been turning as many alums and friends as I can onto it.