Dukes Dominate Ticks
Corp didn't get hit this much in the Pac-10
This picture from the RTD story really is worth a thousand words, or in this case 400 unnecessary words from me that could never explain the beatdown the Dukes put on Richmond as well as this image. I’ll be brief because there were 8 sacks and that is the headline as Richmond couldn’t bust a grape, much less deal with the fired up defense we’ve all been waiting on to arrive this season.
Three Things to Love
The black jerseys, return of Nick Emmons beefing up the D Line, the word that DQ Scott’s shoulder injury may not be that serious even though it was nice to see just how deep JMU’s running back stable is.
Three Things to be Concerned About
Special teams still not special, Maine looks like the real deal after putting a hurt on Delaware yesterday, the shoddy A/V work not living up to the rest of the stadium.
One Last Thing
I didn’t even have to mention the QB.
the black jerseys are the real story here
I’d say that Saturday we finally saw the JMU defense we’d been expecting heading into the season, but the truth was they were way better than that. Just an outstanding job by the D line getting to Corp.
Edwards’ stats don’t look great, but I liked what I saw. He locked into Barlow and Long a few times in the first half, but other than that he appeared to be moving through his progressions and making the right throws. If JMU can continue to rush the ball this well, he’s going to have plenty of time to adjust to his starting role. It definitely was an encouraging debut.
I was glad to see the Defense we all know and love finally show up.
Jace Edwards gets half the credit for the offensive awakening. When you have a QB that actually reads coverage and is a legit throwing threat, it is much easier to run for 200 yards.
Not sure how much of the credit I’d give Jace just yet. Defenses were having a tough time with our rushing offense long before he came into the picture. I didn’t get to go to – or even see – the game (grrr). But from looking at the highlights and reading the stat sheet, it looked to be a complete beat-down.
I posted after the UNC game that I thought Anderson had better RB instincts and size than DQS, and I hoped MM would give DQS a look a the slot (a la Percy Harvin). A dominant running game would open the middle of the field wide open for DQS to use his speed and elusiveness without having to worry about d-linemen. Add Latney to the mix and it seems we have some great depth at RB – and we can always use pre-snaps shifts into the wildcat to get DQS additional touches.
Defense wins championships, and it sounds like our defense is moving toward championship caliber. That was a Top 10 team with a QB transfer from Southern Cal – and we held them to 12 yards rushing? Couple that with an OL that seems prepared to knock just about any FCS d-line off the ball for 4 quarters, and this could shape up to be a nice, nice season.
Just don’t lay an egg against Villanova, fellas.
I thought Jace looked good. It looked like we had a real qb rather than the rb/wr converts that have been taking the snaps over the past few years. He stays in the pocket long enough to let a play develop and looks at more than one option. His stats weren’t great but you could tell the Ticks had to adjust to the threat. Looking forward to seeing how he develops and maybe seeing the playbook open up a little.