Akron Post-Mortem
First of all, a huge thanks to all of you for making the open thread for the Akron game one of our most active ever! Amazing what a horse manure ending and treating timeouts more frivolously than Gilbert Arenas with a new contract will do to stir up the masses. Second, our sincere gratitude to the Field Hockey parents, supporters, coaches and players who made our trip to AU such a good time! We’ll write that trip up tomorrow night so it’s not buried beneath 1300 venomous words about football.
The “Issue”
Everyone who cares about JMU football has been knashing over the final 20 seconds of last night’s game (and the whorish unsportsmanlike on DQS to start that fateful drive) for 24 hours now and the complete and utter bullshit inflicted on the Dukes by the MAC referees hasn’t changed one bit. It just doesn’t feel any better and we wish we didn’t have to mention it ever again, but we can’t very well step back and take the long view without addressing it so here goes. EFFORT – that’s all we ask. With the new college rule that you can’t spike the ball to kill the clock under :03, who knows if the Dukes pull it off, but the failings on the final play by the officiating crew were in four parts. No matter how much some of you blame Mickey and the coaches or rightfully point out it shouldn’t have come down to that, the fact remains the Dukes deserved better than that. After the pass was completed, my first thought was “sweet, first down, clock stops, time to kill it.” My next thought was “even if no first down PLENTY of time to stop it.” It never even occured to me they wouldn’t spot it in time. (Side note: The announcers were so bad they made Craig James look like a sane, decent, competent alternative and their complaints about the JMU WR not getting down were just flat-out wrong in my opinion – he was trying were it not for the nine Akron players holding him up). So begins the comedy of errors.
1) It was a nine-yard gain with a confusing spot based on the scrum. Given all the reviews and measurements in this game, would it have been too much too ask for a measurement here. 2) The refs are allowed to blow the whistle for a momentary stoppage, and should have, once forward progess is stopped, which it clearly was when our guy was being dragged all the way back to Columbus. 3) Could’ve been an unsportsmanlike for the continuous hounding after the whistle was blown of our player. 4) But last, and most egregiously, it is absolutely without question that the officials have to at least make an ATTEMPT to spot the ball ready for play. You have got to be ready if you’re half aware of what’s going on and quite simply, these MAC buffoons were either not ready or something worse. All we ask for there is an effort to run the ball back to the spot and be ready. These assclowns made zero effort and that’s a) something I’ve never seen before in similar situations, and b) the most hauntingly frustrating thing about this game.
The Good
This game only made us more bullish on this squad. 498 yards of offense on 90+ plays sounds like exactly what we’ve all been dying for. Birdsong apparently wasn’t seriously hurt. The receivers, particularly DeAndre Smith and Daniel Brown, made the type of plays that turn games and show just how much JMU can out-athlete many teams at our level. In-game adjustment back to running inside in the second half was a little late, but it DID come, and if you’ve been suffering with us through the last few years, you know that’s progress. And the week-to-week improvement, especially in the area of pressure on the QB, was incredibly encouraging. The pace of the offense and the “check with the sidelines” seems to vary as the Dukes tire a bit, but it was better than Week 1 and we think patience is in order given that this was only game 2 for the new scheme.
The Bad
The Dukes seemed to match up well at the skill positions, but they really struggled giving Birdsong time to throw at times. We believe fully in our O-Line’s prowess and see no reason (other than penalties) to get down on them or think they’ll be anything less than dominant back at the FCS level. Akron may be a bad FBS team, but there speed and size up front on D really looked FBS to us and no reason to be overly disappointed.
The penalties (non-personal foul variety). Second week in a row. Guess when you’re running this many plays and learning a new offense it’s going to happen, but it’s getting dangerously close to a trend already.
The defensive backfield has some real growing up to do outside of Dean Marlowe. Let’s hope this game against good competition serves as a great lesson.
The Ugly
Mental mistakes. All over the place. First on the coaching staff: At some point all these personal fouls begin to reflect on the coaching. The utter misuse of timeouts in both halves was a disgrace. Blowing their final timeout on what should have been a no-brainer decision to go for two after JMU scored to get within 35-33 was the coup de grace of blown timeouts. But while we always try to avoid criticizing players, they were all over the place mentally in this one too. Personal fouls, giving up on a play where the Dukes were offsides and ends up costing a long TD. Three loooong TD’s actually were really the difference in the game. Play-by-play, series-by-series, you’ll never convince us JMU wasn’t the better team yesterday, but these hideous lapses just killed them.
Overall
Come in off the ledge people. Take a deep breath and look at the big picture. Akron was bad last year, and last week, but they’re still FBS and there were certain players (the RB and a few in their front seven defensively) we just don’t see at the FCS level. The Dukes outgained them and controlled the time of possession. Despite horrible mental breakdowns, JMU was still in position to get another FBS win. Birdsong is the real deal. He hits timing patterns in tight spaces in a way we really haven’t seen since Justin Rascati (Landers is our favorite player ever, but he was different). It changes everything having a real QB back there and he looks even better than last year. (please slide more). Even though it looked for a while yesterday like JMU would be the only team in the top 25 to not get a win over an FBS, those all fell through and the Dukes didn’t really lose ground to their (hopefully) contemporaries. Richmond, New Hamphire, Montana St., and Central Arkansas all also saw their FCS/FBS upset bids fall short (congrats to Maine though). Plus Villanova managed to be upset themselves by Fordham. Ugh, now that’s bad. Just one week at a time people. In ’09 we beat Tech and didn’t do squat the rest of the way. In ’04 and ’08 we lost our FBS games (badly) and had the best years in school history. Most important of all, as opposed to the last two years in which stagnation appeared inevitable early, unless you’re the type of fan who has a particular bone to pick with a particular coach or AD, we think this team showed improvement and a TON of room for more as the season progresses. Now pass me the purple kool aid and bring on the patsies the next couple of weeks!
I thought the only real mistake the officials made was not blowing the play dead sooner; they do that and the rest would’ve taken care of itself and we’re only celebrating or lamenting the results of a field goal attempt.
I will absolutely disagree with you in regards to the receiver not getting down being a mistake. Foolish announcers aside, receivers are taught — when out of time outs and in the middle of the field, get on the ground — from their earliest playing days. At least hope it was discussed on the sideline before the last drive.
I really liked what Birdsong showed last night. He showed good touch, a strong arm and an ability to run tough. I think J. Rascati was smarter at this point in his college career (outside of his penchant for sticking the ball out to get a first down on his quarterback sneaks) and Landers was a better athlete than Birdsong, but I think Birdsong has the ability to be the best total quarterback JMU has ever had.
I need to watch the replay, because I only remember hearing Marlowe’s name once or twice all night. Was it because Akron didn’t throw at him or were the Zips’ receivers so wide open that it didn’t really matter who was in coverage….?
I was disappointed mostly in Coach Matthews constant tantrums, especially the one at the end of the game. Understand why he’s pissed off, but at the end of the day, his putrid game management put his players into a position that made it almost impossible for them to succeed. This isn’t the first, nor will it be the last, time this has happened — playoffs against App. State being the most memorable for me.
How stand-up it was that the first thing out of his mouth in his post-game was that the referees didn’t cost them the game, it was DaeQuan Scott’s penalty. He apparently had nothing to do with it…..
This game will cost the Dukes the playoffs, as I don’t see them losing fewer than three conference games; even with the expanded playoff field, the Big Sky, Southland, and Missouri Valley conferences are too loaded. think the CAA-lite will get a max of three bids. Too many blown chances for FBS wins by conference teams this weekend. Towson UNH and Richmond are my choices with Maine as a dark horse if they continue their solid play.
NOTHING is more cowardly than a coach throwing his players under the bus to cover for horrible coaching. I lead the DQS anti-fan club, but he didn’t cost us the game. We lost this game during the month of August, when the other coaches in the NCAA were doing their jobs and preparing their team to manage the clock, cover the pass, and not make idiotic penalties. COWARD.
And I refuse to hear anything about the officiating, either. We should have beaten Akron by two or three TD’s…..easily. Every single person who watched that game knows it.
The team we just lost to is #2 in ESPN’s “Bottom 10”. Good work, guys.
http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/page/bottom10130903/willie-taggart-usf-bus-makes-stop-bottom-10
tough to watch? I can’t understand why Mathews keeps making decisions that don’t make sense and hurts the team. Let the players win the game. Going for two on the first touchdown seemed to loom over the team the whole damn game WHY? He out thinks himself all the time. The stupid tyraid that we all have seen for years now doesn’t help anyone. You can get mad but you have to be thinking next decision at all times and be ready to make a smart decision stay out of the players way let them win the game. I would rather see blitzes and screens than fake extra points and going for it on 4th down on your own 30 with the game on the line…sorry I’ll never get over that one..to me coaches coach during the week and let players win the game on Saturday and yes if it comes down to a last quarter decision then you step up and make the right decision for the team not for your ego…
We beat Tech in 2010 – 9/11/10.
The comments about MM throwing DQS under the bus are valid, especially given that he almost certainly hadn’t seen the replay and I’m not sure how that play wasn’t offsetting to begin with. We also don’t disagree that JMU should’ve won this game earlier or that it shouldn’t have come down to the last play or officiating. Doesn’t change the fact the refs made no attempt whatsoever to spot the ball.
But more than that, the overall negativty is tough to swallow on here as our hope is to be an alternative to the message board pessimism at times. It’s a long season and who cares what “the Bottom 10” of FBS teams says (If you’ve followed that little ESPN throwaway column over the years, you also know it’s a place they use to joke about teams, not to legitimately rank them), let’s see how this plays out. Neither game played so far has much bearing on how the Dukes will matchup in CAA play and making pronouncements about who’s in or out of the playoffs on September 8th just isn’t worthwhile at all (how has Maine shown “solid play?” The win over a horrible UMass team?). Yes, this loss leaves less margin for error, but it’s also a much closer approximation to a CAA game than CCSU or STFU and the Dukes were more than competitive, they were just stupid.
Lastly, I realize I’m in the minority on this, but I’ve got no problem at all with the new go-for-two policy early. It’s also refreshing to think that may be pure O’Cain as we’ve never seen that before. In both games so far, the Dukes have failed on the first two-point try, but made it up later in the game so it’s a wash. Same goes for 4th down aggressiveness in nearly every situation, though I’ll never win that argument with traditionalists. Also really like the efforts so far to modernize our special teams overall, even if it’s going to have bumps in the road (e.g. having a real kickoff specialist, trying the three returners to negate the rugby punt, and using the double swinging gate option look on XP’s).
The two most likely things to happen this year are: a) the Dukes struggle to win 6 or 7, MM is fired, and all of you screaming for his head get what you want, in which case presumably you’ll be pleased; or b) the Dukes continue to improve and return to the playoffs with a strong campaign, in which case presumably all of us will be happy. In either case, if you’re in sky-is-falling mode already, you’re in luck I guess. So let’s sit back, take a breath, put some perspective back into our JMU obsession (yes, I realize this is rich coming from a guy who has written a blog about JMU three times a week for four years), enjoy the season, and get ready to root!
Agreed, I am done talking about Akron. Let’s clean up a few things and take out frustration on St Franks and hang about 70 on them.
I’m not calling for MM to lose his job — well above my pay grade. It quite frankly doesn’t make a difference who is the head football coach, Mickey Matthews or Mickey Mouse. I just want somebody who can keep his head in the game and put the players in situations with the best opportunity to succeed. If the coach is unable to do that, then one of three things has to happen:
1. provide professional development training for the head coach
2. hire someone to perform that function for the coach
3. hire a new coach who has demonstrated those skills successfully
This is no different than what businesses and corporations do all the time — retrain and mentor, outsource the function, and finally replace the personnel if the problem persists.
I can only make projections based on what I see and can research. I know that Maine played an FCS school and a bottom-feeder MAC school (just like we did). They played both games on the road and won both games. They have a better rushing average (offensively and defensively) than we do at this point playing similar competition.
Given the performance of the CAA’s other teams through 2 weeks, I don’t think I’m too far off the mark. I don’t know if Maine’s or Villanova’s records are oases or mirages. I just think that the mental and emotional lapses our junior/senior laden team exhibited Saturday are bad harbingers.
I don’t want JMU to lose a game…ever or coaches lose jobs, because there is always a family behind that coach that inevitably pays a higher price. I’ve just watched enough over the 30+ years since I arrived there as a freshman to recognize that it doesn’t always work forever. The Jimmye Laycocks of the world are the exception to the rule, sadly.
Uhh.. who cares about the ESPN bottom 10? Its some clown at ESPN’s opinion. Lets focus on the fact that the CAA is having some seriously good showings against the FBS teams they are playing. At some point that has to help if we are in the playoff hunt. Which by the way I love saying. Sounds so much better than in the hunt for the Pulander Weed Eater Bowl as the 4th team out of some TBD conference.
Richmond and WM and JMU all put on solid showings. I am much more excited about the season now than I was a week ago beating up on some scrubs. Honestly, isn’t it better to have this F-up week 2 instead of week 8 and have the opportunity to learn from it before we have some important games.
I don’t think we will see DQS do that again this year.
Lets get some perspective.
The refs should’ve blown the play dead, but we weren’t getting another play off anyway. By the time we snapped the ball (on the slant play) there was only 16 seconds left. By the time the whistle would’ve blown we would’ve been down to 9-10 seconds left. We weren’t getting a play off either way. This game was not the finest example of clock management.
Sure if we had won the Akron game it would make the margin of error less, but also keep in mind that the loss doesn’t “hurt” as much as it would have it had been to an FCS school. In the selection committee’s eyes, we weren’t “supposed” to win against an FBS school, regardless of how bad Akron is. Unless we win the CAA to get the AB, the committee is going to have to look at our entire body of work, not just this one game anyways. I am sure it would be an added bonus to have had the win assuming we had a good CAA record and it helped give us an advantage for maybe seeding or something. But in the end, we need to show up in our CAA games and take care of our business with the games that really matter.
It was very difficult to watch our beloved Dukes dominate a team in just about every way….. AND LOSE!! Frustrating. We should have won that game easily. Will this year’s team be known for being an awesome team that specializes in snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
I, for one, do not believe that Akron is the best team we will see this year. We have a brutal conference schedule, playing four of the better CAA teams on the road (UD, W&M, UNH, Towson), and Richmond at Bridgeforth, where the Ticks always play well. This is a VERY good Dukes team. I am absolutely stoked to see this new offense. Way to go, Mr. O’Cain! We are READY for FBS! GO DUKES!!!!
The point of bringing up the “bottom 10” thing is simple:
Akron sucks. Like….bad. If we are going to spend even 5 nanoseconds talking about “moving up”, we should be beating Akron by multiple TD’s. Until that starts happening, we just need to put down the kool-aid.
Please don’t compare our loss to W&M, UR, Nova, etc. They were playing respectable teams. We were not. Period.
Georgia State is FBS now…maybe we shoudl go lose to them and pat ourselves on the back for all the good things we did in our loss.
#comeonman
We don’t know what Akron is yet and we WOULD easily beat Georgia State so it’s just not apples to apples either. Also, Nova lost to Fordham after they played so tough against BC, who you won’t convince me is any better than a bad MAC team anyways. For that matter, WVU and NCSU are both putrid this year too. Not saying it wouldn’t have been worse against those teams or that losing as JMU did to Akron is excusable, just that it’s all matchups and a given day. ’04 – I know you know that as well as anyone.
More importantly, winning or losing to Akron, or any of our other FBS games for that matter, has ZERO to do with being ready to move up. Infrastructure, facilities, fanbase potential, revenue potential, etc. are the things that matter. ODU was as ready as anyone from an on-field standpoint and look at what that’s gotten them so far this season. As ready as they were, they’re 0-2 after getting smoked by Maryland. That doesn’t have anything to do with how successful the move is going to be for them though. I’m still betting they’ll be making big noise in a year or two (assuming they continue properly funding a creative compliance department).