St. Francis Postgame (Debacle sort of avoided)
First things first. When is a win not a win? Never. The Dukes are 2-1 and avoided what would have been easily one of the worst losses in program history. The season remains in front of JMU. And thankfully we have two position groups that managed to find their way into The Good this week. Beyond that, let’s just say Rob threw up on his laptop watching the game last night and neither one of us is really able to muster our usual “glass if half-full of purple kool aid” outlook. Paraphrasing our good friends over at Mister Irrelevant, just choosing to even write a postgamer on this one is really the ultimate proof of our love for the Dukes (and/or our love of self-inflicted torture).
The Good
Thanks for saving our asses DQS!
Before we get to the laundry list of complaints, it is worth noting the incredible efforts of a very small group of Dukes players who collectively, and mostly alone, helped the Dukes avoid the bottomless pit of humiliation this season could have quickly become had they lost yesterday. The entire defensive line, plus RB/KR’s DaeQuan Scott and Dejor Simmons. That’s it, that’s the list. The D-Line had easily the best performance by that position group since the annihilation of Aaron Corps and the Richmond Ticks at BFS two years ago. Having Tyler Snow back must’ve helped a bit, but the entire group, and Sage Harold and Jordan Staunton in particular, were explosive and dominant all night. After the slow start from that group in the opener, this is two weeks of steady improvement. If the defensive backfield can stop having epic brain farts (and that’s a big if given what we’ve seen), this defense could still be really special. On the other side of the ball, the two running backs and kick returners, DaeQuan Scott and Dejor Simmons, did everything they could to take the inept passing attack out of the equation and rescue the Dukes in the second half. Before what turned out to be the game-winning drive, Rob texted me: “Bad, bad game. Starting to think JMU could really blow it.” I responded: “Nope, MM taking over playcalling here. Will take a while, but DQS will ice it.” Thankfully that’s exactly what happened as DQS rumbled nearly the entire drive, though I’m not convinced that’s a good thing at all for JMU’s long-term offensive development. Anyhow, thanks DQS, Dejor, and the DLine!
The Bad
Madizone. Look, we’re very thankful it exists. We’re even more thankful the JMU Alumni Association is sponsoring it so that it’s free for everyone. And we’re thankful it’s come a long way in the last few years. But for as great as it was last year, it’s struggling a tad this year and froze on many users during the second half yesterday. Any other week this would fall in The Ugly, but really maybe it was a good thing some people were saved from having to watch that. Yes, we all should’ve been at BFS, but hopefully they keep improving this invaluable product.
The Ugly
Everything else.
– The utter unpreparedness of the team falls squarely onto a coaching staff that seems to have dwelled on the ending to the Akron game like a bunch of lunatic fans and allowed their players to do the same. Sure looked like the team’s brain was still in Ohio and that’s on the staff.
– We try not to crush individual players, but let’s hope this was a real learning experience for the Ginga Ninja; no need to attempt hero plays against a lesser opponent, just play smart.
– The OLine’s penalty problem. Look, these guys may be a strength of the team when they get it together, but they’re spending entirely too much time complaining to the refs instead of NOT COMMITTING PENALTIES.
– And finally, the DB’s. Seriously, this defense has the bones of something great, but for the second week in a row, they gave up random HUGE plays that appear to have been entirely mental. First play of the game, overamped and overcommited and you get beat over the top and then later you give up on a play because you assume someone else has already made the tackle. Those are STFU’s two TD’s on a night the D looked dominant most of the rest of the way. But just like Akron, that’s enough to lose.
– WR’s get a pass this week due to massive injuries. Depth was a strength with this group, but it will be tested now.
Moving Forward
Let’s hope the team can move past this one faster than they did last week and get ready for (hopefully future conference-mate) Charlotte. As Rob said last night to the pitchfork-in-hand mob gathering outside the Plecker, a quick reminder that it’s week 3. We get as emotional as anyone during the games, but there’s a LOT of football left. Other than Towson, the rest of the CAA also appears to be working the kinks out (UR lost to something called Gardner-Webb, just sayin’). Keep the faith. Go Dukes!
I don’t believe Birdsong deserves a pass, but I do believe that his shoulder injury has changed our offense drastically for the worse. We lost a HUGE offensive weapon when we lost his ability to run, due to the injury. Had he been healthy the entire game at Akron, we would have won. Had he been healthy against STFU we would have won by 30. He was obviously forcing the pass a lot in some very tight coverage. I blame that on his injury and inability to run, whether that was his call or the Mick’s. Also, kudos to the STFU pass D. I don’t remember us playing a tighter coverage than against those guys. Of course a lot of their pass coverage was grabbing-the-jersey, riding-the-back tight, and they were called for some of it, but it made our passing game very ineffective. Combine that with Birdsong’s injury and our AWOL CBs, and we were lucky to win. Also, STFU deserves credit for playing a very good game. Any time you lose the turnover battle 4-0 and win, it’s a huge relief. I think the Dukes deserve many props for coming from behind and winning. It wasn’t so long ago it was impossible for us to do that for lack of offense. Also, DQ FOR PRESIDENT! I hope to see much more of Dejor Simmons. He is VERY good! I think the wildcat to DQ should be mothballed – penalty machine.
I will hold off on my usual reality check this week because I quit watching at halftime. It was that bad. It feels cheap to bash them when I gave up on them and they came back to win.
That being said… I did watch the first half. Our DB’s suck. The way we have played over the last 2 weeks, we will not beat any “real” CAA team this season. Albany and Stony Brook don’t count.
Unless something major changes, I’m seeing 4-7 with no playoffs.
I think Latney deserves a mention in the “Good” section, too. He provided some tough runs before getting injured.
Also, in regard to Madizone… I wonder if the technical difficulties being experienced thus far are result of an increase in traffic?
DQS did have a heck of a game. Hope to see a more diversified running attack as Simmons and Latney are for real. Hope Latney’s thigh is better soon. Not sure what to say about Birdsong. Just had a tough game. And totally agree on our DBs – need much improvement – very soon. Disappointed to see the student section so empty after the first half. Come on – no parties start that early at JMU. Did anyone notice the size of #79 for St. Francis? That dude was huge. They had a couple of other big’uns too.
Rushing No Gain Loss Net TD Lg Avg
————————————————-
Dae’Quan Scott 32 198 8 190 2 24 5.9
Dejor Simmons 3 25 0 25 0 18 8.3
Jauan Latney 3 23 0 23 0 15 7.7
On a positive note, the weather and tailgating were great and we won. Onto Charlotte.
Alright, we have one more shot at getting this JMU football machine firing on all cylinders before conference play begins. I would hope that everyone, players and coaches, are feeling the urgency in getting this right against the 49ers this weekend!
Not going to spend the effort of recapping all of the ugliness we all saw this past Saturday because all it would do at this point is get my BP up. We are sitting at 2-1 (should be at 3-0) but the “?” on this squad is looming larger every week.
Let’s start playing the football I know we are capable of! Let’s go Dukes!
Glad for the win but I was listening to MM’s post game program on the audio Madizone and he said that they were surprised that St. Francis decided to jam our receivers at the line and that JMU was not prepared for it and could not figure out what to do. I am not a big MM supporter but found that comment a little perplexing. No other team since MM has been here has ever jammed our receivers at the line? I just don’t see them being capable of making major adjustments during a game or being very good at strategy although they did adjust on Saturday and basically just stopped throwing the ball since it was not working. But I figure other teams will start doing what St. Francis did so we had better be prepared for it. Thanks for the work on the blog. I found it a few months ago and it lets me be involved with JMU athletics from here in Ohio.
@Mike- Really good point.
I would add that it was obviously the WR’s fault(s) for not adjusting to press coverage. It was the players who didn’t work enough on press coverage for the entire month of august and/or the past 2 weeks. I’m sure the coaching staff had nothing to do with it.
Steve Craig, no parties start that early at JMU? When was the last time you were at JMU? The parties start at 8am on game days.
MRD2012 – I am at the Convo lot tailgating at 8 a.m. at EVERY game and I stay until the end of the game. Not to mention I am 49 years old and drive 2 hours each way to make that happen.
When I was at JMU parties didn’t begin until 11 p.m.
Reading the last line of your blog…..can’t help but remembering that school…..Gardner Webb beat Akron two years ago in the season opener!
Reading the last line of your blog…..that something named Gardner Webb….defeated U of Akron two years ago in the season opener!
^so important he said it twice, haha
Sorry for double post….couldn’t confirm the first post was submitted.
i’m just messin with you 🙂