Dukes Self-Destruct (Again)
Really getting tired of running this pic.
JMU lost 17-7 in an incredibly disappointing, frustrating, ugly game at William & Mary yesterday. Pathetic is really the only word to describe nearly everything about this one. We really would rather not rehash much of this anger-inducing game and would love to get on to Homecoming but here’s the usual thoughts.
The Good
???
Most people hated them, but I actually thoroughly enjoyed the Griffins’ wonderfully incompetent and gloriously homerish announcing tandem. Hard to believe that’s the only thing I can come up with, but the truth is the truth.
Some might argue the defense was “alright” and created turnovers but that “alright” came against a second and third string QB and wasn’t there when it had to be.
The Bad
O-Line just refuses to play a clean game. We don’t call student-athletes out by name often, but let’s just say that the supposed leader of this group has gotten to the point that we were betting the over/under on his number of penalties yesterday with a group of fans before the game even started.
Daniel Brown – One catch unless I missed something. W&M’s defense is legit and I’m sure they were rolling a double-team to him even if we couldn’t see much on W&M’s poor-man’s version of MadiZone (and that’s a really poor man). How JMU couldn’t find a way to get him involved is pathetic.
3 turnovers by W&M in their own territory led to a whopping grand total of ZERO points for the Dukes.
Obviously the GinjaNinja’s dreadful overthrow for the INT late gets the headlines, but that’s just a bad throw. What’s annoying lately is his consistent lack of situational awareness on things like when to throw it away instead of taking a sack once he’s already out of the pocket, and confusion over where the first-down marker is. Obviuosly he can improve, but those kind of things can be coached. A lotta regressive Logan Thomas in this one right now, not that there’s any coaching connection between the two or anything.
Kicking game. Not sure if that was on Starke for the line-drive or the line for the blocking, but special teams errors are also reflective of sloppy coaching if you’re seeing a theme develop.
The Ugly
The utter lack of an identity continues to plague this team. It’s almost like once the Dukes get any kind of scant lead at any point in the game, we get only the really bad part of old Mickey and none of the good. It’s very confusing and is killing this team. The thing that scares us the most is that Mickey appears to have lost his nerve and/or is coaching like a guy on a really hot seat, always deflecting criticism to his players and failing to explain why he’s completely abandoned his old gunslinger mentality. If nothing else, the old Mickey didn’t give a shit about “the percentage play,” especially on 4th down decisions. We all painfully remember the results of taking this to its extreme in the playoff game in Boone, but it also earned JMU bonus points, stretched leads, continually put pressure on opponents, and maybe best of all instilled a sense of confidence and belief in the players on the field. Yesterday the Dukes, having already had a FG blocked, were faced with a 4th and a foot (and another 4th and 5 later) solidly in W&M territory down 10-7. Anyone who came to love JMU football between 04-09 knows that would have been a no-brainer no matter what the hell all of us armchair QB’s thought. This bullshit, fraidy-cat version of MM just orders another cutesy pooch punt by a field-goal kicker or Birdsong, inevitably ending up in the end zone and gaining a whole 14 yards of field position in the process while broadcasting the “we’re playing not to lose and I don’t believe in you” message to the players.
This team also plays great at home and/or with a lead, but is a shell of its potential on the road or when facing adversity. Might even invoke the “soft” moniker.
The Big Picture
Before this game, we thought that 8-4 would give JMU a great shot at the playoffs. Not anymore. Because they now will finish behind both UD and W&M even if they “tie” them by virtue of awful head-to-head losses, that really means 8-4 will be unlikely to get them any higher than 5th or 6th place in the CAA and leave them on the outside looking in no matter how much MM protests. That means only 9-3 will do it and that, in turn, means they have to run the table to make the playoffs and potentially save MM’s job. Obviously this is unlikely, but we’ll all be rootin’ next week against an equally desperate, three-loss Villanova team at Homecoming. And hey, cynics and the pitchfork crowd can celebrate even in defeat as one more almost certainly signals the end of the MM era.
Well you summed it up great. The only good thing I can say for you is that you watched on a crappy internet broadcast……I had the pleasure to watch it in person.
Let’s start with the best thing about the day.
1. The defense – they played really pretty decent bend don’t break style of play that we have all become very accustomed too. The only thing I did not like about the D, was that our CBs seemed really tentative and gave way too much cushion all game long, but that was probably how they were told to play it. There were no bad penalties and created 3 turnovers in the W&M redzone. The defense played plenty good to win and had a very solid day. Give the W&M oline credit when we did bring heat they picked it up and threw the same 10 yard out play everytime.
Defense Grade: A- (would have been A+ but gave up too many 3rd and long conversions – season long issue)
2. Offense – There was nothing good here; well there was one slimmer of light ‘Abdullah the Butcher’ ran like a man and slammed it up in there when given the chance.
– Birdsong — worst game i have seen a JMU QB play ever. He almost looked scared out there. He has regressed in a big way. Can someone on our coaching staff teach him to take a 3,5,7 step drop stick his back foot in the turf and rip the ball out of there on time. It is obvious the oline cannot block a wet paper bag so he cannot wait and let anything develop. (Grade – D)
– Running Game — Abdullah looked good, everything else about it SUCKED. (Grade – D)
– Passing Game — it actually looked ok when the ball was thrown on time but that did not happen nearly enough (Grade – D) This is no reflection upon the WRs since they did not have a role in this game.
– OLine —- AWFUL does not do this unit justice. And while you will not spell out his name —Josh Wells is the worst of the bunch. There is no way on God’s green Earth he can possibly be an NFL prospect. He can neither run nor pass block effectively. He can be counted on for at least 3 penalties each game typically at very in-opportune times. The offense actually had something going at the end of the half and he killed it (Grade – F)
– Coaching – not even sure where to start on this one (Grade: F-)
– It starts by botching the coin toss and having to kick to W&M to start both halves. I don’t care if you need to give the captain’s cheatsheats you only say two things on a coin toss — If you win the coin toss keep it simple and say ‘We want to ball’. If however you want to kick it say DEFER to the 2nd half and you will get it then. If however you happen to say We want to Kick – you are F’ed.
– Not sure what else JMU worked on in the bye week (did not appear to be much) but MM fell in love with the quick bubble screen to DQ. I think we threw it about 15 times in the first half and really seemed to be the only thing we wanted to do. Well Laycock is no idiot, he went in at half and shut that down in the 2nd half and there went our offensive game plan.
– Here are the athletes JMU has at WR (Daniel Brown, Q Hunter, R Davis, B Ravenal, Woodyard, Harvis, A. Rose). Two reason I want to point this out. We have all these guys which are all pretty good and on a critical 3rd down in the 2nd half we run a play for Andre Coble and it was clear he and Birdsong were not on the same sheet of music. Once again MM getting cute. Reason 2 – we threw count 1 ball deep when the game mattered and it was complete to Hunter — our crack offensive staff decided not to challenge them deep again.
– Special Teams Coaching – Arnone is a pretty good punter when we put him back there and let him punt normal style and it is clear is not comfortable with that freaking rugby punt….once again getting cute. Can we put that thing back in the barn. Back to Starke – if he cannot get it done, kick Sharples. Right now I have no confidence in Starke and judging by coaching decisions they don’t either (taking a delay of game with the wind so they can tricky punt with the wind and faking a fg right before the half). Speaking of that fake fg on a 40ish yard fg with 10 seconds left in the half on 4th and 15ish….how can that possibly work. Seems to me would have been better off throwing up a jumpball to the end zone if you don’t want to try the fg. That blocked fg was right in front of me and while it did not look great I gotta put that one of Starke, came out really low.
– MM has become so timid on 4th down it is crazy. I bet we punted 6 times in that game with the punter standing on the good side of the 50.
– This team/young men have ZERO confidence in the head coach. My guess is they have to be as confused as us about what the heck is going on with the Identity of this team. His message is stale/old and MM needs to go this year. If we do move up to FBS MM is not the guy to move forward with. It was a good ride for a while but 15 years is a lonngggg time at one school.
I would be surprised if JMU wins more than one of the remaining games.
The Professor says: ” If GINGER can’t score then send in Mary Ann”
i am one of the cynics but rest assured i am not celebrating. it absolutely sucks that this season is spiraling down the proverbial drain.
positive: 4.7 yd. average on 1st down (though it does drop to 3.3 when you take out the 40 yd. completion).
negative: negative yardage plays; while both teams had 11 (i ignored the 3 w&m kneeldowns), ours totaled -52 yds. and their totaled -34 yds. 6/11 were -3 yds or worse for us, while only 3/11 of theirs were -3 yds. or worse.
ugly: kicking game — no trust in the placekicker
coaching: little / no trust in the offensive line; would rather punt than shove it down the opposition’s throat. somewhere matt magerko and his line mates are very sad….
This is probably the most angry JMU sportsblog post I’ve read. You guys are human after all!
The only bright spot for me (other than tailgating) was having the pleasure of watching Stephon Robertson fly all over the field. Five tackles for a loss is an astounding number at any level of competition.
Can anyone explain to me how we ended up kicking off both in the first and third quarter? The wind explaination isn’t valid, because we were going into the wind in the 4th.
No the wind is not a valid excuse….no coach worth a crap gives a team an extra possession. JMU captains screwed up the coin toss decision. This happens in high school often but should not happen at this level.
I had someone question me from UR why the bleachers were empty for the UR game two weeks ago. They couldn’t believe the JMU fans weren’t supporting a good team ranked 15 or something. My answer (and this was before the WM game) was, “for the past 5 years, JMU is over-rated and fall apart down the stretch. It happens over and over. A #15 seed means nothing, and the fans know it.”
Then JMU crapped the bed. I hope, and I just hope, a creative coach will come in and save this.
I am glad others are seeing MM can’t coach. I really am beginning to think it was all players not MM that won that 2004 championship. The way we lose is ugly and the lack of coaching is seen by a blind man. MM needs to be a man and take responsibility. When we have leads he plays not to lose that is for losers and that is what happens. I agree the players are probably as confused as we the fans are. Thanks for your blog.
I was at the Alabama game so I can only go by what I’ve read in the paper and now on this blog. It sounds like even though my wife made the arriagements to go to Bama without realizing it was JMU at W&M and I live 20 minutes away and my Brother played for W&M so this is big in my family every year. I guess I missed a game, that would have frustrated the heck out of me. Kicking off both halfs?? playing against the already W&M students that think they are superior than us. I can’t believe that happened, what the —-? Damn can we get the coin toss right? How and the hell doesn’t the coach get involved and scream until the official understand he meant DEFER. I can only imagine how stupid that was. I wonder through the history of football how many times this is happen even in High School level. Why didn’t the officials say do you really mean you want to kick off both halfs???? EMBARRASSING I was captain, you only needed to know two phrases- We want the ball or We Defer to second half…If you can’t teach this??? Obviously there are some issues?
I did not hear MM’s post game comments, but if he tried to defend, in any way, why it was or is ever a good thing to give the opposing team the ball to start both halves then he should be fired immediately! Although not an acceptable circumstance the only acceptable answer to that question would be “We F*&^% up” !
I will no longer consume any of the purple kool-aide that MM is serving up. It is clear that Jim Laycock, Jack Cosgrove (thank god we don’t play Maine this year) or any of the other coaches in our league are overly concerned about our coaches or any of our athletes. While we may have plenty of ‘good’ athletes we lack the ‘game changing’ athletes. Robertson may be the one and only. If we have all of these great offensive weapons then why would we only be able to hang 7 pts on W&M! Several weeks ago, I heard MM say that Josh Wells was JMU’s #1 Pro prospect (uhm… more of that kool-aide – don’t drink it!). Being large does not qualify one as top Pro prospect. I would be curious to see a breakdown of penalties broken down by OL personnel this year. I would be surprised if Wells did not top that list.
Early in the year, back when I was admittedly gulping down the jungle juice, I did not see any way that we would NOT make the playoffs but now I see this as a distinct possibility.
I could deal with the we F’ed up the coin coin toss and call it the end of that discussion. But actually trying to defend it is like throwing gasoline on a fire OR is Mickey really that dumb or worse yet think the fan-base is that dumb that we will actually believe that.
Upon hearing that Jeff Bourne/Charlie King/Jon Alger should have jumped in their car and sped over to O’Neils to fire Mickey on the spot while still on the air. That kind of arrogance/idiocy proves to me he is no longer fit to lead the JMU Football team or the Harrisonburg Blue Streak football team for that matter. He needs a Pat Haden style firing as a wake-up call. I only hope the leadership at JMU (Bourne/King/Alger) one of them or collectively between them have their ‘balls drop’ and releive Mickey of his coaching duties. Let O’Cain finish out the year as head coach and move forward from there.
I actually agree with Shady.
I halfway expected MM to get the Lane Kiffin treatment, and Mike O’Cain be named interim coach.
Unfortunately, I already expected us to lose all the remaining games this season except for stony brook, so MM won’t “retire” until the end of the season.
…..unless we drop a deuce to Stony Brook. Then I would fire him before he even got off the field.
…and seriously, the captains should be fired. Find some capt. bookbag walk-on who has an IQ over 10 to walk out there and handle the coin toss. That is just embarassing.
not a conspiracy theorist by any stretch of the imagination — even though i was employed by the Army’s arm of the federal government for 25 years…. — but i find it interesting that there is no link to postgame audio or video on the jmusports.com home page or the game story in the football pages.
did the reporters lose their digital recorders or does w&m play “under the dome” thereby causing all electronic devices to malfunction? inquiring minds want to know.
i’ve not only taken away the capital “j” from jmu, but the regression of this team forces me to rename them “mc” from their glorious days of d-ii football as madison college.
Andy Reid with the Eagles was a horrible coach. Now he looks like a world killer. I wonder what Mickey will do with his next team?
I couldn’t care less what he does with his next team.
My guess is that he will convince everyone they have pro-bowl caliber athletes and then lay a 7-5 or 6-6 turd 5 out of every 6 years. Just a guess.
I am with you 2004Duke, I don’t care where MM lands or what he does going forward as long as it is not on the home sideline at BFS.
I appreciate what he has done but as I always say you don’t stay the same – you are either getting better or getting worse – and the JMU football program has been on a slow/steady backslide since 2008. Yeah you might get a few blips of hope during a backslide but the trend has been downward since 2008.
Might be my favorite blog entry from you guys. You really told it like it is and didn’t hold back. I like that.