Dukes Put It All Together!
Playing better than ever – and that’s really saying something.
JMU played its most complete game of the season yesterday in a 31-21 Homecoming victory over Villanova. They deserve full credit for showing up big-time in what amounted to a playoff elimination game. Best of all, we’re thrilled to know that the season lives on and if the Dukes can finally find a way to win a road game this week, things could still get very exciting the last few weeks!
On a personal note, we’re a bit beat up from a rough old-guy weekend so excuse us if this is a little shorter post than such a wonderful game deserves.
The Good
In a delightful twist, this section is chock full of items while The Bad and The Ugly struggle (a bit). First and foremost, the resilience shown by this team was outstanding. On a macro level, the Dukes bounced back from a disheartening game in Williamsburg last week and proved definitively the players haven’t quit on any their larger goals yet. In this game itself, the team also did an outstanding job overcoming what could have been a number of huge setbacks. They overcame two redzone penalties to score td’s on both drives and also got around a dropped big play a couple of times by coming right back with first downs. Need to carry that focused belief with them up to Durham this week.
The D just did an exceptional job shutting down John Robertson and Nova’s vaunted running game. They harassed him all day, sacked him a ton, and of course turned in the game-sealing play on pressure-forced pick 6.
Stephon Robertson. Good doesn’t say nearly enough. They should just rename the CAA Player of the Week award for him. PLEASE try to enjoy watching 27 while we still have the chance no matter the team’s results the rest of the way. He truly has become a Dukes legend and is playing on an entirely different level.
A balanced attack. THIS was offense we saw against Richmond and it was a pleasure to watch at times. It’s also possible we all really underestimated just how good W&M’s defense really is given the 17-0 shutout they threw against UNH yesterday.
Harrisonburg – The Valley was in full show-off mode this weekend and we were all thankful for some glorious fall weather to go with the always stunning backdrops after some really crummy weather for many of the other home games this season.
Kenny and the Massanutten crew! – Thanks gents! Great treat for HC and we’ll try and hold back some good stuff to exchange for another game soon. Generally, great to meet, or hang out with again, so many readers and friends yesterday (Swag, superfan, Mike, Tremonkey, etc.). We never dreamed how much doing this project would deepen our own alumni experiences, but we’re humbled and thrilled every time we get to meet other passionate Dukes.
The Bad
Student section. Late arriving is a bit understandable at Homecoming, but the continued halftime exodus is shameful. We don’t usually weigh in on this because it’s almost unfair to those students who do stay, and care, but hopefully a little winning streak might help.
The FG on 4th and a foot at the ten late second quarter tied at 14. In hindsight it worked out, but I nearly had to be restrained. Again, what has happened to our swagger on these calls. Go. For. It.
The Ugly
Mickey’s meltdown. The refs let him get away with the first one before justifiably and understandably hitting him with an utterly indefensible and inexcusable 15 yard penalty. Doesn’t take a genius to connect the consistent similar penalties from players to the example they’re following. Nothing else to say about this.
Next
At New Hampshire at 12:30 Saturday. For those who had viewing issues where Comcast “joined in progress” this weekend, you can rest assured this one’s on the national NBCSN broadcast for all to see. We’re working on setting up a little Falls Church viewing party ourselves, details to come.
Great gameplan and execution this week against Villanova. Even with the Villanova offense being allowed to hold the entire game the defense got constant pressure in the backfield. Keep it up guys. If the D-Line can continue that level of play, watch out.
Not sure where that offense was last weekend, but that is the balanced attack I expect to see on a weekly basis. The coaching staff finally scrapped the wide runs/stretch play (oline cannot block that play) and decided to pound the running game between the tackles and it was much more effective and opened up the passing game. Nice to see the return of some vertical passing.
Not to excuse MM’s 15 yarder but the officiating was atrocious for the home team. As mentioned above Villanova was allowed to hold at will all game.
The ugly – #71 called for two 15 yard chop-blocks. Come on start playing like a senior leader on the oline.
But all in all a very good game by all. Lets bring that same intensity on the road next week because as I see it JMU-NH next week is another playoff elimination game. Gotta have this one too!!!
Best game in a long time.
The Pick 6 was perfect!
MM is like a ranting spoiled brat teen ager!
Does he really need 2-3 assistants to keep him from spitting more on the refs?
That is great salesmanship!
I am surprised they did not eject him for their own safety!
maybe UNH and Stony Brook will calm him down until Towson gets ahold of him.
hambone
Anyone know if the game will be streamed online by NBCSports?
in fairness to number 71 he wasn’t called for typical chop blocks, he was called for blocking below the waist back towards the goal line which is a very hard penalty to get on a stretch play. I am convinced the umpire did not know how to call that correctly
Birdsong’s dumb personal foul led to Mickey’s equally dumb personal foul.
I have to admit I was wrong about this Dukes team. I thought they were consistently without chemistry. Come to find out they are only schizophrenic. Good Duke, bad Duke. The Nova game was a joy to watch. If we can turn that effort into consistent play then we have a shot at the post-season. I am still not sold on the “good,” consistent Dukes yet. The Jekyll/Hyde syndrome has been the consistency we Dukes fans have been used to. A win at New Hampshire would be awesome. Here’s hoping the Nova takedown was not an anomaly. GO DUKES!!
Addendum A…. Madizone was awesome from Hawaii! No interruptions, great reception and clarity.
Random Thoughts:
1. Birdsong’s personal foul was excellent. It was early in the game, so it didn’t matter. Nothing like your QB trucking a safety and then telling him about it to fire up the team. LOVE IT.
2. We dumped the stretch side-to-side crap and ran between the tackles. Not to say “I told you so”, but I told you so.
3. We called a balanced offense. Not to say “I told you so”, but I told you so.
4. I certain defensive back has been benched for a few weeks now, and our defense has been instantly better. Not to say “I told you so”, but I told you so.
5. Whoever called an end-around on the 2nd play of the game… “set up” (apparently?) by a DQS drop of an EASY pass….. should be fired.
I wanted to get everyone’s opinion on this:
Is it:
A) more impressive to beat an elite team, or
B) more UNimpressive to lose to a crap team
i.e. would you be more likely to say “He beat the 3 time defening national champion, so he sould keep his job”, or to say “He lost to Rhode Island, so fire him”
Thoughts?
2004 Duke – I would have to say it is more UNimpressive to lose to a crap team, especially if it happened on a somewhat regular basis. I think in our case, we can beat the Rhode Islands and UAlbanys, but seems like we can’t beat those quality opponents on a regular basis.
After saying that, we just need to win, at this point I am beginning to care less and less about MM keeping his job or losing it (even though I ultimately think he should lose it) and I am worrying more and more about just beating the next team. They have showed they can do it, they just need to keep winning.
Good question, and I’d also go with unimpressive to lose to a crap team but purely from a coaching perspective. I’d think coaches almost always have their player’s attention when they’re up against a great team, the real trick is keeping everyone focused the other weeks.
Not sure about the NBC streaming situation.
Appreciated Todd’s comments about MM and the connection to the team’s seemingly undisciplined play, at times. Over the last few years we seem to take a lot of penalties for unsportsmanlike like conduct and personal fouls. After watching MM lose it about 3 times on the sideline, maybe the team does take its cue from him. But as 2004 Duke pointed out, a. couple of the penalties did not really matter given when the were called. Overall a good game to watch and see the team bounce back. Thanks to Todd and Rob for being hospitable at the tailgate before the game. Good to know that the guys who give us this forum are nice guys in addition to providing us with good information.
On a separate sports note, saw yesterday’s exhibition b’ball game vs D2 Philadelphia U. and other than Seminov (sp) there does not appear to be alot of guys who can score. Lots of substitutions so it was not like a regular season game but this year might be a little bit of a struggle until Nation gets back on the team.
If you can believe, I ended up at the W&M game vs New Hampshire because we had a family get together for my brother who played there and I thought to myself, JMU should never complain about attendance especially student attendance they had nobody there, it was 70 degrees and perfect, and I’ll bet there wasn’t 2,000 people at the game TOTAL…that was a joke. the student section had maybe 100 and 40 more with their lousy band…and if we can’t beat New Hampshire even away the Coaches failed the team..what I’ve read about JMU’s game is Stephon Robertson was all over the field again. We really need to recognize him as the best player in our division he deserves the Jerry Rice award, Sounds like he had another great game…sorry I missed homecoming this year…
I meant to say Walter Payton award I see he has been added…
The team did put together a good game. The d-backs played the best game I have seen in sometime at JMU. The offense was more balanced so surprise MM we score some points in a game. As far as MM goes he just needs to go everything he does is embarrassing. He acts like a baby and then expects the players to play sportsman like. I agree we look a lot better running between tackles instead of outside and let 32 play more. I just hope we show up next week and not pull another road game flop.
Mickey has acted out and screamed on the sideline since 1999. I’d rather play for a passionate coach like him (which I did) than one who sits on his hands like Alex Wood (which I also played for). Trust me, Mickey’s style will fire you up and that’s why in his first year we turned the same team around from 3-8 to 8-3, won the A-10 for the first time and went to the playoffs (without a true starting QB because the senior 3 year starter was run off by Alex Wood).
Cory – thanks so much for your perpsective! I definitely don’t disagree with you on passion vs. apathy, but this one just seemed over the line.
Also – Greg is my close friend from high school and freshman roommate! Nice to see him get a little love on here!
more UNimpressive to lose to a crap team – that is just something that should happen very rarely and can really kill you for a post-season chance.
Here’s to hoping Dr Jekyl shows up again in NH. I have seen enough of Mr Hyde this year. Whoever made the game plan for the Villanova game kudos to you. That person should be left alone to run the offense. It also looks like now that DeAndre Smith and Raven Greene have gotten comfortable playing DB,they are up to the task. But the real key is for the DLINE to keep playing like beasts. Do that and it allows Stephon to roam free and make plays all over the field and makes the DBs not have to cover for 5+ seconds.
Keep running between the tackles and keep feeding the ball to Abdullah the Butcher – that young man runs with some passion.
Glad to finally see them take the chains off Birdsong and allow him to take off and make some plays with his feet. That is an essential element to this offense.
Cory – I agree with MM getting players fired up. However it is a double edge sword and sometimes has the opposite result. I think his tantrum had a negative effect as everyone on the offense is initially hyped after watching Birdsong truck a defender. Then they have to stand around for a couple minutes, wait for a play to come in, take a timeout, catch their breath, forget about what just happened. Really though, who cares, we scored that drive. Later in the game in probably his outburst probably did have bigger impact. I particularly remember last game at UNH there was a phantom flag thrown after one of MM outbursts.
2004 – Is it: B) more UNimpressive to lose to a crap team, especially since their is generally a decent upsets every weekend. I mean just this year there were 7/8 FCS teams that beat FBS and it seems like FCS always has top 10 teams going down. Said another way, I would much rather have the 5 or 6 CAA wins (which means more playoffs + conference titles) we should have had since beating Tech than that 1 win.
I hate my life, so many errors in my last post mostly annoyingly, “There.” I swear I have two degrees from JMU and I am smarter than that showing.
Todd, that is awesome about Greg. I really think he would have made our nice little 8-3, first round exit team into a possible contender for even bigger things. One of my friends that has been watching along with me since 1995 agrees that Greg was the best QB JMU had from when he joined until the Rascati era.