Dukes Pick Up Another Road Victory Over Stony Brook, 27-24
Wow! Five in a row for the Dukes and the swagger is back after another huge 2nd half comeback propelled the Dukes to their fourth road victory of the year at Stony Brook on Saturday. And now…. It’s Tick Week and the main reason we want to get this gamer out of the way is so we can move on to all that week means to JMU fans! (Hint: Satchmo the old guy with the YouTube channel is back this year and they try to throw their own streamers now). Seriously, just get you tickets to Richmond’s cute little high school stadium, better known as Bridgeforth East, now if you’re in the vicinity and rest assured that this one’s on NBCSN if you’re not.
The Good
In full control now!
Halftime adjustments – As we’ve been saying all year, one place this coaching staff seems to show why a change was warranted is in their in-game adjustments. JMU has trailed at the half five times (non-Maryland division) by our count this year and is now 4-1 in those games. I’d say that speaks for itself.
Vad Lee – Was simply magical in this game. Stony Brook’s defense was every bit as good as their #1 FCS ranking said and one guy made them look ordinary. Lee has now broken broth Birdsong’s passing TD’s record and Rodney Landers’ all-around yardage record. Yeah, the offense has a ton to do with it, but he’s still got two games left in just the regular season! His ability to keep plays alive and make something out of nothing were the difference in this game and he was so clearly the best player on the field that all doubts have been erased all remaining doubts. Seriously, the 3rd and 29 scramble and the ridiculous Romo/Vick combo scramble to pick up the first down on the game-winning drive were 100% reminiscent of Landers’ finest work.
Maglio and the special teams – Missed a kick he probably shouldn’t have been asked to attempt, but made two big kicks that kept the Dukes in the game in the first half. And the rest of the special teams at least didn’t commit any major botches after last week’s punt block misadventures against the Tribe.
Second half Defense – pitched a shutout in the second half to give JMU’s offense the chance to comeback and win it. While somewhat counter-intuitive, coaches will tell you they all start with defense and this was no exception. This second half performance was complete with an epic four-down goal line stand that ended with Simeyon Robinson destroying an ill-advised fake FG attempt and a game-clinching sack/fumble on Stony Brook’s last drive when trailing by three and nearly in FG range. Just huge.
One-bid SoCon is locked up. One-bid Patriot is locked up. Both good news for at-large playoff candidates.
The Bad
Not much in this section. This game was mostly good or ugly with little in between, but the fourth down/gadget play decisions require revisiting. If you’ve been reading a while, you know I’m the “go-for-it” guy. Mathematically, it’s almost always the right thing to do and it frustrates me no end when coaches clam up. So it goes without saying that I was fine with both decisions in the first half. First the Dukes went for it on 4th and very long from Stony Brook’s 30. This was an odd one, but there was really no right/wrong answer as a FG was really dicey and a punt would likely gain you only 10 yards of field position. The second was an attempted onside kick. Again, though some hate it I was fine with it. The Dukes had fallen behind by multiple scores and were trying to regain momentum. It also appeared it absolutely would’ve worked were it not for a horribly executed kick that barely went five yards. We’re usually not critical of individual players aside from QB’s but with Maglio doing the placekicking, Arnone really only has one job. Get on it. (While we’re at it, you all know we have huge crushes on Jimmy ‘effin Moreland for his huge plays and ballskills, but man could he use some tackling drills). Then in the second half JMU had two chances to go for it on fourth down in the maroon zone and chose instead to punt once and to ask Maglio to make a really long kick the other which didn’t work. Thankfully none of these decisions came back to haunt the Dukes, but our complaint is more with mixed messaging. Whether you’re aggressive or conservative on these might not matter, but some consistency in decision-making would seem in order. (Aggressive please!)
The Ugly
First half defense. It was ugly and awful and atrocious and pathetic. Terrible tackling we thought was behind us and even more disturbing, for the first time all year it seemed the emotion wasn’t there. Maybe the coaches should start giving the halftime speech in pregame?
Stony Brook’s streaming video production. Look, it was free so there’s that. But it is not at all an exaggeration to say that most middle-school morning announcement newscasts are approximately 38 times higher in quality than what we saw from Stony Brook. I might’ve even been tempted to get more effusive in my praise of Vad Lee above if only I had seen half of the runs and passes he was involved in. That said, the stream never cut out on us which is more than we can say for JMU’s switch to ratchet Stretch Internet this year. (Again, the good news is the Tick game is on NBCSN).
Sweater vests. It’s Poormond Week! Let’s Go Dukes!
Another gem by Vad Lee — glad we got him…..who was that red-headed guy that played QB last year, I can’t remember.
Once again great job with halftime adjustments by the coaching staff.
I am with you on Arnone — you have one job now kickoffs — keep them inbounds and make sure onsides kicks get 10 yards.
With regards to the decision to let Maglio try the long kick — I have no issue with that…..Maglio was kicking the ball well on the day and has the confidence of the coaching staff. He has the leg to get it there.
Also….these last 2 wins are games JMU would not have had a chance of winning with the old coaching staff. Maybe everyone will start trusting EW. This team does not quit and point fingers which is the big culture change that I see.
This game had all the earmarks of a trap game: Big win the previous week, a team with a losing record and a big game coming next week. Glad the guys pulled out the win even if the intensity wasn’t always there. This was a very loseable game.
I have traditionally been a fan of Mickey, but I’m not sure he wins this game. Still not convinced of EW…a topic I won’t go into here, but he got it done here.
Now lets hope we can put an end to a losing streak at Richmond. I’ll be there (I hate that stadium as I’m usually half blind by the end of the game); but I’ll be there and I’ll be wearing purple.
Pass Pro was exceptional in the second half after they figured out SB’s exotic blitzing concepts
Hats off to the coaches for their half time adjustments
Does Lee have a chance of being CAA offensive player of the year? I’m not sure how other offensive players match up stat wise, but The Breeze mentioned he was 1st in passing yards per game and 1st in all-purpose yards.
I think the CAA has pretty much already given the POY award to Jon Robertson.
I think Richmond’s loss changes things. I now think we need to win out to get a spot in the playoffs. Unfortunately, early impressions of this team (from the beginning of the season), is hurting.
The committee would be hard pressed to keep a 9-3 CAA team with wins against 3 top 25 teams. Also, one loss against a better than expected FBS team and a top FCS team.
The Dukes are in the top 25 in the Sports Network poll, but are getting no love from the Coaches.
Go Dukes! Time to win out.
Sorry. Left a word out. The committee would be hard pressed to keep OUT a 9-3 CAA team with wins against 3 top 25 teams.
How does Coastal get a #1 ranking? They haven’t played anybody.
Their conference is soft and 2-8 Furman took them to 2 O.T.’s.
One could argue that Coastal is the only undefeated team….but how does William and Mary end up ranked ahead of the Dukes????
They only have one win against a team with a winning record (Delaware 6-4). All of the rest of their wins are against weak teams with losing records. They have a worse conference record and a worse overall record than the Dukes.
Hopefully, the committee will take their job more seriously than the people voting in these polls.
Oh…then there is the fact that JMU beat W&M.
We’re not confident the committee will necessarily get it right, but we are confident the polls aren’t reflective of the committee. The AGS poll is by FAR the best in terms of its reflection of reality and it’s predictive ability in recent years for the playoffs. In that poll the Dukes are 19th. Also, don’t forget there are a number of teams ahead of the Dukes in all polls that either do NOT participate at all (Harvard) in the playoffs or are unlikely to even reach seven D1 wins (Montana).
Chris Lang, the Liberty blogger guy, also does a fantastic job projecting the playoff field if you want to check his stuff out.
At this point the only thing that has the potential to outrage us is the prospect of a 3-bid MEAC w/ SCSU, NCAT, and BCU. Need one of those three to take a bad loss the next two weeks.