The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly from JMU 51 – Towson 30
The Dukes are 6-0. And as Coach Withers will inevitably say at his weekly press conference, “The best part about being 6-0, is the chance to go 7-0.” But before the Dukes get the chance to play Elon and keep the winning streak alive, we need to take a quick look back at Saturday’s road win over the Towson Tigers. The Dukes put up half a hundred again and managed to win by 3 touchdowns. Yet, the game was much closer than many of us expected in the first half. Thankfully, the Dukes made some adjustments at half time (more on that below) and stomped the Tigers after the break. 6-0 and on to Elon.
The Good
Vad Lee – Gracious, this guy is good. He calmly tossed another 5 TDs in the win. He connected on 22 of 29 attempts for 223 yards and chipped in 32 yards rushing. Do you realize how good a guy needs to be for fans to just sort of gloss over a day like that? It’s really sort of crazy how effective the Dukes offense is with Lee at the helm. He’s got weapons that virtually any quarterback at this level would kill for, but what he’s able to do with them in nothing short of amazing.
Halftime Adjustments – We tweeted this during the break on Saturday, but if there is one major difference between the Withers regime and the final years of the Matthews era, it’s the ability to make great halftime adjustments. JMU managed to rattle off a rather pedestrian (for them at least) 219 yards of offense in the opening half. Perhaps more concerning, they failed to slow down Towson’s offense. After a late Rashard Davis touchdown, JMU even let the Tigers march down the field and kick a FG to go into the half down only 7. Towson converted 60% of their third down attempts in the first half and was moving the ball. It wasn’t encouraging. And then halftime happened. The Dukes clamped down, started tackling better, and pretty much shut the door on the Tigers. Towson was able to grind out only 90 yards of offense in the second half. JMU on the other hand, turned things up to another level, and racked up 264 yards. Game. Set. Match.
Domo Taylor – The receivers are sort of the unsung heroes of this year’s team. Week in and week out, JMU puts up impressive numbers passing the ball. Yet, while Vad Lee gets some much deserved credit, I feel like we overlook how well his receivers are playing. The entire unit played well again Saturday, but let’s single out Taylor for catching 2 early TDs that got JMU out to a quick lead.
Andrew Ankrah’s Shoestring Tackle – Ankrah continues to get better every week, but he made on particularly play that really stood out on Saturday. In the closing seconds of the first half, Towson’s Connor Frazier was forced out of the pocket and scrambling down the field. Ankarah managed to grab hold of his leg and take him down. Had he not made the play, Frazier would have gotten the first down and maybe more. Instead, the Dukes held Towson to a field goal and went into the break with a 7 point lead.
Charles “King” Tutt – The freshman picked a heck of a time to score his first collegiate touchdown. Tutt took a kickoff 92 yards back to the house in the 3rd quarter. From that point, the route was pretty much on.
Kyrie Hawkins – 11 tackles, including 1.5 sacks. Heck of a game from the sophomore linebacker. The Dukes are going to need he and his teammates to consistently get pressure against the better teams on the schedule.
The Bad
Specials – Other than the kickoff return mentioned above, special teams play was pretty bad on Saturday. JMU let Towson execute a fake punt for a TD, had a punt blocked, missed a FG, and did a pretty poor job covering kicks in the first half. It didn’t kill them against a team like Towson, but it needs to improve.
First Half Defense? – Look, it’s tough to complain about anything when the Dukes win by 3 scores. JMU’s defense was so strong in the second half, that the unit had a good game overall. Additionally, it’s hard to underestimate how difficult it must be to play defense with virtually no rest, thanks to Vad Lee and the offense routinely putting together sub-2 minutes scoring drives. However, we’re going to nitpick and throw the first half defense in the bad section. Because Towson had a couple drives in the first half, where they just marched down the field too easily.
The Ugly
Chase Utley – Yeah, he had nothing to do with this game. JMU won in landslide on the road and scored 51 points. It’s not really fair to put anything in the ugly section. But I’m a long suffering Mets fan, and I still haven’t tired of ranting about Utley’s bush league slide. So screw that guy. He gets the ugly section all to himself this week.
I don’t believe I’ve truly ever wished any ballplayer harm other than Utley. Apologists love to call him throwback, old-school, gritty, whatever euphemism helps them justify his act to take the edge off their fanboy guilt. Truth has always been he’s just a dirty player, always has been. The fact that he’s probably going to be allowed to continue playing and making an impact on a 5 game playoff series while he appeals his suspension is an absurd loophole that needs to be closed during the next collective bargaining negotiations.
https://www.change.org/p/john-alger-amp-jmu-board-of-visitors-jmu-to-fbs?recruiter=400249332&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink
Sign the Petition! FBS or Bust
The Special Teams, particularly kickoff coverage needs to get cleaned up this week. This unit has been sloppy the last couple of weeks. If they cannot clean it up, just start letting Tyler Gray kick it out the back of the end-zone and give the other team the ball on the 25.
Another great showing by the offense. Defense played very well in the 2nd half but appeared to be late to the party in the 1st half.
On to Elon.
HA!!
@ShadyP
“If they cannot clean it up, just start letting Tyler Gray kick it out the back of the end-zone and give the other team the ball on the 25.”
This *1000.
Even with such a quick strike offense I was pleased to see JMU actually won time of possession in this game as well.
Have to agree the WR unit hasn’t gotten the recognition it deserves. They also, as a unit, block very well. I remember a play from a couple weeks ago where the WR threw they guy he was blocking into another defender. One block, 2 defenders…doesn’t get much better than that.
Happy Harvey Day Rob, LGM
-Rob
Apples to Oranges, I know, but it is still worth mentioning:
Georgia Tech has passed for 800 yards and run for 1624 (217 by the QB).
JMU has passed for 1763 and run for 1924 (669 by the QB).
Thank you Yellow Jackets/Ramblin’ Wreck!
In the NFL QBR system, VL2 just pitched a 136.9. And it was an OK week. Good lord.
Where do we think he stands in comparison to Rodney Landers so far?
I never thought I would ever see someone at JMU move the ball better than Rodney. At no point did I think we could ever not pick up a third and 3 or fourth and 2 with Landers at QB.
But Vad is a better overall QB. Hopefully it continues in the playoffs this year.
Hey fellas, I know this is a little off topic, but question for you guys…. Remember when we all got super excited about getting a RB transfer from Tennessee? What ever happened to Alden Hill?
I know some people may have thought that the targeting penalty and ejection were harsh, but they never did show a good replay. Fortunately I was able to slow it down from the live shot and I think it pretty clearly shows the defender launching upward towards the head. I still can’t believe both guys got up and that we made that catch. See what you think
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4fWXzl1VZE
(If you play with the sound on pardon my mom’s reaction haha)
Also…I was ready to throw something at the TV if the commentator did that weird/creepy/pedophile-ish whisper voice or whatever that was one more time.
I think the Vad vs. Landers comparison isn’t fair to Landers. He suffered under an offensive coordinator/head coach that thought “switching things up” meant running the read option with the RB on the left instead of the right. It relied on Landers’ ability to make defenders miss. This offense is much more dynamic. That being said, I don’t know which is better; it could be Vad, I’m just not sure I can do a true comparison given the disparity of offensive styles.