{"id":10045,"date":"2017-12-09T08:07:18","date_gmt":"2017-12-09T13:07:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=10045"},"modified":"2017-12-09T08:15:07","modified_gmt":"2017-12-09T13:15:07","slug":"jmu-beats-weber-state-in-a-classic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=10045","title":{"rendered":"JMU Beats Weber State in a Classic"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote class=\"twitter-video\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Heck of a catch by Riley Stapleton <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/KHKLQ87HQC\">pic.twitter.com\/KHKLQ87HQC<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 FranchiseKF (@FranchiseKF) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FranchiseKF\/status\/939296258895859712?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 9, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\nWow. Really, just wow. It&#8217;s been a few hours now and I still have no idea what just happened. The Dukes defeated Weber State 31-28 in an contest that was almost too good to be true. Maybe my mind is playing tricks on me, but I swear JMU was dead and buried before scoring a TD and 2-pointer to tie, and closing things out with a career long 46 yard field goal at the gun to win. That can&#8217;t be though. Can it?<\/p>\n<p>Yes. It really happened. And before we do anything else, let&#8217;s pause and appreciate the sheer amazingness of what we witnessed. I mean, deep thoughts and elegant prose aren&#8217;t what you expect from JMUSB, but we&#8217;re at a complete loss here. That game was simply too good to even attempt to put it into words. Let&#8217;s just all agree that we witnessed a classic. A gift that keeps on giving. I swear if you ask me about that game 25 years from now, it&#8217;s going to put a smile on my face. I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;m alone.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s the Good, Bad, and Ugly from the miracle victory.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><strong>Good<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Weber State &#8211; Credit where credit is due. The Wildcats showed up, took every punch JMU threw out them, and threw some haymakers right back. Weber jumped out to an early lead, before JMU rallied to tie things up and eventually take the lead. But Weber wouldn&#8217;t go away, eventually figuring out how to make plays against the D. Sure that one will sting for a while, but the Wildcats were impressive.<\/p>\n<p>Marcus Mashall &#8211; He had 128 yards and two TDs (with a 3rd called back for holding) on the big stage. The numbers speak for themselves. He was patient, hit the holes, and then went vertical fast. His best game as a Duke.<\/p>\n<p>Riley Stapleton &#8211; Bonkers. Just a bonkers game from Stapleton. It wasn&#8217;t just the 189 yards receiving. It was the ridiculous catches he made to rack up those yards. Leaping grabs and one handed circus catches FTW!<\/p>\n<p>The Crowd &#8211; Playoff games are tricky. They come during a very busy time of year and lots of fans (like yours truly), just can&#8217;t make it work. As a result, you often get numbers that pale in comparison to those for regular season games. But man did Bridgeforth seem lit last night. From my perspective as a TV viewer, fans were on their feet and making noise all night. Tip of the hat to the fans and students who braved the cold and played the role of the 12th man.<\/p>\n<p>Ethan Ratke &#8211; He hit the biggest kick in Bridgeforth Stadium history.<\/p>\n<p>People Who Believe in the &#8220;Clutch Gene&#8221; &#8211; Fans of sabermetrics will tell you there&#8217;s no such thing as being clutch. They say that human beings can&#8217;t just dial up another level of performance on demand.\u00a0And maybe they&#8217;re right. I actually believe them. But there&#8217;s no other way to describe the last few minutes of the game, other than saying that the Dukes were clutch in all phases.<\/p>\n<p>Repeated Flip Passes to Alls &#8211; Can&#8217;t believe it kept working. But it did. Alls had 82 yards on three little flip passes that probably didn&#8217;t travel a combined 7 feet in the air.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bad<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Injuries &#8211; The Dukes lost both Jonathan Kloosterman and Jahee Jackson both got hurt and left the game. The line was great at times, but struggled at others. The injuries and contributed to the inconsistency.<\/p>\n<p>Penalties &#8211; Bad. Just bad. We never like to dwell on the negative after a big win, but there were some incredibly costly penalties throughout the game. The Dukes are lucky they overcame them.<\/p>\n<p>This Tweet<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Think WSU is scoring again? You\u2019re wrong<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 JMU Sports Blog (@JMUsportsblog) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JMUsportsblog\/status\/939324593424228352?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 9, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>Yeah, we jinxed it.<\/p>\n<p>Cantwell&#8217;s 36 Yard TD Pass for the Lead &#8211; Dagger. At least it seemed like one at the time. The JMU defense got beat badly on the play with the game seemingly on the line. Also, there&#8217;s no way we&#8217;d say this had JMU not rallied, but we absolutely loved the play call from Weber there. Cold blooded.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Ugly<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This Tweet<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">It\u2019s been real y\u2019all.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 JMU Sports Blog (@JMUsportsblog) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JMUsportsblog\/status\/939331329371537408?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 9, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>That was seconds after Weber State scored to go up 28-20. Not proud of it, but yeah, I thought it was over. It&#8217;s good to be wrong sometimes.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>h\/t to <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FranchiseKF\">@FranchisKF<\/a> for the Stapleton video.<\/em><\/p>\n<iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/like.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fjmusportsblog.com%2F%3Fp%3D10045&amp;layout=standard&amp;show_faces=true&amp;width=450&amp;action=like&amp;colorscheme=light&amp;height=80\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height:80px;\" allowTransparency=\"true\"><\/iframe>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Heck of a catch by Riley Stapleton pic.twitter.com\/KHKLQ87HQC \u2014 FranchiseKF (@FranchiseKF) December 9, 2017 Wow. Really, just wow. It&#8217;s been a few hours now and I still have no idea what just happened. The Dukes defeated Weber State 31-28 in an contest that was almost too good to be true. Maybe my mind is playing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10037,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=10037","url_meta":{"origin":10045,"position":0},"title":"Guest Post: Weber is a State?","date":"December 7, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Hart won last week's prediction contest. Here's a fun little piece to get y'all fired up a bit before Friday's game.\u00a0 Somehow I won last week\u2019s prediction contest and now I\u2019ve been tasked with writing a guest post as is tradition with the JMU Sports Blog. \u00a0It is my first\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;JMU Football&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Full-Nelson-Pale-Ale_6-Pack_Craft-Beer-Packaging_1-1024x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10032,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=10032","url_meta":{"origin":10045,"position":1},"title":"Prediction Contest: JMU vs. Weber State","date":"December 6, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"And we're back for another playoff game prediction contest. This time it's for a quarterfinal match-up with Weber State out of the Big Sky Conference. The forecast shows that Friday night should be cold, dark, and perfect. Weber State might be the best team JMU has faced all year. Can\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;JMU Football&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/bridgeforth-night-1024x498.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11692,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=11692","url_meta":{"origin":10045,"position":2},"title":"Dukes Pick Up Impressive Road Win at Weber State","date":"September 19, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"The JMU Dukes took their longest road trip ever, flying all the way out to Ogden, Utah. And boy was the trip worth it. JMU took down a very strong Weber State team defeating the Wildcats 37-24. It was a hard fought contest between two very tough teams. Weber put\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;News&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/BW-JMU-vs-WSU-010-1200x800-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12063,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=12063","url_meta":{"origin":10045,"position":3},"title":"JMU Football Season Preview: Weber State, The Burden of Favoritism, and the Two Games That Will Define the 2025 Season","date":"August 27, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Welcome to Week 1 of the 2025 college football season! James Madison football opens up Year 4 of its spectacular FBS era on Saturday.\u00a0 The Week 1 punching bag of the moment is former FCS playoff foil Weber State \u2013 more on the Wildcats in a minute or two. But\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;JMU Football&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/k6bpZciBftI\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11356,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=11356","url_meta":{"origin":10045,"position":4},"title":"Prediction Contest: JMU vs. Weber State","date":"December 18, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"The last time JMU and Weber State got together in the playoffs, it was an absolute classic. This year's match-up looks just as good on paper. And we want to know how you think it will play out. Leave a comment below with your prediction for Saturday's game. The person\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;JMU Football&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/EBDA3A3HIZC47KRU6XGVS22AUQ.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12069,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=12069","url_meta":{"origin":10045,"position":5},"title":"Weber St. at JMU Preview","date":"August 29, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The Basics Matchup: Weber St. Wildcats (0-0, Big Sky) at JMU Dukes (0-0, Sun Belt) Kickoff: 6 p.m., Bridgeforth Stadium, Rocktown Weather: Sunny, high 75, low 55. Are you kidding me?! Great anytime, outrageously good for Labor Day. Broadcast: ESPN+ Boys in the Desert: JMU -24.5 (also worth noting, attractive\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;News&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"QB Alonza Barnett looks to throw","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/image.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10045"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10045"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10045\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10052,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10045\/revisions\/10052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}