{"id":5870,"date":"2013-09-08T21:38:39","date_gmt":"2013-09-09T01:38:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=5870"},"modified":"2013-09-08T21:38:39","modified_gmt":"2013-09-09T01:38:39","slug":"akron-post-mortem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=5870","title":{"rendered":"Akron Post-Mortem"},"content":{"rendered":"

First of all, a huge thanks to all of you for making the open thread for the Akron game one of our most active ever! Amazing what a horse manure ending and treating timeouts more frivolously than Gilbert Arenas with a new contract will do to stir up the masses. Second, our sincere gratitude to the Field Hockey parents, supporters, coaches and players who made our trip to AU such a good time! \u00a0We’ll write that trip up tomorrow night so it’s not buried beneath 1300 venomous words about football.<\/p>\n

The “Issue”<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"turd\"<\/a>Everyone who cares about JMU football has been knashing over the final 20 seconds of last night’s game (and the whorish unsportsmanlike on DQS to start that fateful drive) for 24 hours now and the complete and utter bullshit inflicted on the Dukes by the MAC referees hasn’t changed one bit. It just doesn’t feel any better and we wish we didn’t have to mention it ever again, but we can’t very well step back and take the long view without addressing it so here goes. EFFORT – that’s all we ask. With the new college rule that you can’t spike the ball to kill the clock under :03, who knows if the Dukes pull it off, but the failings on the final play by the officiating crew were in four parts. No matter how much some of you blame Mickey and the coaches or rightfully point out it shouldn’t have come down to that, the fact remains the Dukes deserved better than that. \u00a0After the pass was completed, my first thought was “sweet, first down, clock stops, time to kill it.” \u00a0My next thought was “even if no first down PLENTY of time to stop it.” \u00a0It never even occured to me they wouldn’t spot it in time. \u00a0(Side note: The announcers were so bad they made Craig James look like a sane, decent, competent alternative and their complaints about the JMU WR not getting down were just flat-out wrong in my opinion – he was trying were it not for the nine Akron players holding him up). \u00a0So begins the comedy of errors.<\/p>\n

1) It was a nine-yard gain with a confusing spot based on the scrum. \u00a0Given all the reviews and measurements in this game, would it have been too much too ask for a measurement here. 2) The refs are allowed to blow the whistle for a momentary stoppage, and should have, once forward progess is stopped, which it clearly was when our guy was being dragged all the way back to Columbus. 3) Could’ve been an unsportsmanlike for the continuous hounding after the whistle was blown of our player. 4) But last, and most egregiously, it is absolutely without question that the officials have to at least make an ATTEMPT to spot the ball ready for play. \u00a0You have got to be ready if you’re half aware of what’s going on and quite simply, these MAC buffoons were either not ready or something worse. \u00a0All we ask for there is an effort to run the ball back to the spot and be ready. These assclowns made zero effort and that’s a) something I’ve never seen before in similar situations, and b) the most hauntingly frustrating thing about this game.<\/p>\n

The Good<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>This game only made us more bullish on this squad. 498 yards of offense on 90+ plays sounds like exactly what we’ve all been dying for. \u00a0Birdsong apparently wasn’t seriously hurt. \u00a0The receivers, particularly DeAndre Smith and Daniel Brown, made the type of plays that turn games and show just how much JMU can out-athlete many teams at our level. \u00a0In-game adjustment back to running inside in the second half was a little late, but it DID come, and if you’ve been suffering with us through the last few years, you know that’s progress. \u00a0And the week-to-week improvement, especially in the area of pressure on the QB, was incredibly encouraging. \u00a0The pace of the offense and the “check with the sidelines” seems to vary as the Dukes tire a bit, but it was better than Week 1 and we think patience is in order given that this was only game 2 for the new scheme.<\/p>\n

The Bad<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>The Dukes seemed to match up well at the skill positions, but they really struggled giving Birdsong time to throw at times. We believe fully in our O-Line’s prowess and see no reason (other than penalties) to get down on them or think they’ll be anything less than dominant back at the FCS level. \u00a0Akron may be a bad FBS team, but there speed and size up front on D really looked FBS to us and no reason to be overly disappointed.<\/p>\n

The penalties (non-personal foul variety). \u00a0Second week in a row. \u00a0Guess when you’re running this many plays and learning a new offense it’s going to happen, but it’s getting dangerously close to a trend already.<\/p>\n

The defensive backfield has some real growing up to do outside of Dean Marlowe. \u00a0Let’s hope this game against good competition serves as a great lesson.<\/p>\n

The Ugly<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>Mental mistakes. \u00a0All over the place. \u00a0First on the coaching staff: At some point all these personal fouls begin to reflect on the coaching. \u00a0The utter misuse of timeouts in both halves was a disgrace. Blowing their final timeout on what should have been a no-brainer decision to go for two after JMU scored to get within 35-33 was the coup de grace of blown timeouts. \u00a0But while we always try to avoid criticizing players, they were all over the place mentally in this one too. Personal fouls, giving up on a play where the Dukes were offsides and ends up costing a long TD. \u00a0Three loooong TD’s actually were really the difference in the game. \u00a0Play-by-play, series-by-series, you’ll never convince us JMU wasn’t the better team yesterday, but these hideous lapses just killed them.<\/p>\n

Overall<\/strong><\/p>\n

Come in off the ledge people. Take a deep breath and look at the big picture. Akron was bad last year, and last week, but they’re still FBS and there were certain players (the RB and a few in their front seven defensively) we just don’t see at the FCS level. \u00a0The Dukes outgained them and controlled the time of possession. \u00a0Despite horrible mental breakdowns, JMU was still in position to get another FBS win. Birdsong is the real deal. He hits timing patterns in tight spaces in a way we really haven’t seen since Justin Rascati (Landers is our favorite player ever, but he was different). \u00a0It changes everything having a real QB back there and he looks even better than last year. (please slide more). Even though it looked for a while yesterday like JMU would be the only team in the top 25 to not get a win over an FBS, those all fell through and the Dukes didn’t really lose ground to their (hopefully) contemporaries. \u00a0Richmond, New Hamphire, Montana St., and Central Arkansas all also saw their FCS\/FBS upset bids fall short (congrats to Maine though). Plus Villanova managed to be upset themselves by Fordham. Ugh, now that’s bad. \u00a0Just one week at a time people. In ’09 we beat Tech and didn’t do squat the rest of the way. In ’04 and ’08 we lost our FBS games (badly) and had the best years in school history. \u00a0Most important of all, as opposed to the last two years in which stagnation appeared inevitable early, unless you’re the type of fan who has a particular bone to pick with a particular coach or AD, we think this team showed improvement and a TON of room for more as the season progresses. Now pass me the purple kool aid and bring on the patsies the next couple of weeks!<\/p>\n