{"id":7239,"date":"2014-11-02T21:55:57","date_gmt":"2014-11-03T02:55:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=7239"},"modified":"2014-11-03T09:07:48","modified_gmt":"2014-11-03T14:07:48","slug":"dukes-down-tribe-move-to-6-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=7239","title":{"rendered":"Dukes Down Tribe, Move to 6-3"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"One<\/a>

One last time till next year.<\/p><\/div>\n

Huge, huge win yesterday. The Dukes 4th quarter comeback to beat William & Mary 31-24 was easily the biggest win of the young Withers era and this season in particular. No caveats needed. Even with one enormous break thanks to the Tribe acting dumb, there’s no way to call this anything but a good win over a good team – exactly the kind of win that JMU has struggled to come by the last few years. Need 2 out of 3 the rest of the way to get to 8-4 and we’d all feel even better if the Dukes could take them all including winning at Bridgeforth East in two weeks against the Ticks.<\/p>\n

You can read the official JMU story for stats and gamers here<\/a>, but we’re a bit beat up after a long, cold, rainy weekend back on campus so we’re keeping our Good\/Bad\/Ugly brief tonight. Looking forward to seeing the new rankings tomorrow and seeing how everyone’s feeling about our postseason chances this week when we get our own poll up Tuesday or Wednesday.<\/p>\n

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

The helmets! Look, we know we should focus on the actual play, but those purple lids were perfect. Just perfect – no other adjectives or qualifiers needed. Purple helmets forever.<\/p>\n

Halftime adjustments – in case you haven’t noticed, this has become a big-time theme this season and we’ve got to give the new staff a ton of credit. JMU’s offense was a trainwreck in a six-point first half, but as has been the case all year, they found their rhythm after the half and really started humming down the stretch. It’s also great to see in person the last two weeks how invested the entire team seems in the game and how much you can see their own belief growing week by week.<\/p>\n

Sage Harold – really starting to look dominant and clearly providing the emotional spark for the whole D.<\/p>\n

Vad Lee is now only one TD pass short of the record the GingaNinja set just last year for most in a season. Something to keep an eye on this week out on Long Island.<\/p>\n

Daniel Brown – it really is amazing how when the Dukes get him involved, everything else tends to improve.<\/p>\n

Non-football note: Field Hockey winning a tough roadie at Hoftsra to punch their ticket to the CAA Tournament. Long-time readers know they’re our favorite program. Even though we lost our insider status with the coaching change, we’re thrilled for the women for getting the program headed in the right direction!<\/p>\n

Fourth Quarter fans. We’re just not in a complaining mood about the very light attendance yesterday and the weather did no one any favors. But those that stuck it out were the real fans and honestly the stadium was louder late with less people than I’ve heard it full any other time this season. Good work people. (And remember, you’ll be needed again for the Elon game since the students will mostly be long-gone already for Thanksgiving Break.<\/p>\n

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

Slow starts, bad penalties, Richmond beating Villanova.<\/p>\n

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

CAA refs – ’nuff said.<\/p>\n

Calling a pass and then throwing a pass when you’re down 1 with a confident kicker that’s made three already and is very much in Field Goal range. Did you not watch the Ole Miss game last week?!<\/p>\n

Also, for the record I’m not putting the decision to kick the extra point on JMU’s penultimate TD on here. I was terrified when they made the decision but I did understand it. There was 8:49 on the clock and Withers was betting on his offense to score again (correctly) while insuring that even if W&M scored another TD in the worst case, the Dukes would still get the ball back down 8. Seemed late to most of us in the moment, but I think they just didn’t think it was late enough to chase points.<\/p>\n