{"id":8066,"date":"2015-10-12T09:06:01","date_gmt":"2015-10-12T13:06:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=8066"},"modified":"2015-10-12T09:06:01","modified_gmt":"2015-10-12T13:06:01","slug":"the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-from-jmu-51-towson-30","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=8066","title":{"rendered":"The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly from JMU 51 &#8211; Towson 30"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cS8iN4_2o5E\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/>\nThe Dukes are 6-0. And as Coach Withers will inevitably say at his weekly press conference, &#8220;The best part about being 6-0, is the chance to go 7-0.&#8221; 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&#8217;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.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Good<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Vad Lee &#8211; 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?\u00a0It&#8217;s really sort of crazy how effective the Dukes offense is with Lee at the helm. He&#8217;s got weapons that virtually any quarterback at this level would kill for, but what he&#8217;s able to do with them in nothing short of amazing.<\/p>\n<p>Halftime Adjustments &#8211; 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&#8217;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&#8217;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&#8217;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\u00a0up 264 yards. Game. Set. Match.<\/p>\n<p>Domo Taylor &#8211; The receivers are sort of the unsung heroes of this year&#8217;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&#8217;s single out Taylor for catching 2 early TDs that got JMU out to a quick lead.<\/p>\n<p>Andrew Ankrah&#8217;s Shoestring Tackle &#8211; 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&#8217;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.<\/p>\n<p>Charles &#8220;King&#8221; Tutt &#8211; 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.<\/p>\n<p>Kyrie Hawkins &#8211; 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.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Bad<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Specials &#8211; 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&#8217;t kill them against a team like Towson, but it needs to improve.<\/p>\n<p>First Half Defense? &#8211; Look, it&#8217;s tough to complain about anything when the Dukes win by 3 scores. JMU&#8217;s defense was so strong in the second half, that the unit had a good game overall.\u00a0Additionally, it&#8217;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&#8217;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.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Ugly<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Chase Utley &#8211; Yeah, he had nothing to do with this game. JMU won in landslide on the road and scored 51 points. It&#8217;s not really fair to put anything in the ugly section. But I&#8217;m a long suffering Mets fan, and I still haven&#8217;t tired of ranting about Utley&#8217;s bush league slide. So screw that guy. He gets the ugly section all to himself this week.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/like.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fjmusportsblog.com%2F%3Fp%3D8066&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>The Dukes are 6-0. And as Coach Withers will inevitably say at his weekly press conference, &#8220;The best part about being 6-0, is the chance to go 7-0.&#8221; 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&#8217;s road [&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":11766,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=11766","url_meta":{"origin":8066,"position":0},"title":"2021 JMUSB Game Preview #11: JMU vs. Towson","date":"November 19, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, this is how it ends. JMU's final CAA Football Conference game takes place on Saturday against our old pals, the Towson (State) Tigers. It occurred to me that despite JMU sharing a league with Towson for two decades, I don't know a single thing about the school. After some\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;News&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/team-shot.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10637,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=10637","url_meta":{"origin":8066,"position":1},"title":"2018-19 JMUSB Game Preview #11: JMU @ Towson","date":"November 16, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"A big one is here! Just like we all thought, JMU's hugest game of the year would be at Towson on the season's final day. Or maybe none of us actually envisioned the enormity of this one in the preseason, but as the Dukes approach this weekend's game outside Baltimore,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;News&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/towson-300x204.gif?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8302,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=8302","url_meta":{"origin":8066,"position":2},"title":"Dukes Bounce Back With Win Over Towson","date":"January 10, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"After losing to Elon at home last Thursday night, Matt Brady and the Dukes righted the ship with a win over the Towson Tigers. In the loss against Elon, the Dukes were pretty listless. They shot poorly and let Elon sneak out of Harrisonburg with a relatively easy win. Against\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;JMU Basketball&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11226,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=11226","url_meta":{"origin":8066,"position":3},"title":"2019 JMUSB Game Preview #9: Towson at JMU","date":"October 24, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"The Basics Matchup: #16 Towson (4-3, 1-2 CAA) at #2 JMU Dukes (7-1, 4-0 CAA) Kickoff: 3:30 p.m., Bridgeforth Stadium, Harrisonburg, VA Weather: Cloudy, High 63, but should be dry. 30% chance of showers in the morning but really looking like a shot at getting this played in decent conditions\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;News&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7130,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=7130","url_meta":{"origin":8066,"position":4},"title":"Game Preview #7: Towson at JMU","date":"October 10, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Before we get into the game, how about a quick Old Guys Leave roundup of other stories of note involving our beloved JMU? First, Men's soccer upset\u00a0beat CAA frontrunner and nationally-ranked Delaware tonight! Along with our favorite Dukes' squad - field hockey, led by our favorite player Taylor West, as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;News&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/65103892-300x287.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1480,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=1480","url_meta":{"origin":8066,"position":5},"title":"The Dukes Take on Towson","date":"October 8, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"JMU has a road game at Towson this weekend. Mickey and the 3-1 Dukes will look to get back on track after a disappointing last second loss to Delaware at home. Towson played relatively well last weekend, but faded down the stretch and lost to 8th ranked UMass 27-14. Unfortunately\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;JMU Football&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8066"}],"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=8066"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8067,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8066\/revisions\/8067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}