{"id":9065,"date":"2016-11-13T20:50:26","date_gmt":"2016-11-14T01:50:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=9065"},"modified":"2016-11-13T21:10:05","modified_gmt":"2016-11-14T02:10:05","slug":"the-good-bad-and-ugly-from-jmu-over-villanova","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=9065","title":{"rendered":"The Good, Bad, and Ugly from JMU Over Villanova"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/mdgdVsrMIAs\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nThe JMU Dukes went on the road and defeated a tough Villanova Wildcats squad 20-7 yesterday. The win moved JMU to 9-1 overall and a perfect 7-0 in the CAA. The Wildcats dropped to 7-3, 5-2. It was a hard fought victory, not only because Nova&#8217;s defense made JMU earn every yard, but because the Dukes lost QB Bryan Schor to injury in the second quarter. Coach Houston pulled the redshirt off of true freshman QB Cole Johnson, who came in relief. It was a less than ideal spot for the young player, but the entire team stepped up and made enough plays to secure the win. A win that clinched the 2016 CAA Championship for JMU.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s the good, bad, and ugly from the win.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Good<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Defense &#8211; Yes, the much maligned JMU Defense is the first up in the &#8220;Good&#8221; section this week. It&#8217;s hard to understate just how great a game the defense had. And it couldn&#8217;t have come at a better time. With Bryan Schor out, points were at a premium for the Dukes. The defense put the clamps down on the Wildcats and shut them out in the second half. The Dukes picked Nova QB Zach\u00a0Bednarczyk 4 times and limited him to 71 yards passing. They also came up with a couple of huge 4th down stops inside their own 25. It was a spectacular effort all around.<\/p>\n<p>Bryan Schor &#8211; He had limited impact, due to the fact that he left with what appeared to be a broken collarbone in the 2nd quarter. Up until that point however, he completed 10 of 11 passes for 108 yards and led the Dukes on a TD drive. All that was on the road against the CAA&#8217;s top statistical defense. Not to pour salt in the wounds, but it was more evidence of the elite level Schor has played at all year.<\/p>\n<p>Rashard Davis&#8217;s Hit &#8211; Man, that was one heck of a play. Davis was back to return a punt when Nova decided to go for the fake. He recognized what was going on and came flying out of nowhere to absolutely crush the poor Nova kid trying to catch a pass, dislodging the ball, and saving JMU from trouble. Just a great, great combination of smarts and pure physicality.<\/p>\n<p>Tyler Gray&#8217;s second half &#8211; Gray had a very rough first 30 minutes, missing 2 field goals in a 7-7 contest. With Schor out, those misses gave away 6 critical points. They were enough to crush a lot of players&#8217; confidence. Gray bounced back in a big way hitting both his attempts and an XP after the break. Maybe I&#8217;m a softie, but I was pretty impressed and very proud of the kid.<\/p>\n<p>Grinding &#8211; Everything was set up to go against JMU yesterday. The Dukes were playing on the road, against a top 10 team in the home finale for its legendary coach. And then their star QB went down and a true freshman was thrown into action. Yet, they won. Sure, it wasn&#8217;t the typical high scoring excitement. It was the exact opposite really. Khalid Abdullah and the offensive line had to scrape and claw for every single yard on the ground. But it was the first time all season that JMU has had to win a game by doing something other than lighting up the scoreboard. Not very pretty, but extremely satisfying.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Bad<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>277 &#8211; That&#8217;s the number of yards of total offense JMU had. That&#8217;s so far below the Dukes typical output that it&#8217;s almost hard to comprehend. Although, it might be more a case of Nova&#8217;s defense deserving a spot in the &#8220;Good&#8221; section above. Once Schor went out, Nova keyed in on the run and basically dared JMU to pass. Had Schor not gotten hurt, things would have been far different and it&#8217;s definitely nitpicking to even mention the offense here given his absence. It&#8217;s a completely different unit without him though. Cole Johnson has a tremendous amount of talent, so we expect the coaches to make adjustments going forward to simplify things for him next week. Yesterday showed that it&#8217;s just not the same with Bryan out.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Ugly<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Schor&#8217;s Injury &#8211; Did anyone even read the preceding paragraphs or did everyone jump straight down here to see if we had updates on Bryan&#8217;s status? Schor going down is so big that it&#8217;s practically all most fans can think about. Yes, it was a tremendous win and clinching the CAA Title is great. Schor going down was the story though. And it&#8217;s not a story that any JMU fan likes.<\/p>\n<p>There still hasn&#8217;t been any official report from JMU on the injury. He was in a sling after returning from the locker room. We&#8217;ve heard many unofficial reports, each with varying levels of detail, and each with differing recovery times. Rumor has it that he broke his collarbone. We&#8217;ll see. The team got a great win yesterday against a tough Nova squad. Cole Johnson looked every bit like the true freshman he is however. He&#8217;s got the talent to develop into a great JMU QB. He&#8217;s not there yet though and the offense just isn&#8217;t the same with him under center. The coaches will adjust and change things up to account for his lack of experience. A home game against a bad Elon team could be just what he needs to gain some confidence. There&#8217;s no doubt however, that the team&#8217;s championship aspirations take a huge hit if Schor is done for the year. Don&#8217;t put the season on ice just yet though. There doesn&#8217;t seem to be much quit in this JMU team.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/like.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fjmusportsblog.com%2F%3Fp%3D9065&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 JMU Dukes went on the road and defeated a tough Villanova Wildcats squad 20-7 yesterday. The win moved JMU to 9-1 overall and a perfect 7-0 in the CAA. The Wildcats dropped to 7-3, 5-2. It was a hard fought victory, not only because Nova&#8217;s defense made JMU earn every yard, but because the [&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":10525,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=10525","url_meta":{"origin":9065,"position":0},"title":"2018-19 JMUSB Game Preview #7: JMU at Villanova","date":"October 11, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"The JMU Dukes will take a quick trip up to PA this weekend to take on the Villanova Wildcats in battle of long time CAA rivals. The game will be played in the lovely confines of Villanova Stadium. Expect the tens of Wildcat fans there to be mildly interested in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;JMU Football&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/102817_UNH_27-1024x570.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6154,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=6154","url_meta":{"origin":9065,"position":1},"title":"JMU Dukes vs. Villanova Wildcats Preview","date":"October 31, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"JMU welcomes its old friend Villanova to Bridgeforth Stadium on Saturday. It's a Homecoming showdown for two teams fighting to keep their playoff dreams alive. A win would get the Dukes to 6-3 and provide some much needed momentum to carry into a brutal closing stretch. A loss for the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;JMU Football&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11716,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=11716","url_meta":{"origin":9065,"position":2},"title":"JMUSB 2021 Preview: Villanova at JMU","date":"October 9, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"2019 JMU Football-Morgan State The Dukes come home to finish their trio of matchups against Wildcats (Weber, UNH, Nova). With injuries to QB1 at Delaware and Richmond, this is shaping up to be the toughest game of the year and Villanova is not to be overlooked in any way. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;News&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/091419_Morgan_State_1589.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8194,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=8194","url_meta":{"origin":9065,"position":3},"title":"JMUSB Game #11 Preview: JMU vs. Villanova","date":"November 20, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The Dukes close out the 2015 regular season on Saturday with a home game against their old friends the Villanova Wildcats. Prior to the season beginning, most fans thought this one would likely decide the CAA crown and maybe even clinch the Payton Award for one of the QBs. But\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;JMU Football&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"CUDkpMqUwAA7GY0","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/CUDkpMqUwAA7GY0-768x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11184,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=11184","url_meta":{"origin":9065,"position":4},"title":"JMUSB Game Preview #7: JMU vs. Villanova","date":"October 11, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"I never really had a dream school when I was applying to college. The closest thing to a dream school for me though, was Villanova University. In my senior year of high school, I pretty much treated as fact that I'd be a Wildcat. I'm not really sure why, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;News&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Still0909_000017.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7844,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=7844","url_meta":{"origin":9065,"position":5},"title":"JMU Picked to Finish Second at CAA Football Media Day","date":"July 29, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=gwmGcIP3BAc Another CAA Football Media Day has come and gone. Today's event took place at M&T Bank Stadium in lovely Baltimore, Maryland and it unofficially kicked off the 2015 CAA Football season. Or preseason. In any case, it's finally time to start talking football. The highlight of the event is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;JMU Football&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/gwmGcIP3BAc\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9065"}],"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=9065"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9077,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9065\/revisions\/9077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}