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If I walked the field after the game on Friday night, I would not have been shocked to see small piles of rubble, maybe a small hand crafted pickaxe, and a lingering smell of raw sewage. Why? Because what we saw from the Cards that night was nothing short of a full
blown Shawshank prison escape, to not only win the game, but to create enough separation late that not even the best bloodhound could find them when the sun came up on Saturday. Honestly, I’m still a bit perplexed at the play calling, and the comments from Coach Brohm after the game about being surprised with their aggressiveness. I think most fans could have predicted back in June a James Madison team coming in hungry to make a name for themselves and gain some national attention as the Group of Five representative in the CFP. While I never saw “the kitchen sink” JMU certainly wasn’t shy about bringing everything else, and it seemed like the offense never adjusted. If they are bringing the heat, quick hitters have to be on the Waffle House play sheet, and when Miller found the tightend on the shallow cross, or Isaac in the flats on a bubble, good things happened. The touchdown pass to Bell was pretty, the run afterward was breathtaking. The Cards offense underperformed, but what an incredible effort from a defensive unit that has had question marks and doubts painted all over their side of the ball the entire offseason. A great response from that group to not just support but lead the Cards to victory in the second week. 2-0 looks good on us.
OFFENSE In all fairness, I’ve not rewatched the entire game, but from what I saw in the condensed version, I owe an apology to the players for some of the internal fury I had for their overall lack of production. Play after play after play, JMU had six, seven, sometimes even eight guys making their way at full speed into the Cards backfield. Isaac Brown can’t do anything when he’s got two guys coming at this chest plate untouched. Miller Moss can’t do much when he has less than a few seconds to find a receiver and make a clean throw. The staff, and more importantly, the play caller, had to adjust, and it seemed like it didn’t happen. Three runs in a row when they needed to spread the field, three passes in a row when running the clock was key. I’m not one to question the offensive mind of Jeff Brohm, but he’s not above scrutiny, and was even critical of himself after the game for not planning accordingly. The tradeoff of an aggressive defense is that playmakers can crush them with one play. We saw that twice, once with Bell making a grab and dash and then Isaac doing his best track meet impression. If the Cards had hit one of those early maybe the game plan shifts, but they didn’t and were seemingly banging their head against the wall all night. After playing an FCS opponent and a G5 team this offense should not be bottom dwellers in the ACC, but here we are.
DEFENSE While the room will never fall completely silent (see; 10 men on the field, and a couple rough penalties) the haters are settling in at a low whisper this week. I don’t think it’s disrespectful to acknowledge the JMU passing game was…rough…to watch, the run game from a threat like Pettaway and Sluka at the QB position was not a joke, with either being able to bust loose at any given time, but they never did. The Cards forced JMU to lean on the ground game because when they dropped back to pass bad things happened. The stats show three pass breakups, two QB hurries, a forced fumble in the pocket, and an interception. That’s a laundry list of bad things when the Dukes went to the air, and sans one drive to open the third, they never got into a rhythm all game. The interception from Mack late was nice, clogging the run from the big boys down front was great, but look no further than Clev Lubin as to a why JMU was spitting out grass and expletives at the end of each drive. The transfer grabbed another couple sacks, had ten tackles, and just so happened to force a fumble in the endzone which resulted in a “strip six” to finally put the Cards in the lead for the first time all night. Lubin has been every bit as advertised thus far, and with what appears to be a long term injury to Stanquan, that pressure will be key moving forward. Defense (tips hat), well done.
SPECIAL TEAMS Let’s talk for a minute. Nobody at the water cooler all summer wants to discuss special teams, but err’body is gonna be an expert when eventually these mistakes end up costing the Cards a game. Two games in a row now we’ve had a failed extra point attempt, with this weeks looking like poor execution on the holder, as the ball bounced off his hands into the hands of the kicker Ranvier. We got to clean this up, quick. The return game was minimized by JMU, but their desire to remove Lacy resulted in good field position most of the time. For all the frustration with extra points, none of it has been on the foot of Ranvier, and he nailed two field goals this week to put him at 3-3 on the year. The Birds may have found themselves a kicker in the redshirt Freshman.
