JMU @ UNH Game Thread

[RootinFerDukes]

I wanted to start a new thread for our game discussion instead of us talking about it in the CAA predictions thread.

My response to a UNH poster.

WM's offensive productivity came on the back of Anderson, who had a great game and we couldn't stop him for some reason. He's talented.
WM scored 17 points during meaningful time and we allowed a cheap trash time TD with 3 seconds remaining because our defensive players weren't mentally on the field after the game was all but won. I hate to see them do that and I shouldn't be explaining it away but I just wanted to point it out for what it's worth. The one INT Schor threw was poor judgement by him but it was also an unlucky deflection that a WM defender just happened to come down with in a fluky fashion.

We would really have to struggle offensively and turn the ball over (which we are +7 in TOs this season) in order to lose.

[WrenFGun]

I wanted to start a new thread for our game discussion instead of us talking about it in the CAA predictions thread.

My response to a UNH poster.

WM's offensive productivity came on the back of Anderson, who had a great game and we couldn't stop him for some reason. He's talented.
WM scored 17 points during meaningful time and we allowed a cheap trash time TD with 3 seconds remaining because our defensive players weren't mentally on the field after the game was all but won. I hate to see them do that and I shouldn't be explaining it away but I just wanted to point it out for what it's worth. The one INT Schor threw was poor judgement by him but it was also an unlucky deflection that a WM defender just happened to come down with in a fluky fashion.

We would really have to struggle offensively and turn the ball over (which we are +7 in TOs this season) in order to lose.

Believe that UNH poster is me.

Kendall Anderson is great -- he's one of the best individual talents in the CAA. It's really no surprise he got his. For reference, though, UNH had allowed six points to W&M up to a few points remaining in the game, and allowed a late TD to make it interesting. They were in control for much of the game despite some horrendous turnovers and awful weather. W&M's offense moved better against JMU in the time I watched than they did against UNH. So I DO think that UNH will be able to move the ball against JMU, but it will be all for naught if they move the ball and turn it over inside JMU territory, as they've done multiple times in the past few games.

I do not think JMU will have huge success running the ball up middle, but I think they can find success running to the outside, where we struggle against contain. I think that's the best opportunity for JMU and suspect we'll see a lot of it.

Like I said, I think the question is really gameplan. I think if JMU watches the tape, they'll see UNH is incredibly vulnerable with our linebackers and safeties in coverage. We've been exploited time and time again there. We're getting better (our safety starters are a True Junior, True Freshman and a RS-FR, we also start a True FR CB) but that's a weak spot.

The maturation of Trevor Knight will also be a big tell. I don't know if he'll be as effective scrambling in this game as he has against lesser talent, so he's going to have to hang in the pocket and deliver on his reads. UNH should have both Rory Donovan (6'6 SO WR) and Jordan Powell (one of the best TE's in FCS) back for this game. Powell saw a ton of targets in the second half last week and is probably our best overall catching target. It will be interesting to see how those guys get worked in to an offense that needs some easy completions.

In sum, I think if UNH has multiple turnovers or cannot run the ball effectively, they'll lose the game by 10-20 points. I think if they can limit the turnovers to 1 or 0 and continue to dominate possession, it's a coin flip at home.

[Terry2889]

It'll be tough playing JMU this weekend while simultaneously attempting to finally finish off the Lafayette game from three years ago.... Oh wait, we just scored again!