the team played their as^&^ off -- love the effort
JMU game thread
- Thread starter SpiderRick
- Start date
Shame we didn't play defense until games 9 and 10 of the season.
Not a big believer of moral victories, but this will be an exception. We played our hearts out and got robbed of a victory against the #1 team in the country, undefeated, at their place. Huesman's defense has really picked up the last two games. We need to carry this momentum for next year. Sucks knowing we're not going to the playoffs, but it is what it is.
Refs hurt but play calling and coaching ultimately are on the hook for this one.
So what about the out the other 8 games. Come on, playing your heart out for the next to last game is great but it only shows the lack of effort on the other games. Underachievement is the worse. Great effort guys but a lot like life too little too late.
Agree on both points. I thought on balance that the play calling this year was off too many times in critical situations.
Cudda, shudda wudda. You know how the rest goes. Disappointing season but I remember the days that going 6 and 5 and beating the Indians would have been a major accomplishment. We will return. Since basketball is a train wreck, can't wait for LAX.
please explain?
The coaches didn't drop a wide open touchdown pass?
The coaches didn't run into tacklers when there was a hole for an easy first down on the fake punt?
The coaches didn't give up on a pattern that turned into a Lauletta INT.
Was the coaching perfect? Nope. Neither was the officiating, but the easy narrative that "its all the coaches fault" is lazy and cliche.... Players have to make plays
Don't think I saw anyone state "its all the coaches fault". Would say there were contributing factors. Don't think the fake field goal that would have tied the game and changed momentum was a good choice. Others may disagree.
here is the quote : Refs hurt but play calling and coaching ultimately are on the hook for this one.
in the end the fake field goal didn't matter, because we got the ball back a play or two later.
What really mattered was the dropped TD pass when he was WIDE OPEN by 5 yards in the end zone. That is what really hurt. I feel bad saying that b/c 14 has been great all year, but today not so much. Unlike the idiot VT D-Bag says, it was not on him. It was many of the 50/50 plays (and calls) that did not go our way. When you lose by a late TD (and we let them score instead of bleeding the clock) every little thing matters.
Why cant we say, great game, both teams played their asses off, why must we always assign blame?
I get what you're saying but still say take the 3 points when the opportunity was there. It was a high probability of 3 points and a missed opportunity out of choice to tie the game.
If you say the fake fg didn't matter because we got the ball back...you can easily use that reasoning to say we'd have gotten that fumble back after we kicked the field goal & kicked off. Who knows????
So there are scenarios that we didn't take advantage of that mattered and then the things that happen throughout the game that hurt us, and that is going to be the case in many games.
I agree with the rest of your post.
Rocco not laughing he is coaching and did not want to coach the Spiders. He is where he want to be and I for one happy for us. I will lose a thousand times with the man that want to be here.
Today was not a win but we did represent.
Today was not a win but we did represent.
Those incompetent commissioner couldn't even get the game televised much less hire a decent crew.
LOL considering I showed up to the stadium at 3:00 instead of 3:30 I should pay more attention to these things. I swear I didn't see it scheduled to be televised on anything leading up to the game. Either way the commish leaves a lot to be desired after that abysmal TV contract.
To be honest, the website didn't have it listed as being on TV in the days leading up. Was visiting my parents in Richmond and bitching about it not being on TV when my mother told me she was sure that it was. Always trust your mother. This is the second time that this new and improved site has screwed me on televised games.
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Good to know I didn't need to drop $60 plus gas and food, and a dead car battery after the fact. And yes that website is terrible. As a former SID I cringe at what those poor guys are tasked with these days. Glad I got out when I did.
Far be it from me to defend the new website because it is truly horrible, but I did check it about 8 am this morning and the game was listed as being broadcast on MASN2.
I am usually on top of these things and may of missed it. I checked earlier in the week and did not see it. I check last week and didn't see anything which prompted me to look for tickets. Granted I was only looking on JMU/URs actual schedule not game notes or anything. I'm guessing it was a late add, its happened before, just seemed awfully quiet about it.
We took away lots of things that JMU likes to do offensively. Who else has held them to 20 points in the last two seasons? Defense seems to be coming together.
Many of the ref's calls were terrible. But we kept stopping ourselves with penalties that we deserved. Great effort by the team. The JMU fans were unusually quiet. I was there - and I am proud of the effort to keep this one close.
And last of all... JMU got three penalties for unsportsmanlike conduct - some things never change. Thugs.
Many of the ref's calls were terrible. But we kept stopping ourselves with penalties that we deserved. Great effort by the team. The JMU fans were unusually quiet. I was there - and I am proud of the effort to keep this one close.
And last of all... JMU got three penalties for unsportsmanlike conduct - some things never change. Thugs.
To me that was the play of the game, if we couldn't catch that we weren't going to win. That being said from my angle (Not great) it looked like KL was in the middle of his throw when the defender fell and couldn't adjust his pass or didnt recognize it until it was too late. At the time he was trying to throw it to the back corner for a jump ball, that throw happens after the fall I think KL hits him in the numbers. I think he wasn't accounting for the defender to slip and fall.
Just a thought, but perhaps we could pin a thread that shows the viewing options for each game (basketball too if you still want to watch). Given the variety of outlets where our games appear - some of which are not shown on richmondspiders.com - it would be a useful way to share such information. Occasionally the info is available within a specific thread but gets a bit lost in the rest of the discussion.
Good Lord literally every UR and JMU fan I know knew the game was on TV.
This 5-5 team was 4 plays away from 9 -1. That is both encouraging and maddening.
This 5-5 team was 4 plays away from 9 -1. That is both encouraging and maddening.
I was standing at the fence on about the 5 yard line when Cortrelle dropped the pass. When Cortrelle made his final move to the right, the JMU defensive back was holding his jersey (this is why the db slipped and fell when Cortrelle turned to his right). He pulled just hard enough to slow Cortrelle just a bit. Ref didn't call it - and Cortrelle let it slip through. Did it make a difference? Who knows - but I watched the game today on my VCR and thought the same thing that I did yesterday. Should Cortrelle have had it anyway? Sure. It's a game of inches. The inches were the friend of JMU yesterday. Still a fine effort by our players.
Number of "inches" situations yesterday, another one I believe had the chance of making a huge difference. The fake FG, designed to run around the end, Mancuso made one yard, needed 2, looked to me had he cut it up rather than continuing to go for the end he would have gotten 2-3 yards, and the desired first down.
The difference is, the players are a bunch of 18-21 year old kids, who have to go to class full time, living away from home, and dealing with all the emotions that kids that age go through.
The coaches are paid employees (decently paid for the most part), and have the entire year to focus on 11 games; they're not kids by any means, and go home every night. I realize that it's Huseman's first year, but the play calling and time management throughout the season has been suspect at best. I've said it before, I believe the biggest issue has been too many changes for a team that went to the playoffs the past three years. Lack of continuity really hurt, and THAT'S on the coaches.
Rick, I typically like your posts, but not on this one.
For a guy who rails on endlessly about why don't we try "gadget plays", how could you not like the fake FG call? The first down was there for the taking, Huesman had the nuts to call it, but clean execution gets a first down. Even missing the open hole, he still could have run harder to make the chain.
And post game, coach owned it. Said he should have coached it better if defenders stayed outside, which they did. Hugh hole if Mancuso cuts back right.
Whoa kimosabe, I loved the fake fg call! Just not the execution. Next time direct snap to Trau, and let him run it (he has speed), or throw it back to Mancuso open in the flat. I love gadget plays, please call more of them!
While I'm on the gadget plays, how about something out of the box on kickoffs? I'm really tired of watching us run every single kickoff straight up the middle and almost never getting past the 25 yard line. A friend jokingly said "our best kickoff return play and our best kickoff coverage play are ironically the same play, a kickoff that goes out of bounds"
It's insane to me you guys aren't making the playoffs - you have a great squad. Glad we won't face Lauletta again, kid can ball. Hopefully he'll get a look to play on Sundays.
A lot of teams should be happy that we're not in the playoffs. We're finally starting to look the the team we were supposed to be at the beginning of the season. Too bad it took us this long to figure it out because we could've done some damage in the playoffs. Similar to 2013 I guess.
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