Embarrassing......

(09-13-2014 03:41 PM)Dukester Wrote:  Embarrassing......

Completely agree.

The 3 - 4 defense sucks. We should abandon it yesterday and go to a 4-3. We over pursue and are suckers for a counter. NOBODY stays home. Villanova will put 50+ on us.

Maybe more than that BSKB24 ...... I haven't got a good feeling about next week .... not with this defense. It's weak to the run ... Nova may never have to throw a pass ....

(09-13-2014 09:35 PM)BSKB 24 Wrote:  The 3 - 4 defense sucks. We should abandon it yesterday and go to a 4-3. We over pursue and are suckers for a counter. NOBODY stays home. Villanova will put 50+ on us.

You're right that the DL and LBs have not learned how to handle the trap...STFU obviously watched the Lehigh tape, and with a better RB made JMU look silly-bad during that first quarter. On the positive side, as against Lehigh, it seemed JMU made an adjustment by occasionally putting 4 guys in the down position on the line, and our D then began to get some stops.

The return of Steele at LB didn't have much of a positive impact on our D, and the comment that the LBs have to learn to step up into the line to make plays in a 3-4 was spot on. I'm hoping the talent is there to play the 3-4, as it appears Withers is committed to it, but as of right now the results leave much to be desired/improved upon.

Yeah, slow start...again.... but then held them to 7 points (don't know how many yards) for the remaining 3 quarters.

Edit: SFU had 211 yards in the first quarter, then 238 the rest of the way.

Never been a big fan of 3-4, but I don't think we have the right athletes to make it work the way it should. A few years and some recruitment, that could possibly change. Just don't think it's working with this 2014 Dukes squad like it should.

(09-13-2014 09:35 PM)BSKB 24 Wrote:  The 3 - 4 defense sucks. We should abandon it yesterday and go to a 4-3. We over pursue and are suckers for a counter. NOBODY stays home. Villanova will put 50+ on us.

Frankly, we don't have the horses to run a 3-4. To run a 3-4, you have to have some big dudes up front, occupying blockers. We get blown off the line, the o linemen get into our second level in about a second, and our safeties are trying to make tackles. We don't have the size and skill up front to run a 3-4. Let's see if Mr. B1G d-coordinator can gameplan around it - or better yet, fix it.

Good win, and 2-1 is right where we should be, but this is not a confidence-building 2-1. Some of these CAA teams are going to run right down our throat.

Embarrassing? I think that is a bit much. We are learning a new system with a number of extremely green players. This is going to take some time folks. So many people making overly positive and negative judgements about this team. I expect the team to continue to grow as they gain more experience and as they learn to play the style Withers wants to play. It is not going to be pretty at times and I fully expect us to lose games during the process. Hopefully not too many, but rebuilding a program takes time.

NY I agree with the majority of your last post, but I would have said JMU is "retooling"...not rebuilding. ;-)


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I hope you guys are right. Saw a lot of positives from the secondary the past 3 weeks. Really hope the front 7 can come around sooner than later to match.

Kind of funny reading that back considering where we were last year.

Can anyone here explain why we would not be blitzing at least 1-2 LBs every play out of a 3-4? I just don't understand why ours sit back and wait for the ball so much. Hoping some else with more insight can explain that or confirm my thoughts.


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You can't make adjustments every game. You need to come out ready to play, not after allowing 2-3 TDs.
This 3-4 defense is pathetic and none of the front 7 are playmakers. No one steps up and wants to make a play. Jimmy Moreland is the only bright spot on the defensive side of the ball so far this season.
We're about to lose 55-7 to Villanova next week as Robertson pads his Walter payton stats all over us. It's going to be a blood bath.

I agree about the alignment being problematic. I also wonder why Withers didn't load the box from the get go. They were playing a predominant run team from a weak conference and couldn't stop them.

Really discouraging for the balance of the year.
If you can't stop the run, you won't win.

Here are the stats which indicate no improvement considering the quality of opponent has decreased each week.

Maryland 285 yards rushing and 5.7 per carry.
Lehigh 287 yards rushing and 5.9 per carry.
STFU 292 yards rushing and 5.4 per carry.

This is the worst run defense I've seen since following JMU in 1988. Yes, it is that bad.

Withers needs to swallow his pride and admit it was a mistake to try the 3-4 at this point in time.

(09-14-2014 09:00 AM)Hart Foundation Wrote:  Here are the stats which indicate no improvement considering the quality of opponent has decreased each week.

Maryland 285 yards rushing and 5.7 per carry.
Lehigh 287 yards rushing and 5.9 per carry.
STFU 292 yards rushing and 5.4 per carry.

This is the worst run defense I've seen since following JMU in 1988. Yes, it is that bad.

Withers needs to swallow his pride and admit it was a mistake to try the 3-4 at this point in time.

Someone help me out here and correct me if I am wrong, but it looks like a big drop off in Linebacker play to me. They just don't seem to see the play quickly and fill the hole. It looks like they are caught up in the flow of the play and susceptible to cut backs too. Maybe it's the scheme, or maybe we were spoiled watching Stephon the last several years. But there seems to be a lack of discipline in the LB's. We have always had fast, quick hitting Lb's- I don't see it this year. Maybe I am missing something.

tough to say the 3-4 defense cant work - ECU shut out VT for 3 quarters with it.

(09-15-2014 01:31 PM)Centdukesfan Wrote:  tough to say the 3-4 defense cant work - ECU shut out VT for 3 quarters with it.

Did you see the size of their defensive lineman. That one guy looked like he ate D-Hall (words chosen on purpose).

(09-15-2014 01:48 PM)JMU_Newbill Wrote:  

(09-15-2014 01:31 PM)Centdukesfan Wrote:  tough to say the 3-4 defense cant work - ECU shut out VT for 3 quarters with it.

Did you see the size of their defensive lineman. That one guy looked like he ate D-Hall (words chosen on purpose).

An elite D-lineman can make a 3-4 fantastic...if you don't have one of those guys though, you are likely to face some uphill battles unless you have far superior talent.

I can see Withers sticking to it though after UMD and Lehigh, but when St. Francis is doing that to you on the ground, you HAVE to make a switch.

We have D lineman who were largely recruited for a 4-. Same for our LBs.

I'm not ready to give up on it yet, but I do agree that the early returns stink. Our DL just stands there and gets pushed back. You can run a 3-4 where the line has some fire off the snap. For whatever reason, we don't. I don't know if we're trying to limit what goes on tape or what...but Staley knows the 3-4.

Here is a little salt for our wounds.
JMU ranks 109th out of 113 FCS teams in run defense.

Just ahead of Prairie View and just behind Valparaiso.

Yes, it is that bad.