(10-29-2020 07:44 AM)Dukester Wrote:  Ben looked fantastic completing 2/3' of his passes. Decent QB rating, and with little practice.

Give me the Eagles -9.

All of my predictions regarding Ben have come to pass, so I am going to go farther out on that limb and say that Dallas wins the game in Philly, not despite starting such a green quarterback, but because of him. The Cowboys must do at least one of two things, hopefully both....

1. Better pass protection
2. Use Nooch's best skills, RPO, rolling and creating.

#2 will help #1 a great deal, as it will freeze the secondary. Also, when the Philly D-line and blitzers get burned a few times by Nooch runs, they will be forced to play more honestly. Expect the Philly game to be a continuation of last week's game. Knowing Dallas has a green rookie under center, the Philly D is going to start with all-out pressure. They are going to have to get burnt a few times before they settle down. Cowboys by 10.

(10-29-2020 10:51 AM)Purple Wrote:  

(10-29-2020 07:44 AM)Dukester Wrote:  Ben looked fantastic completing 2/3' of his passes. Decent QB rating, and with little practice.

Give me the Eagles -9.

All of my predictions regarding Ben have come to pass, so I am going to go farther out on that limb and say that Dallas wins the game in Philly, not despite starting such a green quarterback, but because of him. The Cowboys must do at least one of two things, hopefully both....

1. Better pass protection
2. And/or use Nooch's best skills, RPO, rolling and creating.

#2 will help #1 a great deal, as it will freeze the secondary. Also, when the Philly D-line and blitzers get burned a few times by Nooch runs, they will be forced to play more honest. Expect the Philly game to be a continuation of last week's game. Knowing Dallas has a green rookie under center, the Philly D is going to start with all-out pressure. They are going to have to get burnt a few times before they settle down. Cowboys by 10.

Dukester's crystal ball for next Monday.

Purple - "Dallas lost, but Ben did all he could with that O-line, and he's still so young.
The loss was not due to Ben's play"

Eagles -9 for me.

The betting public is all over the Eagles and the line has moved from -9.5 to -9 at most shops, and even -8 at some of the NJ sportsbooks. Sharp money coming in on Dallas. I'm with them, DiNucci +9.

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/who-is-ben-...09687.html

First JMU quarterback in the NFL ... and a wild Mike McCarthy meeting
James Madison has never been considered a breeding ground for NFL talent.

Even so, there are recognizable alumni from the school who have made it to — and even thrived in — the league.

One of the most famous was former Washington wide receiver Gary Clark, a four-time Pro Bowler and two-time Super Bowl champ who still ranks in the top 50 all time in receptions and yards in league history.

The other most famous JMU alum in league history is one Cowboys fans know well — Charles Haley. In one of the more decorated NFL careers, Haley was named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame after leading the Cowboys to three Super Bowl victories and the San Francisco 49ers to two more.

In recent years, a handful of JMU players have made it to the NFL — former Eagles linebacker Akeem Jordan, former Bills linebacker Arthur Moats and former Cardinals offensive guard Earl Watford.

The school’s most infamous alum? It’s probably former Buffalo Bills kicker, Scott Norwood, who missed the would-be winning kick against the Giants in Super Bowl XXV.

JMU had never produced an NFL quarterback until DiNucci made his debut last week. (Mike Cawley was drafted by the Indianapolis Colts in 1996 but never played in a regular-season game.)

How could a team with Clark, Haley, and Norwood be so average in 1AA?

(10-29-2020 11:06 AM)Bill Wrote:  The betting public is all over the Eagles and the line has moved from -9.5 to -9 at most shops, and even -8 at some of the NJ sportsbooks. Sharp money coming in on Dallas. I'm with them, DiNucci +9.

Have you seen the Cowpunk defense? Ben better lead them to at least 30 points.

Probably mentioned already, but just want to point out or re-emphasize that this Dallas-Philly game is the NBC Prime Time Sunday night game of the week. So, not only will Ben get his first start but he will be doing it on national TV in a slot that gets a lot of eyeballs. Good exposure potential for JMU.

Big opportunity. I hope he has a great game...or, even just a good one...and Philly wins by 1 pt. :>)

Sloppy reporting, and I don't usually hold it against people for not knowing much about FCS.

The Norwood thing stinks but is expected. Nobody ever points out that he had a 7 year career or that he kicked the whole next season for the Bills, including a perfect postseason that helped get them back to the Super Bowl. But, that's the life of a kicker. Big misses get remembered, and his miss vs the Giants was a big one.

Calling Haley the "other most famous JMU alum" is silly. No disrespect to Gary Clark, but that's just a sloppy five word phrase to describe Haley.

Then the author lists a pretty randomly compiled list of guys who have recently played in the league but doesn't mention that JMU entered the 2020 season with the most current players on active rosters. Maybe he just Googled and found an outdated search result or something.

(Note: we might still have the most active guys right this second, but I didn't research because I'm not the reporter. If I were a reporter, I could have taken ten minutes to find it out though.)

The stat about current players is a far more interesting point to the casual fan who has probably heard of NDSU and knows they're the undisputed kings of FCS titles. If I weren't an FCS fan, I'd see a stat that JMU had more active NFL guys than Wentz's school who usually wins the title, and I'd go "Ok, so this JMU team is legit..."

But the article as written is just filled with a couple paragraphs that are basically a waste of space since the thesis is just "here is a list of names of NFL players."


I did click it though, and the story about DiNucci running into McCarthy is interesting. I hadn't heard that before, so that was a cool part of the article.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nf...082174002/

the chance meeting with McCarthy in elevator has been mentioned ad nauseum if you follow articles on DiNucci

I know it’s not the same as playing football in the Fall but JMU is getting a ton of exposure through this DiNucci development and if it works out right (he shows well and maybe even Dallas wins) this will be huge for our program.

(10-30-2020 11:07 AM)Dukes84 Wrote:  https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nf...082174002/

the chance meeting with McCarthy in elevator has been mentioned ad nauseum if you follow articles on DiNucci

Welp, looks like my positive spin might have actually been more slack reporting. I don't remember seeing it before, but I hadn't really actively sought out anything other than practice reports etc.

The article you linked is from today, but a quick search of "DiNucci McCarthy elevator" brings up more than a page of articles going back to April.

Oh and Go Dukes; hope DiNucci crushes Sunday night.

JMaddy was right earlier also -- Raven Greene is playing well and his role is trending toward more defensive involvement. He's played over 50% of their defensive snaps this month, and the stat line was nice last week. Last week he only played 23% of special teams snaps which is possibly a sign of plans to keep him involved consistently on defense. That's his lowest special team share since week 2, and he'd been above 50% in multiple other games.

Cool to see him carving out a steady contributing role on one of the better teams in the league, and he's always given off a really proud/supportive vibe of JMU in his media appearances (like most of our guys do). Hope he continues to have a good season. He's due to be a restricted free agent this year, so it's really good timing for him if he can stay healthy and have his most productive season so far.

Just so you know JMUska, wasn't trying to knock you. Was just pointing out that sometimes reporters all regurgitate the same stuff. That's a good article from USA Today (just have to scroll down, as it's quite comprehensive)

All good, didn't take your post in a negative way.

Hugging not in vogue currently, go with the elbow bump https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_EyemMGVW0

Jimmy having fun..

https://sports.yahoo.com/see-jimmy-morel...49042.html

Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk

Good luck to the Nooch tomorrow night. I hope we don’t see the bad Nooch. At the end of last week Dallas waived the white flag and just had him handing off at the end of the game after he took 3 sacks in 7 passing drop backs. This isn’t FCS and he has about 2.5 seconds to throw or take off. Any indecision will render him a sitting duck.

His strongest asset is running the ball in scramble mode. Will McCarthy allow him to play that way considering his first 2 QBs both got injured running the ball? Maybe he will since Dalton is scheduled to come back next week. Let him run and if he gets hurt he gets hurt. Asking the Nooch to be a drop back NFL passer probably won’t end well and the Cowboys are desperate for a win.
A heavy dose of Zeke running the ball will be the best possible situation for the Nooch to have some success on play action Passes.

It will be fun to watch all the mentions JMU gets Pregame and during the game. If Gardner Minshew can find some success in the NFL then the Nooch can even if it is by the injury route. The same Minshew that got benched in the first half against JMU because he was so bad somehow has survived 2 years as Jacksonville’s starting QB.

Success will be zero INTs and zero fumbles even if the Nooch only completes 50% of his passes and they are all short stuff. Just don’t lose the game single handedly.

Former NFL QB JT O'Sullivan breaking down Nooch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ2cuQo-_Hk&t=629s

Go Nooch!

Throw for 300, run for 150...cowboys win.

I have mixed feelings since the Eagles are my team and I HATE the Cowboys. Maybe he can be competent, but not good, show some flashes, but not enough to win.