The James Madison Dukes entered their road CAA game against the Richmond Spiders with an average of 42 points per game.
The Spiders defense led by captain and 2017 Covington High School graduate, Tyler Dressler, held the Dukes to their lowest score of the season, 19 points.
Unfortunately, for the Spiders, it wasn’t enough to get the win as the offense only managed to score three points in a 19-3 loss.
“One positive I take out of it is, when I look at my guys on defense, not a single one of them quit”, said Dressler about the defense performance against the Dukes.
With starting quarterback, Joe Mancuso out still with a broken index finger on his throwing hand (occurred during the Virginia Tech game), the offensive struggles continued for the Spiders as the team was held in check to only 188 total yards. The team had three quarterbacks behind center in the loss on Saturday.
It’s been a rough go for the Spiders lately. The team five weeks ago was just over five minutes away from a 3-0 start before blowing a 14 point fourth quarter lead to the Villanova Wildcats and as previously mentioned losing your starting quarterback a week later on the teams first drive against the Hokies.
Now the team is coming off their fourth loss in a row which dropped them to an overall record of 2-4, as one of the captains, Dressler is making sure heads stay up in the locker room.
“We had a team meeting and made it really clear that if wanted to jump ship that the door is right there behind you and you’re more than welcome to leave. But we are not going to quit until the very end. We have five more games left. We should be getting our quarterback back (this weekend) and that is one thing hurting us right now.”
Dressler added, “Joe Mancuso was a key personnel, he led the offense. He was the engine that made the car go. If we can get him back and our defense stays stout, I think we’ll get back to where we were like in the Spring when we had a really good offense going and we had a dominant defense. So if we can put two and two together, I think we can go on a 5-0 run.”
Dressler on the teams current morale, “We’re just not getting the results we want. When you go on a four game losing streak, I don’t think any team would be thrilled. I can speak for the linebackers, we’re still hungry and we’re ready to get after it. If morale is low (at practice), the captains will pull people aside and get it fixed. But by no means necessary are we ready to throw in the towel. There’s no way that’s going to happen.”
Up next for the Spiders is a trip to Long Island, NY to take on the Stony Brook Seawolves in a big conference game.
The Seawolves enter the game similar to where the Spiders are sitting, with a record of 2-5 and are coming off of a 17 point home victory over Delaware this past Saturday.
The Seawolves most notably lost this season to the Oregon Ducks of the Pac-12 conference by the final score of 48-7.
“When we watched them on film, they (Seawolves) go 11, 12, and 13 personnel which is pretty much all heavy run offenses. What I think we do best on this football team is stop the run. It will be a physical battle and we are going to welcome the physicality in the trenches and we’re going to stop the run. I think if we can do that, we’re going to win this football game”, said Dressler on facing the Seawolves this weekend.
Dressler mentioned stopping the run game, the Seawolves are averaging just over 184 yards a game on the ground.
If you’re able to watch the game on Saturday, try not to get the two schools confused with the other as each have the same matching color scheme of red, white, and blue.
In the photo, #41 Tyler Dressler (middle) stares down the JMU offense. Dressler finished with seven tackles. (Photo Courtesy of the Steven Dressler)
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