Defense Keeps Towson, Flacco Frustrated

“This is probably the most tired I’ve been,” said Daka, James Madison senior defensive end. “It’s like chasing a little cat or a squirrel or something. But it was rewarding.

“We work so hard throughout the week and like Coach [Curt Cignetti] said, Tom is a competitor. He’s not going to quit at all, so when you’re going against guys like that, you can’t quit.”

Flacco, the reigning Colonial Athletic Association Offensive Player of the Year, was limited to 210 passing yards and a touchdown in the Dukes’ 27-10 win over the Tigers on Saturday in Harrisonburg. He was sacked six times, but what doesn’t show up in a box score are all the yards Flacco runs horizontally while trying to evade pressure and before releasing a throw, taking a sack or scrambling forward.

Daka had 2.5 sacks and said that’s why it’s so difficult to bring Flacco to the ground.

“It’s very fulfilling when you get a sack on a guy like that because you’re just running around and gassed,” Daka said. “But it was a very fulfilling feeling out there.”

The six sacks of Flacco actually had the Towson signal-caller finish with negative-3 rushing yards for the afternoon, which marks the only time in the senior’s career that he ended a game without positive rushing yards. And that’s a large reason why JMU held the Tigers to 60 rushing yards as a team for the game, their lowest output on the ground this season — and that includes their FBS matchup with SEC member Florida last month.

Defensive end Ron’Dell Carter and defensive tackle Mike Greene each had two sacks.

And one of Carter’s takedowns came to derail a first-quarter Towson drive. Tigers coach Rob Ambrose called for a double-reverse pass inside Dukes territory on the heels of a successful 28-yard throw from Flacco to wide receiver Darian Street. But Carter recognized the attempted trick and threw Towson’s Shane Leatherbury to the turf for a loss of 14 yards.

On the next play, Flacco was picked off by JMU safety Adam Smith, negating any early momentum the Tigers thought they might have had.

“[Three] weeks in a row he’s had an interception,” Cignetti said of Smith. “And that was a critical play at that time of the game.”

Ambrose, who’s in his 11th season leading Towson, said JMU boasts one of the best defenses he’s coached against.

The Dukes rank first in FCS for rushing defense (67.3 yards per game), fourth for total defense (289.9 yards allowed per game), sixth for scoring defense (16.1 points per game allowed), sixth for team tackles for loss (9.2 per game) and ninth for sacks (3.22 per game).

“They’re extremely talented. They’re big. They’re physical. They’re fast and they’re smart,” Ambrose said. “They play their scheme very soundly. They don’t make a lot of mistakes. You put all those things together and it adds up a really, really good defense.”

But just how good?

“Having had the opportunity to coach in this league and around the country for a little bit,” Ambrose said, “this is not one of the better defenses in the league or in the country. This right now is one of the better defenses that have [ever] played in this league or in the country. And I know it’s a heavy statement. I’m not insulting all the great players that played here before on these other teams, but these guys are really, really talented and when they want to play, they’re pretty darn scary.”

Flacco turned the ball over again late in the first half when little-used-on-defense JMU safety Que Reid, a redshirt freshman, popped Flacco and knocked the ball free when the quarterback tried to run. Daka recovered it and before the half was over the Dukes kicked a field goal as part of a run of 20 straight points to close the game.

“He’s a run-and-hit guy,” Cignetti said about Reid. “He likes contact. And he’s still kind of learning his assignments a little bit. Every week he’s getting a little better. He’s going to be a really good player and he likes contact.”

As for the performance from the whole defense, Cignetti called it a “tremendous job.”