HARRISONBURG — Curt Cignetti is beginning to address what he said would when he got the head-coaching job at James Madison this past December.

The Dukes ended their spring practice Thursday working on late-game situations.

He matched the offense against the defense as the clock at Bridgeforth Stadium was on and set with two minutes to play. As the offense tried to score and the defense fought to prevent one, the clock stopped, started and continued ticking just as it would in the fourth quarter.

“A lot of these games come down to the end and that’s when we want to play our best football,” Cignetti said.

For all the triumphs JMU experienced in recent seasons, the game-on-the-line execution from the Dukes was average.

Over the team’s last 28 contests, six were decided by a touchdown or less. Madison went 3-3 in those games and has dropped three of the last four decided by seven points or fewer — the 2017 FCS national championship game to North Dakota State, this past season’s second-round playoff loss at Colgate and a 2018 regular-season loss to Elon as Cignetti stood on the opposite sideline coaching the Phoenix.

Turnovers doomed JMU in all three defeats.

“And there’s been a lot of success here, but when you win games by 50 points, 25 points, you’re not in those positions very much,” Cignetti said. “So when you go to the national championship or are deep in the playoffs or you have a couple league games, you’re going to be in those positions and that’s where you’ve got to do your thing, so that’s what I’m looking for.”

Players from the offense and defense had their standout moments in the evenly matched period. Defensive end Isaac Ukwu had a sack and quarterback Gage Moloney threw an arcing pass into the corner of the end zone for a touchdown.

“Everything we do from our training, the philosophical and the things I talk about lead to us playing our best football at the end of the game,” Cignetti said. “The one-play-at-a-time thing, do your job and six seconds a play on offense, 13 on special teams, never too high or too low, it’s all designed to play your best football at the end when your game is on the line.

“We let the other team choke and we’re just doing our thing. I thought it was a good drill. It’s never perfect. One side wins and one side doesn’t, but I thought we had better energy at practice today when we started and I thought we finished well.”

The drill also provided Cignetti a chance to see Moloney and his fellow signal-callers Ben DiNucci and Cole Johnson in those spots as the three try to separate from each other in the race for the starting job.

“You’ve got to distribute the ball, protect the ball, be able to extend plays, and at the end of the game, play your best football,” Cignetti said. “We’re not asking them to do anything outside themselves, just do what you’re supposed to do and that’s do your job. And I thought they all handled the drill well.”

Upon his hiring at JMU, Cignetti vowed to find the reasons that the Dukes fell short of expectations this past season after reaching the FCS title game in each of the previous two years.

Half the losses the Dukes suffered this past fall were by a touchdown or less, and against N.C. State the game was decided in the fourth quarter as the Wolfpack pulled away for an 11-point victory.

“They lost four games,” Cignetti said just a day after he was named coach in December. “So I’m not saying that it can’t happen, but I don’t think that’s anyone’s expectation level.

“From a material or talent standpoint, you’re as good or better than anyone you’re going to play and you come up short four times. You get a mulligan against N.C. State and [JMU] played extremely well and could’ve won the game, so it’s three, but why does that happen?”