RICHMOND — From James Madison’s first snap on offense to its last, Richmond’s defense was stretched thin.

JMU junior quarterback Bryan Schor set the tone for him and his unit with a 45-yard run on the opening play from scrimmage. About three hours later, senior running back Khalid Abdullah closed the day with a 4-yard touchdown plunge late in the fourth quarter.

In a Colonial Athletic Association clash, rivals No. 5 JMU and No. 7 Richmond played to a battle of exchanging offensive firepower on Saturday at Robins Stadium — behind a balanced attack, the Dukes outlasted the pass-happy Spiders, 47-43.

On a day when JMU produced 534 yards of total offense, 249 were rushing yards and 285 were passing yards. The percent ratio of passing yards to rushing yards was 53 percent to 47 percent and Richmond had no answer.

Madison didn’t punt once.

“They’re physical on the offensive line, they spread you out and they have the ability to run the ball right up the gut and to the edges,” Richmond coach Danny Rocco said. “A lot of teams don’t do that well.

“Their receivers can run too and when you’re defending that kind of offense, you really can’t count on some of your perimeter defenders to come in and be involved with the run game.”

The decisive drive of the game exemplified it, too.

Trailing 37-33 with less than seven minutes to play, JMU (8-1, 6-0 CAA) began its series leaning on Schor, who registered at least four touchdowns for a third straight game. Schor completed 22-of-28 throws for 285 yards and three touchdowns. He also had 91 rushing yards and a touchdown.

To move the ball into Richmond (7-2, 4-2 CAA) territory, the signal-caller fired passes of 12 yards to junior wide receiver Terrence Alls, 11 yards to junior tight end Jonathan Kloosterman and 10 yards to senior wide receiver Brandon Ravenel.

From there Abdullah carried six times for 27 yards, including a carry for three yards on a critical fourth-and-one, which eventually helped get the offense into the red zone.

“We definitely came out and tried to the run the ball today,” Abdullah said. “But they were keying on guys like me and Cardon [Johnson], so Schor took over and it worked out for the best.”

On a second-and-goal, Schor capped the drive, slinging a 9-yard strike to Kloosterman in the corner of the end zone to give JMU a 40-37 lead. It was an advantage the Dukes wouldn’t give back.

The drive chewed more than five minutes off the clock leaving Richmond junior quarterback Kyle Lauletta, who threw for 435 yards and five touchdowns, with only 1:36 to attempt a comeback. JMU coach Mike Houston said eating that much time off the clock that late in the game wasn’t by design even though it worked out for his team.

“We talked about it and [offensive coordinator] Donnie Kirkpatrick kept asking me, but I just said, ‘run our offense,’” Houston said. “I just thought the way the game was going that I didn’t want to miss an opportunity to score.”

After torching JMU’s defense for most of the day, Lauletta threw four incomplete passes, including one broken up by Dukes senior cornerback Taylor Reynolds on fourth down, to turn the ball over inside the red zone.

Abdullah scored on the offense’s final play only two plays later.

Houston said JMU’s defense made enough stops late to earn the win.

“I thought really that the defense played very, very well in the second half,” Houston said. “We gave up a touchdown at the beginning of the third quarter, but played well the rest of the half, so certainly I thought we had momentum on that side of the football and every time we made a play, the defense gained more confidence. I was proud of them for making a stop there.”