HARRISONBURG — The last time James Madison’s defense matched up with a pass-happy offense it throttled Sam Houston State in a 65-7 FCS quarterfinal victory.

Sam Houston State entered the December playoff contest averaging better than 385 passing yards and 53 points per game, but the Dukes held them to 158 passing yards without a passing touchdown.

This Saturday, JMU opens against one of FBS’s most efficient throwing units when it goes to East Carolina. The Pirates had the nation’s sixth-best passing offense last year, averaging 334.7 passing yards per game.

“I think the big thing is their big-play ability on offense,” JMU coach Mike Houston said. “They’ve got three wide receivers that I think are top-end players, so they have explosive weapons that I think can make a big play at any given time.”

Some of the same things were said last winter when the Dukes prepared for the Bearkats.

When the game got started, JMU matched its cornerbacks, and occasionally safeties, in one-on-one situations against Sam Houston State’s wide receivers.

It worked.

JMU senior safety Raven Greene said the defensive backfield could draw from the experience and the success it had against Sam Houston State as the Dukes head to Greenville, N.C.

ECU senior wide receiver Jimmy Williams is on the Biletnikoff Award Watch List — given to the nation’s top receiver. Williams, fellow senior Quay Johnson and sophomore Deondre Farrier combined for 1,686 receiving yards and 12 receiving touchdowns last year.

“There are some key elements that are the same,” Greene said, likening JMU’s game plan for ECU to the one it had for Sam Houston State.

Second-year JMU defensive coordinator Bob Trott said ECU’s offense features both elements of Sam Houston State’s system and what the Dukes do with their run-pass options.

“They’re sort of like us because they run RPOs,” Trott said. “And in some ways they’re similar to Sam Houston.

“But when you go in the first game, you’re really not sure what’s going to happen. They’re not sure what’s going to happen on our side, so we have to sort of prepare for everything and be able to adjust. That’s the mark of a good defense, if we can adjust and adapt based on what they’re doing.”

The big difference this time around is that JMU doesn’t have the same depth at cornerback it did nine months ago.

The Dukes graduated cornerback Taylor Reynolds, who went on to have a short stint with the Atlanta Falcons, and during August training camp the team lost junior Charles Tutt for the year with an ACL injury.

JMU is down to three experienced corners in juniors Jimmy Moreland, Curtis Oliver and Rashad Robinson.

“And we had a good deal when all four of them were out there because all four of them were capable of starting,” Houston said. “So now we got three top-end corners that are all capable of starting. The three will be on the field together.

“It’s accelerated with what we’ve had to do as far as bringing the freshmen along, but [freshman cornerback] Wesley [McCormick] was going to play anyway this year.”

Oliver will play mostly the nickel corner position, like he did last year, while Moreland and Robinson will start at the traditional corner spots.

“We responded how anybody would respond,” Oliver said about Tutt’s injury. “We’re going to keep him up and keep him in our spirits, but we’re going to keep balling. We still got to play ECU and that’s all we’re focused on right now.

“What jumps out to me is that they have some pretty good receivers, so us, as a cornerback group, we’re trying to stay up and keep our heads. We have to watch for double moves and really just be very disciplined.”

And that’s what stuck out to Williams as he’s prepared for JMU.

The sure-handed receiver, who’s hauled in 11 career touchdown receptions, said when studying the Dukes secondary he took notice of how disciplined they were.

“I see a real good, disciplined team. They have talent on the outside and even at safety,” Williams said. “We’ve got to hit on all cylinders and make every single play count because we’re playing against a good team, a very disciplined team.

“And many people don’t see how hard it is to play against a disciplined team. You know, a team could be full of talent but when they have that discipline behind them it makes them a better team, so our preparation has to be next level for this week.”

Last week, ECU named Gardner Minshew the starting quarterback over Duke transfer Thomas Sirk.

Minshew appeared in seven games last year behind then-starter Phillip Nelson. Minshew threw for 1,347 yards and eight touchdowns in limited action in 2016.

“We have a great relationship chemistry-wise, running routes, timing and all of that,” Williams said. “So it’s all coming together real good with Gardner. Gardner is the one that’s going to lead us to what we’ve been doing and beyond as an offense here at ECU.”