No. 2 JMU Looks To Keep Rolling vs. No. 16 Towson

The No. 2 Dukes (7-1, 4-0 Colonial Athletic Association) host No. 16 Towson (4-3, 1-2 CAA) and the Tigers’ 11th-year coach, Ambrose, for a 3:30 p.m. homecoming kickoff today at Bridgeforth Stadium.

“It’s almost impossible to physically defend 100 percent of everything, all of the run and all of the pass,” Ambrose said. “Something gets lost in the sauce, and when you run the ball as well as they do, the quarterback is going to have a much easier time, especially with his play action.”

Through eight weeks of the season, JMU leads the conference and ranks inside the top 13 across all of FCS for scoring offense (40.4 points per game), total offense (464.8 yards per game) and rushing offense (236.6 yards per game). Its quarterback, senior Ben DiNucci, isn’t close to leading the nation or even the league for passing yards or touchdowns, but he is the ninth-most efficient passer (163.50 rating) in FCS and has the fourth-best completion percentage (69.2 percent). That means when the Dukes throw the ball, DiNucci is elite while taking advantage of overzealous defenses.

“We did a great job of establishing the run early in the season,” JMU senior tight end Dylan Stapleton said. “So teams are going to have to start stacking the box, but I think it’s opening up the pass game as well.

“And that’s the ultimate goal we wanted to have, teams stack the box. Hopefully, we can run still on that, but I think it’s going to spread the field out a lot because we’ve got weapons all over the field and a great quarterback who can make plays.”

If a defense commits eight of its 11 defenders to stopping the run, the Dukes offense will likely get one-on-one opportunities for wide receivers Brandon Polk, Riley Stapleton, Jake Brown and Kyndel Dean. Dean hauled in a 37-yard touchdown catch after beating man coverage last week in a win at William & Mary.

And in recent games, even Dylan Stapleton said he benefited from a rushing attack that produced more than 300 yards in consecutive weeks earlier this season. He hauled in a career-long 39-yard reception against the Tribe after DiNucci faked a handoff and threw to Stapleton running horizontally just behind linebackers that bit on the fake.

“We do such a good job of setting it up in the first place,” Stapleton said of the play-action passes he catches frequently from DiNucci. “We run a bunch of crosses and inside zone plays to just kind of get the defense spilling on me and then I kind of fake a little bit and go out in the flat, so I think setting it up helps a lot. Our offensive coordinator [Shane Montgomery] does a great job of calling plays like that and whenever I get out there I just try to make a play and get loose a little bit.”

The dilemma of picking or choosing what to defend isn’t going away for JMU opponents either, according to Ambrose, who said the depth of the Dukes backfield gives JMU an edge with always having a legitimate threat to run the ball.

Running backs Percy Agyei-Obese, Solomon Vanhorse, Jawon Hamilton and Latrele Palmer all have at least three rushing touchdowns this season.

“They’ve listed four tailbacks and they’re going to play ‘em all,” Ambrose said. “Like, who has four tailbacks that you can play? Like, that are ready to play of physical caliber, that can compete and excel in this league? So the matchups are going to be difficult and the room for error is small.”

The Coaches: In two meetings over the last two seasons, Ambrose and first-year Dukes coach Curt Cignetti split wins and losses when Cignetti held the same job at Elon.

Towson beat Elon 41-10 last fall, but the Phoenix knocked off the Tigers 33-30 in double overtime two years ago, so the coaches are more than familiar with each other.

Cignetti is 74-27 in his ninth season as a head coach while Ambrose is 66-69 in his 12 seasons.

The Quarterbacks: DiNucci and Towson quarterback Tom Flacco, the 2018 CAA Offensive Player of the Year, are the igniters for their offenses and have very similar stat lines for the season entering Saturday’s game.

“Tom and Ben are older,” Ambrose said. “They’ve been through the rodeo. They’ve seen the bells and whistles and the game is a little bit slower, which allows them to be a little more efficient.”

DiNucci has thrown for 1,750 passing yards, 13 touchdowns and three interceptions with a 69 percent completion rate to go along with 278 rushing yards and two scores. Flacco has thrown for 1,639 yards, 14 touchdowns and three interceptions with a 58 percent completion rate to go with 300 rushing yards and two touchdowns.

“They put the ball in his hands every play,” Cignetti said of Flacco. “When he drops back, he can put it where it’s got to be. But with his scrambling ability and ability to make people miss, create plays and extend plays — he’ll run up, he’ll run back, he’ll run right, he’ll run left, he may run across the whole field. You’ve got to do a great job containing him.”

Flacco threw six touchdowns last week, including five to wide receiver Shane Leatherbury, in Towson’s win over Bucknell.

Series History: This meeting marks the 29th time JMU and Towson will square off, with the Dukes holding a 21-6-1 record in the series.

And since the Tigers joined the conference in 2004, they’ve only beaten the Dukes once — a 28-17 victory in 2013, the same season Towson got all the way to the FCS national championship game. Since then, JMU has won three straight including last year’s 38-17 decision at Johnny Unitas Stadium in Towson, Md.

A Win Gets JMU To Eight: Typically, eight wins secure a berth to the FCS postseason. So with a victory over the Tigers, JMU can likely start making plans for its sixth straight trip to the playoffs.

Dukes safety D’Angelo Amos said it’s probably a little early for that, though.

“Teams that look ahead, they start letting these other games slide by,” Amos said, “because they already know they’re in, but that’s not our goal. We want to win game-by-game and be undefeated in the conference. That’s our goal.”

JMU won the CAA outright with unbeaten league records in 2016 and 2017.

Missing Shane Simpson: Since Towson senior running back Shane Simpson suffered a season-ending knee injury in September, the Tigers offense had to adapt.

“You realize a little bit more everything that he can do in the course of a football game,” Ambrose said. “And let the truth be told how many points he ends up putting on the board. You’ve got to find those numbers.”

Simpson was an All-American and the CAA Special Teams Player of the Year last season for his 711 rushing yards, 356 receiving yards, 991 return yards and 12 total touchdowns. Before his injury this season, he had 162 rushing yards, 62 receiving yards and three total touchdowns.

“He caught a number of balls out of the backfield as well and had really good hands,” Cignetti said. “He’d catch some of those balls in scramble drills, too, and take it a long way. And he had really good running ability, so he was special in terms of his ability to catch it out of the backfield. So they probably lost a little bit that way and in the return game also, so it was a tough loss for them.”

Towson has used Yeedee Thaenrat primarily in Simpson’s place. Thaenrat has nine rushing touchdowns this season.

“We pride ourselves on playing for him because he can’t play right now,” Leatherbury said of Simpson. “But you don’t want to think, ‘Oh man, Simpson can’t be out here.’ The guys that are here can play and that’s why they’re here. We have confidence in everyone on the field.”

Don’t Be Surprised If: JMU tries to apply heavy pressure on Flacco.

The Dukes lead the CAA with 22 sacks this season and Towson is in the bottom half of the conference for sacks allowed, yielding 17 through its seven games.

“Some people have put pretty good pressure on him and we want to do that,” Cignetti said.

JMU defensive end John Daka leads the team with 6.5 sacks this season.

More Than Anything: Dylan Stapleton said the Dukes are eager to start a home stretch.

After today’s game with Towson, JMU has a bye week followed by two more home dates with New Hampshire and Richmond.

Cignetti and company have spent four of the last five weeks on the road, visiting Chattanooga, Elon, Stony Brook and William & Mary since Sept. 21. The lone home game the Dukes played during that run was an Oct. 12 win over No. 5 Villanova.

“Excited to be back at Bridgeforth,” Stapleton said. “These past couple of weeks have been tough on the road, but being able to clinch those away game wins are huge especially in this conference.

“We’ve got a great atmosphere and it’ll be an exciting homecoming weekend.”