You can’t let inferior teams hang around. Richmond was the better team most of the day, yet our strong effort was almost ruined by an incredible 4th quarter comeback. A phantom PI call kept W&M in it at the end, however the entire 2nd half felt like the Spiders missed chances to slam the door shut. We don’t argue with winning though – Capital Cup champs, CAA champs, and (spoiler) an FCS playoff bid. A six-game winning streak builds plenty of confidence heading into Thanksgiving football.

Drives

1st half drives on the left, 2nd half drives on the right

Offense

10 drives – 5 punts (50%), 3 TDs (30%), 2 FGs (20%)

Great start to the day for the UR offense. Found ourselves in an early 7-0 hole but answered right back in route to 17 points in the 1st half. We left some points out there in the 2nd half but a key TD drive in the 4th quarter was ultimately the winner.

Creativity – If you had two players for Richmond throwing a TD pass NOT named Wickersham or Coleman on your bingo card, you win. Savon Smith threw his 2nd career TD pass and Jasiah Williams threw the eventual game winner. We also saw a few new formations that burned the Tribe defense early on, and it’s amazing to watch this offense evolve each week.

Kyle Wickersham – Another solid game from #16. Completed 67% of his passes and torched the Tribe with his legs for 72 yards rushing and countless 1st downs. Wasn’t his flashiest game but he was steady for the Spiders once again. I would’ve liked to see more from him in the 2nd half (more below) but his first regular season as a starter was smoother and more consistent than I could’ve imagined.

Targets – Didn’t love how our targets ended up for the day. TEs and RBs had 11 total targets, while our WRs had 12. Looking at our games this year, when our WR targets get “too low” this offense slows down. Some of that is good defense, and William & Mary did a nice job of limiting us in key areas, however three targets for DeGennaro is far too few in that big of a game.

Offensive line – Another nice green checkmark for the Hawgs up front. 196 yards rushing, and held W&M to only four TFLs, one sack, and zero QB hurries. Pius was disruptive on some plays, but overall Parker Mitchell did well at RT. The Tribe had an advantage on the edge and we neutralized that by running behind our seniors inside. The level of play these guys have shown up front the past two weeks is very promising heading into the playoffs.

2nd half – My only negative from Elon was our passiveness to start the 2nd half, and it felt like a lot of the same in this one. We controlled the line of scrimmage the 1st half, which led to more running, yet the 1st & 2nd down run/pass ratio was even more skewed the final 30 minutes.

For the season Richmond is a little over 60% running it on 1st & 2nd down. The 1st half splits from Saturday being slightly more run heavy (66%) make sense, as we were in control up front. Yet in a one-score ballgame for most of the 2nd half, the early-down running jumped to over 75% despite less success. Richmond was averaging 5.7 YPC in the 1st half, a number that dropped to 4 YPC in the 2nd half.

Now I get that having a lead factors in here – you don’t want to keep throwing incompletions (or INTs) while you’re winning to give them more time and possessions. However, it was 17-10 coming out of halftime and our defense forced a quick 3 & out. Wickersham was hot (9/9 passing in the 2nd quarter) and had made great decisions the 1st half. That’s the time to jump on them and make the deficit start to feel insurmountable.

Don’t get me wrong – 27 points against that defense will win you a lot of football games. October/Ross have proved they belong as play-callers, and it’s their progression that makes me want to see even more. To me there’s a balance between protecting the lead and extending the lead, and right now we’re doing a little too much protecting and not enough extending. It’s easy to say when W&M almost comes back, but I truly believe this offense can take over games and hang 35+ each week. It doesn’t mean you become overly aggressive, but we definitely can be more assertive. Hoping we see an even more complete game from this side of the ball next weekend.

Defense

10 drives – 5 punts (50%), 3 TDs (30%), 2 FGs (20%)

A quick opening TD for the Tribe was a shock, but this defense settled in well afterwards. The 4th quarter was a different story, surrendering three scoring drives that almost saw this entire season slip away. W&M had a similar game plan to last season and burned us in a lot of those same areas. A tremendous effort on the final play to ensure a UR victory but definitely some things to clean up before Central comes to town.

Defensive line – Very little room to run for the Tribe yesterday. The goal was to make them pass and we did just that. They finished with 170 yards on 35 carries, and if you take away the one 63-yard run it amounts to just 3.1 YPC. Matei Fitz had a stellar day, recording two sacks and three TFLs, including a huge 3rd down stop. Overall the unit did a nice job of keeping Darius Wilson contained, and although we didn’t get him on the ground as much as we would’ve liked it definitely limited his ability to create and keep plays alive. W&M has a strong O-line but our D-line had no issues going toe-to-toe with them Saturday.

Darius Wilson – Second straight season that Wilson was able to find numerous chunk plays in the passing game against the Spiders. Wilson came in only throwing for 156 YPG yet completed 12 of 20 passes for 247 yards and a TD. Averaging over 12 YPA far exceeded his season average and reminded me a lot of last season when we went for 17.4 YPA (227 yards on 13 attempts). We found ourselves a step behind in 1-on-1 coverage too often, and they made us pay with big gains. A few were really nice catches but there were also communication issues. There were too many wheel routes that weren’t picked up and we were fortunate they dropped a wide-open TD in the 1st half.

The staff was trying anything they could down the stretch to help combat this. We used the 4-2-5 plenty in the 2nd half, and even saw Jabril Hayes sub in at the field corner spot for a few drives. Huesman was quite animated throughout as it was clear they were trying to find a combination that worked. I give Tomlinson credit – he played the jump ball perfectly (despite what the officials said) on W&M’s last drive and snuffed out the rollout on the 2-point conversion. We’ll need to return to our Rhody/Elon form if we want to grab some playoff wins.

Tackling – Overall a strong tackling game for the Spiders. We won’t make them all, but the Tribe rarely got their skill guys in the open field due to us either making the tackle or rallying well to the football. Their second to last TD drive saw us miss a tackle on Imoh on the edge, followed by Banks missing one over the middle, yet aside from that it was a strong performance. W&M tried getting Hollis Mathis 1-on-1 with a linebacker or safety twice yet both times we played our assignments well and converted the tackle. Great discipline from the Spiders’ defense in an important area.

The Aaron Trusler Section

It’s his section until further notice. 44 yards/punt, including a 76 yarder and two downed inside the 20. Richmond ends the season as the #1 net punting average team, a full two yards above #2 Elon. All-CAA honors are a given at this point, with the only question being if he’ll get 1st team.

Andrew Lopez also had his most important game of the season, drilling two field goals to continually keep the lead out of the Tribe’s reach. I said W&M had the kicking advantage going in but Lopez having an identical day to Bonoffski (2/2 FGs, 3/3 PATs) was critical for the Spiders.

Seniors

This applies to both sides of the ball and it’d be wrong for me not to mention this. A lot of guys had bigger and better opportunities available to them this past offseason. Whether it was the ability to make the FBS jump, or NFL interest, multiple guys with a COVID year passed up other options to return for a final season. You could tell from fall camp how much this final year meant to some of these seniors. They didn’t just want to be the group that ended UR’s six year playoff drought last season, they wanted to start a new playoff streak. They weren’t content getting a playoff bid while W&M won the Capital Cup and CAA title on their home turf, they wanted that elusive CAA ring and to return the favor this year. They chose to come back to Richmond for all those reasons and accomplished each and every one of them. Rarely do things go as planned (as we proved this September) however this group will forever be a special one. Us fans owe them plenty of praise for what they were able to do with their years on campus and the direction they’ve help steer this program moving forward.

Next Post

I’m guessing you’ve heard – the Spiders are back in the playoffs with another Thanksgiving weekend home game. My guess was (somewhat unfortunately) correct, as the MEAC runners-up in NC Central come to town, with the winner going on to face #5 Albany. Let’s keep this winning streak rolling.

FCS Playoffs 1st round: North Carolina Central preview (Thursday 🙂 )