Richmond was locked in a competitive battle against a team that shouldn’t be competing with us. A win is a win, as style points won’t factor into our playoff hopes, but I added a few more questions to my list as we officially enter CAA play.

Box Score

I can’t use the drive chart from Delaware State’s site because the official box score is wrong. They don’t have any stats for Andrew King, despite a 40-yard reception and 21-yard TD run. Instead, they have that as a 59-yard ZPS TD reception. Receiving numbers are wrong for Griffin and Robbert, as well as overstated rushing yards for ZPS. If you look at the play-by-plays, they start the ball at the wrong spot (DSU 41 instead of UR 41) most of the time, which leads to wrong yardages for individual numbers. There are also just some phantom plays in there, as the Delaware State stat keeper was lost the entire game. Hoping our athletic department will get this corrected on our end, but for the recap I charted the entire game while rewatching it. Correct offensive statistics are below.

**UPDATE – got word this morning this has been corrected on the UR official site. Credit to our guys getting this fixed. I still think Garcia Jr.’s rushing number is off but it’s much closer now.**

Offense

66 snaps | 10 drives – 5 TDs (50%), 2 FG attempts (20%), 2 INTs (20%), 1 punt (10%)

Some real excitement from the UR offense on Saturday. Great games from a few guys and we really saw things open up for the first time all season.

1st down/passing chart – Now that is how an offense is supposed to look. To be clear, this section is about plays, not players.

A typical Cam Coleman passing chart, as we saw this offense continually stretch the ball downfield. 2/3 of all passes were in the intermediate and deep zones, a reversal of the first few weeks of the season. He got Landon Ellis heavily involved in the offense, with Griffin and Garcia Jr. also picking up chunk plays. We saw some concepts we hadn’t seen, with a lot more wheel routes and tight ends/backs down the seam. Richmond nearly doubled their season passing total, as we entered with less than 400 yards passing through three games.

Aside from working the ball downfield, our run/pass splits on early downs were much more balanced.

The Spiders ran the ball well, and this is still a team that wants to win on the ground, however the balance was so much better this weekend. We threw it a ton on 2nd down, and even with the lead in the 2nd half we threw it on 1st down just as often as we ran it. That was an offense that took the fight to Delaware State, and it likely left many wondering where this was the first three games. That wasn’t a level of defense we should draw many conclusions from, however it was reassuring to see us open the playbook before conference play.

Cam Coleman – A good game from #14. The TD drops from Garcia Jr. and Ellis didn’t help, and he likely would’ve eclipsed the 400-yard mark if they bring those in. He looked comfortable in the pocket and got to his 2nd and 3rd reads a bunch, which is big for this offense. Plenty of weapons surround DeGennaro (when he returns), so forcing teams to cover three or four guys for 60 minutes puts this group at another level.

Now, there were more than a handful of throws that got away from him. The timing on some of the shorter throws wasn’t there, something I hope improves with another week of him taking QB1 reps. He overshot Griffin and Garcia Jr. (maybe a drop?) for potential TDs, but again I’d rather us keep taking good looks downfield than running it 75+% of the time.

The redzone turnover was tough to swallow, as we gave away our momentum heading into the locker room. I give him credit, he responded with two TD drives to open the 3rd quarter, and more than made up for it. There was plenty more good than bad from Coleman on Saturday, and assuming he’s the guy next weekend we’ll need him to continue to push the ball downfield against a vulnerable Elon defense.

Landon Ellis – How would Landon Ellis do in DeGennaro’s place? Pretty dang well. I’m sure that TD drop is still on his mind but he won 1-on-1 battles and converted a few big 3rd downs. A career day from #1 and the combo of he and Griffin remain legitimate outside threats.

Running backs – I’m expecting Foster-Powell back soon, but Zach Palmer-Smith is RB1 until further notice. A 150+ yard day, three TDs, and a steady workhorse behind this O-line. He’s finding the holes well and hits the rushing lanes hard. Drew King continues to impress in his limited role, with a big play both running and catching the ball. If Foster-Powell returns we may see them try and redshirt #8, but I’m guessing that’s still up in the air for now.

Offensive line – Richmond ends non-conference play with only two sacks allowed, 4.7 yards/carry, and 190 yards/game rushing. Great to see Salyers returning to form, as he’s the highest rated run and pass blocker so far. Gouveia being out makes this a thin group, so it was the first game where four starters played all the snaps (Elia, Salyers, Hummel, Mitchell). Overall, a fantastic start to the season from the five guys up front.

Defense

66 snaps | 9 drives – 4 punts (45%), 3 TD (33%), 2 FG attempts (22%)

Too many points and too many yards allowed against an offense that hasn’t done much in two years. Thankfully they missed their share of shots downfield that could’ve made this game even closer than it was.

Matthew Traynor – The brightest spot in my eyes continues to be #7. Playmaker on special teams, solid tackler from the secondary, and continues to get more and more snaps on a weekly basis. He’s the second highest rated UR defender (per PFF) through four games, just behind Carter Glassmyer. You don’t see many R-Fr. play to the level he has so early in a career, and it really feels like UR got a special athlete.

Defensive line – The Hornets ran for 182 yards at just under 5 YPC, as QB Marqui Adams gave Richmond fits on Saturday. We were in the backfield plenty, tallying four sacks, seven TFLs, and plenty of QB hurries, but he escaped and created a fair number of plays with his legs. A solid game from the defensive ends, with Jeremiah Grant and Camden Byrd combining for three sacks. Grant now has six sacks on the season, with at least one sack in each game so far. Special start to his senior season, and his presence becomes more important with the injury situation.

Zion Bryson left the game and it didn’t look good, meaning the Spiders have potentially lost defensive ends #2 and #4 heading into CAA play. Grant and Byrd will be the starters, with Thaos Figaro now DE #3. Just not as much experience up front as we were planning on, and I think we’re seeing this group get a little gassed towards the end of games.

Sustained drives – Of Delaware State’s nine drives, five of them went for 60+ yards at an average of 9.2 plays/drive. We were solid in holding them to 3/12 on 3rd down, but they had way too much early down success to move the ball downfield. That’s a team we should be beating on early downs and forcing a lot more 3 & outs against. It resulted in the Hornets holding the ball for nearly 34 minutes and dictating the game to their style.

This led to us being pretty worn down as the game progressed, and really opened things up for their passing game. Once our pass rush slowed down in the 2nd half, the Hornets average yards/play jumped from 4 up to 7.9. They found chunk plays in the passing game and moved the ball down the field consistently in the final 30 minutes. Allowing over 12 yards/completion was much higher than I was expecting from our secondary, and they’ll continue to be tested as we move into conference play.

Special Teams

Up and down special teams game. Carsen Stocklinski’s blocked field goal was critical late in the 3rd quarter, as they had a chance to enter the final 15 minutes down just one possession. Loved what I saw from the KOC unit, with Traynor making multiple plays once again.

Veney looked a little shaky on his first punt return but fielded a couple after that well. Still expecting him to be the returning if DeGennaro can’t go next week. Brandon Peskin mishit his first field goal but knocked the 40-yarder (box score says 49, it was 40) through to give the Spiders a comfortable lead late. 5/7 on field goals so far for #34, who’s been a nice transfer portal addition.

Next Post

Game 5 – 2024: Elon Preview – Friday, September 27th