No team needs a bye more than Richmond right now. That was 10 times worse than Delaware State, and although we escaped with the win there’s been very little progress in some critical areas.

Drives

Offense

53 snaps | 9 drives – 4 punts (45%), 2 TDs (22%), 2 FGs (22%), 1 turnover on downs (11%)

Another scoop of vanilla from the UR offense against the worst CAA defense we’ll see all year. Without Zach Palmer-Smith carrying this team once again, we’d be in a world of trouble. Coach Huesman said we were outcoached in this one, and I’m guessing many won’t disagree with him.

Running game – Let’s hit on some positives before this gets too negative. The Richmond running game is back. Zach Palmer-Smith had 200 yards, the first 200+ yard rushing game since Jacobi Green in 2015. It was also the first time UR had multiple 100+ yard rushers since that same 2015 season (Jacobi Green, Seth Fisher) thanks to Andrew King getting 100 yards on just six carries. ZPS has over 600 yards the last four games and is on pace to easily eclipse the 1,000-yard mark. The emergence of Andrew King has been a great complement, as the true freshman adds a burst to this running game. He’s now played in four games, but I imagine we’re not redshirting him anymore. For now, the Spiders go as #9 and #8 do.

Offensive line – Two sacks allowed on Saturday. One can be directly pinned on Coleman, the other wasn’t bad either. Between steady pass protection and increasing the rushing YPG to 214, this group keeps winning the line of scrimmage and is keeping the Spiders’ offense alive at the moment. Hummel has done a great job of replacing Gouveia, and we’ll keep leaning on the interior of Elia/Salyers/Hummel until someone shows they can stop it.

Redzone – One TD in four possessions for the Spiders. This team is nauseating to watch in the redzone right now, scoring just two TDs on the last seven trips. That game doesn’t feel nearly as bad if we convert opportunities early on.

In UR’s first five drives, we had a punt, a long TD run, and three redzone trips. The issue is those three redzone opportunities amounted to just six points. We should’ve had 21 points at the half and 28 shortly thereafter. Instead, it was 10-10 at half and the pressure was mounting.

I understand Coleman threw a bad redzone INT at Delaware State. It was a momentum killer and a poor decision, but that throw seemingly caused us to play scared down near the endzone for the foreseeable future. I’m not saying he should just start slinging it around the goal line, but this roster is too talented to struggle this much. Of our 12 redzone plays, only three were passes, with one being a screen to ZPS. This really stood out to me on the first drive of the 2nd half.

After getting stuffed on BOTH 3rd and 4th & short inside the 5-yard line in the 1st half, Richmond drove back down to the redzone to open the 2nd half. The resulting plays were three inside runs, including another stuff on 3rd & 2, with zero passes. Would I like a team running this well to be able to execute better in these spots? Sure, but we can also help them out by being less predictable. Get Coleman on the move to make a decision in space or find your big tight end that we supposedly got for these exact situations. That game wasn’t pretty, but it didn’t need to feel nearly as bad as it does. I’m hoping our redzone play selection gets an overhaul during the bye.

Offensive identity – I asked this ahead of the Charleston Southern game, and while I thought we got some answers the following games, I now enter the bye week just as confused as I was before. Despite our running game easily surpassing 200 yards in both CAA matchups, the offense has only scored 20 points each time. We’ve lost our balance and it’s lowering the ceiling of our scoring capabilities.

The passing game feels extremely predictable right now – 72% of our passes against A&T were thrown towards the right 1/3 of the field. The middle is hardly being used, and even when we did throw over the middle we never went back to it.

The no-huddle drive in empty personnel was Coleman’s best of the game, finding multiple guys down the seam and hitting Robbert off a nice play action look. Richmond quickly picked up gains of 13, 25, and 27 yards to setup a ZPS rushing TD (our only redzone TD of the day). A&T then cut the lead to 3 and forced the Spiders to respond, yet we never saw that personnel grouping, or a shot play over the middle, again.

The receiver targets from the game paint the best picture of the imbalance.

I’d like more than five for DeGennaro but look at the other receivers. One for Jerry, one for Ja’Vion, and NOTHING for Landon Ellis? Jerry is too explosive to have it only once. Griffin remains underutilized. Ellis had 195 yards and 12 receptions the last two games, we couldn’t find him the ball once?

Coleman missed #1 wide open on one of his rollouts, so this isn’t exclusively on play-calling. However, when you only throw it 18 times it naturally lowers the ceiling of our offense. It’s important that we keep feeding the running game for 60 minutes, but I’m hoping our focus during the off week is finding that happy medium between a good rushing attack and still exploiting defenses with our weapons downfield.

Defense

55 snaps | 9 drives – 4 punts (45%), 2 TDs (22%), 2 turnovers [1 on downs] (22%), 1 FG (11%)

Rushing defense was solid, passing defense was not. Same story again for this group on Saturday, and while we tried a few new things we still allowed a below average offense to have their best passing game all season.

Wayne Galloway – A big day for #9s on the UR roster. Galloway had seven tackles and our only sack, including a few nice plays running sideline to sideline. The run fits were solid the entire afternoon, with A&T only breaking one run for more than 20 yards. With QMW out and both Glassmyer and Seelmann playing Sam linebacker, Galloway remains the steady, central piece of this linebacking core.

Matthew Traynor – A couple missed tackles from #7 didn’t help things early in the game, but I think he finished with a solid game. Seven tackles, 1.5 TFLs, and our only two pass breakups of the day. He broke up a 3rd down pass in the endzone to hold A&T to an early field goal, which avoided us ultimately ending up in a 14-point hole. He and Hayes continue to play each snap at safety for the Spiders.

Defensive line – Maybe it was one game, maybe it was what we all feared was coming. Not much pressure on Saturday against an O-line that allowed 15 sacks in the prior five games. My fear is these guys are fading fast with the number of snaps they’re having to eat up. Elijah McMillan worked in as DT #3, with Jamar Hodges as DE #3, but it was a heavy workload for Grant, Fitz, Stocklinski, and Byrd. Had the Spiders established, and maintained, an early lead we might’ve seen more from McMillan, Hodges, and even Lassiter, but with the game that close it was the starters the entire way through.

Credit to the interior though, holding A&T to 88 rushing yards on just 3.1 YPC. They averaged just over 2 yards/play on 1st down, as our front wasn’t allowing running lanes to open up. Coach Huesman challenged Fitz and Stocklinski to bow up earlier in the week, and they did just that on Saturday.

Coverage – That didn’t look like an opponent that was averaging 180 YPG through the air with a 50% completion rate.

Teams haven’t been able to take the top off this defense, but they’re continuing to exploit the intermediate zones. We brought some pressure from a few different spots (both linebackers blitzing, a few pressures from Traynor) however our looks don’t seem to be fooling anyone right now. Fomby completed 81% of his passes and was able to grab seven or eight yards whenever he needed it.

The Spiders played more man coverage than we had seen in recent weeks, but we showed it early and the Aggies were able to get our linebackers 1-on-1 in space. I’m glad we’re continuing to mix up the looks, but we’ve got to find a combination that works before Delaware. Another area that I’m sure will be analyzed during the bye week.

Special Teams

Nice game by Brandon Peskin. 20- and 33-yard field goals don’t stand out in the box score, but the 33-yarder before half was pretty critical. Things feel a lot different if the Spiders are still losing at the break.

Hadn’t seen an Aaron Trusler special in a few games yet he delivered in another big moment. 53 yards/punt, including a 75 yarder that flipped the field after the Spiders got backed up early. His directional kicking remains impeccable, and I’m just waiting for an opponent to not bring enough pressure and us see #35 take off for a 1st down.

Bye Week

Potentially the greatest timed bye week ever. The offense needs to figure out who we are, the defense has our best FCS opponent of the year on deck, and we’re injured/tired across the board. At the midpoint of the season, it’s difficult to get a read on this group.

The Spiders started 0-2 yet enter the bye on a four-game winning streak. I know it doesn’t feel that way right now, but these guys responded well to a poor start. The issue is those four teams are a combined 4-18 on the season. You can only beat who you play, but are we ready for a team like Delaware? The remaining home schedule features Delaware, Towson, and W&M, and if the last six games look anything like the first, we won’t need to worry about Thanksgiving football.

We have seen flashes though, and plenty of these guys have performed in big moments. Richmond needs to figure out how to play complete games, and I’m hoping the staff and players having to stew on that performance for two weeks only makes the fire greater come October 19th.

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Game 7 – 2024: Delaware Preview – Friday, October 18th