Howard was the better team for most of the day but Richmond stole the win with critical 4th quarter plays. Another ugly win for the Spiders, who now enter October at 3-2.

Drives

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

Game thoughts

Howard – I like Howard’s football team. Very veteran presence, extremely physical, and some good skill position guys. I’m sure they feel like they gave that game away and that’s because they did. They controlled every aspect of the game, winning the time of possession by holding the ball for over 42 minutes. For a while we couldn’t do anything on offense or defense, showing that VMI was a poor indicator for what will and won’t work moving forward. I’m hopeful that was a wakeup call for some drastic changes needed as we resume Patriot League play.

4th quarter – It would have been easy to roll over after an uninspiring 1st half however our guys play hard for four quarters every single time. The ESPN win probability had Howard with a 95% chance to win in the 4th quarter yet our intensity never faded. The defense got three stops while the offense scored twice and effectively ran the clock out. The list of things we need to improve on continues to grow however you can never knock the 60-minute effort of the entire squad.

Penalties – Richmond looks undisciplined so far, very uncharacteristic of what we’ve seen previously. Unsportsmanlike flags, not getting lined up properly, running into the kicker, etc. We have 314 penalty yards not even halfway through the season, whereas the 2024 Spiders had less than 500 penalty yards all year.

Redshirts – The pregame show announced Michael Creamer was out for the season, meaning he will redshirt. Tramayne Bullock did not play with another true freshman corner (#4 Jeremiah Washington) filling his role, as it looks like we’ll play a few freshmen reserve corners up to the four-game limit.

Offense

10 drives | 42 plays – 6 punts, 2 TDs, 2 turnovers [INT, Safety]

Obviously the injury to Wickersham impacted the game and his status going forward is of upmost importance. In the end there’s no point in me ranting about things we’re all surely thinking – the offense simply isn’t good right now. Blocking wasn’t where we need it to be, the running backs didn’t have much room, and only one WR caught a pass. I think it’s a combination of approach and execution, something you don’t want to be dealing with entering October.

Possessions – Credit to the offense for converting late in the game – the reverse to Dawson brought the energy back and it was a nice concept to get Foster-Powell an easy receiving touchdown. Had the defense not gifted us two drives starting in Howard territory I’m not so sure we find the endzone, but I’m glad our guys did literally just enough to win. Outside of those 4th quarter possessions the consistency was never there. Our longest drive was only seven plays, with the Spiders running just 26 plays in our first six possessions.

Our yards per play explain everything. 16 of our 25 rushes went for three yards or less. On top of that, 13 of our 17 passes were incompletions (aka 0 yards). That means 69% of our plays resulted in negative, zero, or minimal yardage. It’s impossible to find any rhythm or string drives together with so many plays doing nothing. As a result we weren’t in position to convert on 3rd down. Just 22% on the day, with half of our 3rd downs needing 10 or more yards to convert.

Quarterback play – A huge factor in us not finding consistent yardage was our inability to throw. We found some rushing lanes early but without balance we quickly became easy to defend.

4/17 ain’t great. I won’t put the interception on Snelsire, as Veney needs to come back to that ball stronger, however there were too many missed throws all afternoon. Coach Huesman discussed that after the game:

“He’s [Ashten] just gotta play better… Kyle wasn’t playing very good either. Kyle was making way too many mistakes in the reps that he had and Ashten missed some throws.”

It’s hard for me to say too much because I know the lack of reps he’s getting each week. Ashten knows more than anyone that he can/must do better than that. If Kyle can’t go against Bucknell I’m very interesting to see how #18 looks with a full week of preparation. That will be a fairer barometer for judging his performance.

Passing chart – Things would look better with a higher level of execution but I still feel we’re asking a lot from our QBs on every drop back. A lot of our issues stem from being predictable. Teams know we either want to run it early or that we’re going to throw the ball wide.

Only 12% of our attempts being in the middle of the field concerns me. This is not a one game trend, as we’ve had Kyle throwing wide as well. So many of our throws are long and outside, taking time to develop. Between an O-line that was getting pushed back and a back-up QB, we had nothing in the playbook to get receivers the ball in more manageable ways. I’m glad they let Snelsire sling it downfield a handful of times but there have to be easier ways to open up the passing game. Howard realized this and their defensive approach reflected it.

3rd & 4 at midfield, up multiple scores, and they’re practically begging us to take a 1-on-1 shot. We saw this plenty yet we rarely made the throw or had someone open. If teams can continually lineup like this and we can’t exploit it, this is only going to get worse.

Defense

10 drives | 77 snaps – 4 punts, 3 FG attempts, 2 turnovers, 1 TD

It was a shaky start but the Spiders defense held strong yet again and ultimately won us this game. Howard gave us more problems in the trenches than UNC, showing the value of experience and hopefully giving us plenty to learn from. The strength of our numbers remains a staple of this 2025 defense.

1st half/2nd half – Howard gashed us in the 1st half.

We had no answers for the Bison offense yet held up in big spots. They amassed 232 yards in their 1st half drives yet scored just 10 points, a textbook “bend but don’t break” kind of day. Minimizing the damage in the 1st half allowed us to hang around.

When the Spiders returned from the locker room it was a different story – we were stronger up front and in better position in coverage. Every statistic got worse for the Bison in the final 30 minutes, as the holes Howard found in the 1st half closed up and QB Tyriq Starks was under more pressure. Three of our four sacks came in the 2nd half as the UR defense only got stronger as the game went along. Rather than Howard’s O-line wearing us down, we wore them down. We’ve seen our defense do this before but it’s insanely impressive given the fact they played 77 snaps. It speaks to our conditioning and to our depth. That level of effort could catapult our defense moving forward – we have to be so much better earlier in games but stealing a game like that thanks to the contributions of many is a huge plus.

Tackling – I’m not sure if anyone had a good day tackling. So many arm tackles and way too many whiffs. Howard’s running backs were super shifty but we can’t be that bad again. Our angles weren’t great and we looked a step out of position much more than usual. To see Jordan Allen finish with 14 tackles (11 assisted) shows how often a safety was relied on in run support.

CJ Fraser – It was nice to have D’Angelo Stocker back at corner but CJ Fraser’s 2nd INT of the season flipped the entire game. He had nice coverage all day and without the INT (plus the big return) that game may never get close. Howard didn’t test the wide side of the field too often however #29 made his impact when given the chance. With Bucknell and Colgate on deck (two teams that throw the ball well) a lot more will be asked of Fraser and the entire secondary throughout October.

Matei Fitz – Seven tackles, two TFLs, one sack, and an INT for #5. I know both Byrd and Hoilette finished with 1.5 sacks however Matei’s interception was the play we’ll remember more than any, practically handing our offense a late touchdown. That was actually his second career INT for Richmond, snagging an interception in the playoff game against Davidson in 2022. Within an overall young roster the veteran leadership of the D-line always seems to make a play when the team needs it. You can tell from his postgame interview that this group really accepts the challenge of a 60-minute battle and Fitz wasn’t going to let a disappointing 1st half deter them. Through five games, Fitz is on pace to easily surpass his 2024 numbers and land himself an All-Patriot League honor.

Special Teams

UR special teams remain steady. We flipped the script on a good field goal blocking team, blocking an early field goal that ended up being crucial. Isaiah Dawson added another nice kickoff return, with the KOC unit having another great game.

I’m so glad we finally just caught a punt to down the ball. So many teams let it bounce and it’s stupid. No reason to bring a bad bounce into play for an extra yard or two, simply catch the ball ourselves and kill it right there. Good coaching and nice execution by Ned Gray.

Next Post

Game 6 – 2025: Bucknell preview – Friday, October 3rd