Yet another close battle, this one not going the Spiders’ way. The home loss to Lafayette caps a very disappointing inaugural Patriot League season however the always important showdown with William & Mary is still on deck.

Drives

Game thoughts

Seven Patriot League games, seven one-score results. This one definitely didn’t lack entertainment as the Spiders were one completion away from an unthinkable comeback. Overall that was our 9th one-possession game, as there have been plenty of lessons to learn each week.

The teams ended up with similar numbers. That’s not unlike most of the season, as there hasn’t been anyone we’ve faced that I thought was far and away more talented. Don’t get me wrong, Lafayette is the better team and has tremendous talent, however we gave them a 60 minute fight and were in it until the end. I will continue to commend the team for their willingness to battle no matter the deficit.

Penalties – “That’s a culture thing.” Short and sweet from Chris Anderson, as the Spiders hurt themselves again with nearly 100 yards of penalties, including multiple unsportsmanlike flags. Looking to 2026 I imagine this will be a top priority. For a team that was so good at avoiding penalties in recent seasons a complete reversal in 2025 still shocks me. Hopefully things are better against William & Mary but there’s plenty of work to be done in the spring/summer.

1st half missed chances – I talked about how Lafayette was winning games in the 1st half and we had chances to at least be tied at halftime. The defense gave us great field position on drive #2, as we were quickly at the Lafayette 30 after a Leopards’ penalty. We didn’t get much further, not even reaching the redzone and instead missing a 43-yard field goal. Then in the 2nd quarter, trailing 14-7, we got stopped on 4th & 1 at the Lafayette 9-yard line, missing a crucial redzone opportunity just before half. Like a lot of other weeks we could’ve been either tied or leading at the break, rather than trying to climb out of another halftime hole.

Personnel – Good on Coach Huesman getting senior Cole Schilling 12 snaps, as #89 had three targets and caught a pass for six yards. Carson Derey made his collegiate debut, with other true freshmen Donovan Higgins, Jackson Thorne, and Matthew Martin seeing the field for another week (all below the 4-game redshirt rule).

Offense

14 drives – 95 snaps | 6 punts, 4 TDs, 3 turnovers [2 on downs], 1 FG attempt

95 snaps (excluding the two spikes) is insane. We got to see everything the Spiders had to offer and for the second straight week it was a QB off the bench providing a spark.

Offensive line – Carbajal remained out, with Godwin Burger getting the start at RT. PFF gave him the highest grade of all UR linemen, impressive given his lack of game experience (less than 100 snaps). Overall we limited Lafayette to one sack and six TFLs. With Anderson, Smith, and Burger in their first season of collegiate action they held their own against a good D-line.

Quarterbacks – Huge props to Kyle Wickersham, taking over in the 2nd half and leading three scoring drives. He hit Griffin and Dawson on some beautiful throws while running for 41 yards and another TD. I can’t imagine he’s at 100% but he nearly willed this team to a crazy win. It was a different approach from the UR offense, having a great run/pass balance (before things got lopsided during the pass heavy comeback), but a few things stood out from our scheme that show why we’re still lagging behind.

The yards/attempt remain low. Snelsire only completing 50% of passes doesn’t help this but Wickersham’s 6.7 YPA would still be below the FCS average. There’s just so many short throws that continue to drag this down. Like prior weeks, we had 10 passes behind the line of scrimmage that netted a total of two yards. His accuracy was excellent but the continual short gains led to Richmond facing 23 3rd downs and seven 4th downs. 32% of our offensive plays were run on either 3rd or 4th down. Facing that many 3rd/4th downs is simply not a recipe for success and highlights our inability to consistently gain meaningful yardage.

What really sticks out to me are the deflections. The Leopards had four from their D-linemen and 10 from their secondary/linebackers. Nothing says you aren’t fooling defenses more than them consistently being in position to make plays. All of these things are contributing to our ceiling being much lower than it should be. I’m glad we gave our QBs a much more balanced approach but there’s too many factors working against us to see the Spiders scoring 30+ points.

Ja’Vion Griffin – I’m thrilled that we finally got to see the real J5 these past couple weeks. Another 100-yard game, this time hauling in 10 passes for 113 yards and a TD. I’ll give Isaiah Dawson his flowers too (7 for 103 yds) but it’s great to see the senior finish out November strong. The only returning WR with any real experience, Griffin was a steady fixture on the outside this year and I hope he caps it off with a great Capital Cup.

Defense

13 drives – 59 snaps | 7 punts, 5 TDs, 1 turnover

Chunk plays – Coach Huesman called out the big plays hurting us once again. Lafayette had 10 plays go for 15+ yards, with those 10 plays alone accounting for 73% of their total yards. It feels like any momentum quickly evaporates when your opponent keeps delivering big gains. Overall we did some good things on defense – redzone stop thanks to a huge turnover, held them to 36% on 3rd down, and won field position early, yet we couldn’t stop the Leopards from hitting the homerun and it cost us.

Kente Edwards – #26 is fun to watch until he’s doing it against your team. Explosive, elusive, physically – he’s got plenty of tools and it felt like watching ZPS at times. Our run defense played well for a bunch of snaps – we held Edwards to 33 yards on his first 11 carries, plus 62% of his touches went for 4 yards or less. Like I mentioned, it came down to chunk gains and his two 60+ yard rushes eventually led to a 265 yard day. The last time Richmond allowed one guy to go for 250+ yards? Terrance West, leading Towson all the way to the title game in 2013. That’s a cool story to talk about 12 years later and I’ll probably need that long to recover from what Edwards did to us over the weekend.

Communication – “Our eyes were all over the place.” Coach was not happy with our defensive discipline, blowing some coverages and giving Lafayette too many easy yards. We had pretty good coverage for the game but really let things get away on two of Lafayette’s passing TDs.

The first is a basic switch route. The receivers cross, and when you’re in man coverage you can do two things. You can tell from Jordan Allen’s (#9) stance that he’s expecting Geronomi to trade receivers. Allen would take the inside breaking route and Geronomi will stay outside to cover the wheel route. As you can see from the second image, Geronomi follows the inbreaking route and it leaves Allen two steps behind.

Then on Lafayette’s fake screen – both Allen & Geronomi bite on #12, leaving the slot receiver (somewhat blocked by the graphic) streaking wide open towards the endzone.

Who was right? I don’t know and it doesn’t matter. At the end of the day those were two big plays due to poor communication, especially in week 12. Lafayette’s passing numbers look a lot different had we not given away two scores.

Amir Haskett – Haskett got 32 snaps in his first game at corner and played really well. He saw six passes thrown his way, allowing just two receptions for 10 yards, along with four solo tackles. He’s shown quickness and has good size (6′) so he could be another option moving forward. I imagine he’ll get more reps against a solid W&M passing attack next week.

Special Teams

The McManus onside kick was better than it looked. One of those low spinners that was working back towards the 45-yard line, it probably needed a little more steam but we also need to get out of the way and give it a chance. Teams opt for that a lot more than the high bouncer these days.

Not much in the kickoff return game, as teams seemed to have snuffed that out that wide look we keep going for. On punt returns Jaiden Fair fielded a number of wobbly punts without issue but I’m guessing he doesn’t have his full burst back. Given he played zero offensive snaps I’m thinking he’s less than 100% so credit to him for still giving it a go.

Next Post

Game 12 – 2025: William & Mary preview – Friday, November 21st