Richmond got out to a 20-0 halftime lead and kept our foot on the gas to coast to an easy road win.

Well, that should’ve been the headline, yet sadly we all know that didn’t happen. What had the chance to be a comfortable Week 2 win turned into a dogfight, with the Spiders doing just enough to escape D.C. with a non-conference road win.

Game thoughts

“Tough conditions… you know all over – lotta tough conditions out here.”  Between play clocks not working, officials completely lost on some plays, locker rooms not being fully functional, the box score being wrong (receiving totals, punting stats, etc.), and Bob Black exiled on the roof, it was a less-than-ideal setup. With only two FCS non-conference games each year, I’d like to see us not put ourselves in these spots anymore. I’ll leave it at that.

Injuries – The nightmare storyline continues, with more starters/contributors going down on Saturday. Glassmyer and Allen remained out. Quintin McCray and Lee Bruner IV (both hurt against Bucknell) also did not dress.

In place of Bruner IV was Caleb Geronomi, who was hurt on a deep pass and did not return. Then it was starting RT Godwin Burger hurting his knee (I think) and limping off. And to close out the game, a nasty tackle on Jamaal Brown had him very slow to walk off. This doesn’t even count Snelsire hobbling through the 2nd half, Sean Clarke with a bigger brace on his knee, and Tayshaun Burney not at 100%.

All in all, the Spiders are banged up and we’re reaching farther down the depth chart than we should in Week 2. Credit to Coleman Calmus (24 snaps in his first collegiate action) and Luke Surrett (36 snaps in his first collegiate action) for stepping up, but the injury situation is looming over a 2-0 start.

Turnovers – You may not find a better example of turnovers swinging momentum in a football game. First it was Kyree Richardson, snagging an interception on the third play of the game to give the offense a short field and a six-point lead two minutes into the game. Then it was a Lehigh 2025-esque bad snap, gifting Howard a touchdown to cut into their 20-point deficit and completely bring their sideline and crowd back into the game. Thankfully the Bison returned the favor once again, muffing a punt when they had a chance to tie the game in the 3rd quarter, ultimately giving us the final TD that we needed. Turnovers will always happen on both sides, which is why maintaining the momentum you have by finishing games is so important.

Complete games – Richmond is winning 1st halves 48-0 and losing 2nd halves 15-35. Plenty more to dive into regarding the offense but the takeaway is the same — playoff teams play 60-minute games. Thankfully we had two of our lower-rated opponents to begin the season, but once Patriot League play really gets going, we can’t rely on one good half to bring home the win.

Offense

A couple of nice drives early in the game; however, the drive chart really highlights our inability to move the ball for most of the evening.

Offensive Line – Not what we wanted to see in the trenches. Four sacks allowed, a few missed assignments that blew up plays, and no consistent run game.

24 touches for our RBs and barely over 3 YPC. Even worse, 67% (16/24) of our rushing attempts went for 3 yards or less. We never developed a consistent running game and it caught up to us as the game went along. We knew Howard would be a tougher test than Bucknell, but I was really hoping to see us push back stronger than we did.

Tight Ends – How much fun is it to watch us utilize a skilled tight end?

We got Clarke the ball early and often, finishing with seven catches for 80 yards and the game-winning TD. I love how we’re using him downfield while still adding some quick hitters in there. Throw Carson Derey into this as well, playing 28 snaps and giving us two solid options at a position where we’re finally seeing the true upside.

Ashten Snelsire – A solid box score for #18 but definitely a day of “what could’ve been.” 19/35 for 261 yards, 3 TDs, and 0 INTs will win you a lot of football games. He did everything we needed him to, making some huge 3rd down throws and showing some guts on the 2-point conversion. It’s frustrating because he missed a handful of chunk plays by seemingly inches. Factor in a few drops and probably a missed call or two, and he would’ve surpassed 300 yards easily with a much higher completion percentage.

No arguments with that passing chart. 4/15 on deep balls leaves room for improvement but I like that we’re playing to his strength. We learned our lesson from Week 1, only throwing two passes behind the line of scrimmage and completely scrapping the WR screens. It’s that level of adjustment that had me encouraged during halftime, and left me discouraged leaving the stadium a few hours later.

1st half vs 2nd half – Now for the real crux of it. What I loved about the 1st half was that we adjusted our play calling to counter our inefficiencies in the run game. Richmond threw it on 62% of 1st downs and 75% of 2nd downs, moving the ball with ease and taking pressure off our ineffective run game.

Where it all went awry was the 2nd half — 1st and 2nd down passing plummeted, leaving us with too many 3rd & longs. This was not a passing chart problem; we did a great job of working the ball downfield and not staying condensed to the line of scrimmage—we simply lost our 1st half identity that led to three scores.

Part of this I understand. Just because you aren’t running it well early doesn’t mean you abandon the run, especially when you’re up 20-0. The issue is that we kept committing to it despite the results only getting worse. In the 2nd half, 11 of 14 (79%) designed running plays went for 3 yards or less.

My point isn’t that we struggled to run the ball in the 2nd half — we struggled the ENTIRE game. The difference is we helped ourselves by calling around that in the 1st half, sneaking well-timed run plays in between passes, but we lost that identity in the 2nd half. Just because you’re winning doesn’t mean you bail on what got you there. Our offense needs to find the balance between developing/expanding the run and sticking with what works. No lead should cause you to lose your identity.

Defense

Not much to say, as it was another strong day from the UR defense. Lots of empty possessions early on, with Howard only going more than 20 yards in one of their first eight possessions. A bit of a 2nd half letdown saw the Bison gain some traction, but we buckled down to get two big stops to seal the win.

D-line/Linebackers – Really good numbers from the guys up front. Four sacks, six TFLs, and six QB hurries show how often we were in the backfield. Sellers, Byrd, and Baldwin all recorded sacks, with Blake Houser and Jackson Thorne heavily involved in keeping Howard’s run game at bay. Their RBs averaged 4 YPC and had 61% of attempts go for 3 yards or less. Nice job across the board to win the line of scrimmage.

Chunk Plays – I talked about how Howard relies on chunk plays, and that’s exactly what kept them in it. Of their 240 yards of offense, 78 yards (33%) came on just three plays. Each of those big plays came on a TD drive, as they were able to capitalize every time they found a hole in our defense.

Remove those and the Bison averaged a mere 2.7 yards/play. Chunk plays are a part of any game, but it does show how solid we were outside of a few snaps. I’ll say what I said after Bucknell — there’s not a team on our schedule I wouldn’t be ok allowing 14 points to, and our defense did that for the second straight week.

Secondary – Ja’Shawn Scroggins finished 9/28 for 109 yards. We kept him below the 50% completion mark and found ourselves in good position most of the day. Before his injury, Caleb Geronomi had two breakups and was Richmond’s highest-rated cover guy (by PFF) in his first college start. Definitely a few plays we’d like back, but overall a solid day from a secondary that was on our 3rd-string free safety for half the game.

Special Teams

Remember the pleasantly boring special teams last week? This past Saturday was anything but that, especially for our kicking game.

It started with a kickoff out of bounds. Then we had a PAT blocked. Then to cap it off, a chance to take a two-score lead with four minutes remaining sailed right and put a bow on a forgettable evening. Jackson Bonser recovered well, drilling two touchbacks, so I’m not worried about #97. The same goes for Kyle Bitsko — he was too good in camp to sound the alarm on missing his first collegiate field goal attempt. I do hope he gets a chance @ NC State to put the miss behind him.

While the kicking game was shaky, Ned Gray was not. Over 45 yards/punt with three 50+ yarders. He flipped the field a few times in key moments, helping to make up for our lack of offensive production. The 2nd half would’ve had a very different feel without Gray pinning Howard deep in their own territory. Two games in and Ned has a fantastic 2026 season going.

Next Post

2026 — Game 3: NC State Preview – Thursday, September 10th