Coach Huesman wasn’t shy about using the word embarrassing in his postgame interview, and it’s easy to understand why. The Spiders fell on the road to a 1-5 Fordham team, suffering our first FCS loss of the season and heading into the bye week searching for answers.
Game Thoughts
The Spiders are cursed in the Bronx. Having flown to Fordham to watch us in 2019, I truly didn’t think this road trip could get any worse. Writing this recap in the airport on Sunday, it sure feels close.
This is exactly why we shouldn’t have been satisfied with our early-season wins. Too often, I see comments suggesting that fans expect too much, demand perfection, or are simply never satisfied. Winning is always the goal, and we should absolutely celebrate every victory, but how you win matters when evaluating where a team is headed.
There’s a big difference between expecting perfection and recognizing that a team isn’t playing well enough, especially when you’ve got half a season’s worth of games to go on. Unfortunately, that’s what a lot of us were seeing with the Spiders. Perseverance and the ability to fight for 60 minutes are great qualities, but when you’re having to rely on them week after week just to get past bad teams, that’s a warning sign in itself. We were 5-1, ranked in the top 20, and still looked nothing like a playoff contender. Eventually, that was going to catch up to us.
In reality, Saturday’s performance wasn’t all that different from some of our recent games. The offense scored one TD — we did that against Furman and survived. We committed multiple turnovers — we’d done that a couple times already and survived. Our FCS opponents are now a combined 9-27, yet the Spiders have just one double-digit victory and already have a loss. Against that level of competition, a net scoring differential of only 38 points says plenty.
Again, this isn’t about style points. It’s about proving you’re in a different class than the inferior teams on your schedule. And right now, Richmond hasn’t come close to doing that.
4th Downs – Richmond went for it on 4th down three times, as Coach Huesman continues to show more aggression than we’re accustomed to. Two came in the 1st quarter, both on 4th & short in our own territory. It’s easy to say after converting both, but I continue to like the approach. Even when it doesn’t work, I’d rather see that mindset on 4th & 1 than an overly conservative approach.
The third decision is more debatable. Facing 4th & 8 from the Fordham 36 with about eight minutes remaining, we opted to go for it rather than try to pin the Rams deep. There was plenty of time for Fordham to score with good field position, but also plenty of time for us to get the ball back and put together another drive. Huesman didn’t address the decision afterward, but I imagine he felt this might be our best remaining opportunity to score (in fairness, it was our second-longest drive of the day). Eight yards was too much for my liking, although after watching our offense struggle all afternoon, I’m not sure overtime would’ve gone our way, either.
Offense
“Quarterback play was horrible, wide out play was horrible, they couldn’t block, our offensive line couldn’t block, we fumble… it was absolute garbage offensively to score 7 points. This was a total embarrassment offensively.” – Coach Huesman
Not much else to say. Seven offensive points against a team allowing 33 per game is inexcusable, and that drive chart paints a nauseating picture. Any positives from the 2nd-half comeback against Lafayette went right out the window, as the offense struggled to move the ball all afternoon and finished with more turnovers than red-zone trips.
What Is Our Identity? – I could spend time breaking down the problems at quarterback, wide receiver, and along the offensive line, or digging into the ugly numbers — just 122 passing yards, 204 yards of total offense, three drops, three sacks allowed, etc. But at this point, that feels like missing the bigger issue. I’m not glossing over the individual mistakes or the poor production; those problems are well established. I’m more concerned with the way we’re running this offense. What exactly are we trying to establish offensively? Right now, I honestly couldn’t tell you. We tried some new things against Fordham, using empty/5-wide sets much more than we’ve seen before, but the overall approach hasn’t really changed. We’re struggling to sustain drives, and opposing defenses rarely seem uncomfortable with what we’re asking them to defend.
- Run/Pass Splits – For the game, we called passes on 68% of plays and runs on just 32%. Despite Aziz Foster-Powell and Jamaal Brown averaging over 5 YPC, they combined for only 18 carries as we continued throwing at a high rate. For a team I thought was looking to establish itself on the ground, we’ve seemingly moved away from what’s been working in favor of throwing the ball 40+ times. Over the past four weeks, we’re averaging 42 pass attempts per game and completing just 58% of passes. That 68/32 split is shocking given what we’ve seen from our RBs and QB the last month.
- Passing Chart – I’ll include it below, but the Spiders were stuck near the line of scrimmage in this one. We threw eight passes behind the line of scrimmage, many of them designed swings or screens, and gained just six total yards. Only one of those plays gained more than 3 yards. As we saw earlier in the season, our screen game simply hasn’t been blocked well enough to consistently keep us on schedule. Meanwhile, we had zero completions in the 16+ yard bucket, with our longest completion traveling just 10 yards downfield. Drops certainly played a role, as Allen, Clarke, and Rice all dropped critical downfield passes. Still, it’s pretty easy for a defense to contain a pass-heavy offense that rarely threatens them downfield.
Between throwing the ball a ton without generating many opportunities to connect downfield, it doesn’t feel like we’re playing to our guys’ strengths. It’s hard to figure out what we’re actually trying to do offensively. Seven games into the season, we should have a much better idea of what this offense is supposed to be. Instead, we’re still searching for an identity, and I’m not sure we’re any closer to finding it.
Defense
I always say I’d be happy allowing 14 points to any of our opponents, and the defense effectively did that by giving up three TDs while scoring one of its own. It was a shaky start, but we settled in nicely, corrected some of the issues we saw against Lafayette, and played well enough to win.
Fordham had a clear game plan to neutralize our pass rush: run the ball early and often, and get it out quickly when throwing. Their commitment to the run kept our DEs from getting upfield as aggressively, forcing them to respect their rushing lanes rather than simply attacking the quarterback. The quick passing game further limited our opportunities to generate pressure, although it also kept Fordham from doing much through the air (fewer than 100 yards on 25 attempts). They ran it well enough to compensate, however, with their RBs combining for 141 yards on 25 carries. In the end, 258 yards of offense, two turnovers, and two red-zone failures isn’t a winning box score for an offense, but it was enough this weekend.
Captains – This is why experience and player retention remain paramount. Cam Byrd made Gunnar Smith pay for holding onto the ball a half-second too long, forcing a fumble that Jordan Allen recovered for a touchdown. Allen wasn’t finished, coming up with an interception after our offense handed Fordham possession deep in the red zone. With that sack, Byrd now has 25 career sacks, tied for second all-time in Richmond history. I don’t know if he can pick up seven more before the season ends to claim the top spot, but he’s already cemented his place among the program’s all-time greats. Both graduate students continue to excel, and their efforts nearly carried the Spiders to victory.
Red Zone – Two more red-zone stops for the Spiders, who have now kept opponents out of the end zone on multiple red-zone trips in three consecutive games. After a rough start to the season in this area, the defense has made significant strides in recent weeks. The Furman, Lafayette, and Fordham games have all been heavily influenced by multiple defensive red-zone stops, highlighting just how impactful our defense has been.
Special Teams
I thought our FG unit looked better on the two PATs. Jaiden Fair had opportunities to break a couple of tackles on punt returns but couldn’t, although he’s still handling that position well. Coach Huesman called the special teams units “soft” in his postgame comments, which I assume was directed at the kickoff units. One big return allowed on kickoff coverage isn’t particularly concerning, given how solid that group has been all season. Our kickoff returns, however, continue to disappoint. We had two returns, neither of which reached the 25-yard line, as we continue to struggle to generate anything in that phase of the game.
Next Post
I’ll take a bye alongside the Spiders this week, jumping back into the seemingly now must-win Colgate matchup in two weeks.
2026 — Game 8: Colgate Preview – Friday, October 23rd
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