Playoffs: Opening Round

The opening round of the FCS playoffs has come and gone and after a couple days a looking from afar, it was a Saturday that was mostly uneventful. Only a couple games had some real intrigue and as I talk about the games, a theme of sloppiness and turnovers comes to the forefront in most of the eight playoff games.

One of the other big storylines from the selection show was a record six CAA teams that made the field of 24. Five of those teams were in action during the open weekend and outside of the one guaranteed CAA win, they went winless. And looking back at all of those games the theme of quick starts followed by turnovers and missed opportunities showcased itself. It's a pretty bad look for a conference that was a meat grinder all year and was thought to be the best conference this year. But it goes to show you how crazy the season has been so far.

One more interesting note...only one road team won and other than Duquesne impressive showing the only road team to give a real challenge was Lamar (mind you they probably should have been hosting that game but I digress)

Onto the games

Duquesne 31 - Towson 10

• A huge congratulations go to the Dukes as they picked up their first-ever FCS playoff win and did it in impressive fashion in a downpour (always wanted to play in one of those type of games). It was also its first win over a ranked team in the FCS era after losing its previous five games. And to top of the happy happies, it was the Northeast conference's second ever FCS playoff win. Wagner got the first in 2012
• The turning point in this game happened when Towson, up 10-0 was driving and had 1st&Goal at the 6-yard line and three plays later fumbled the ball at the 1. Up to that point, Towson had dominated the game and a touchdown probably ends things. After the fumble, Towson had 4 punts and 4 turnover-on-downs and never truly threatened again
• It was yet another huge game from Duquesne Junior RB A.J. Hines...who had 246 yards from scrimmage (171 rushing) and scored two touchdowns. It was his fifth game in which he had over 200 total yards and all during the Dukes current six-game winning streak
• It was a downpour and you gotta give credit to the 2,158 fans who showed up and sat thru the game. It isn't easy being a player on the sidelines during a game like that but to be a fan and have to sit on those cold, wet metal seats shows a lot of courage. And the reward for the Dukes fans who will make the trip to SDSU...more than likely temps in the teens with snow. Gotta love those dedicated fans

Wofford 19 - Elon  7

• Wofford balanced triple-option attack was in full gear to the tune of 344 yards rushing as Elon had no real answers for the ground game. And the unique part of the rushing assault...eight people got at least a carry, nobody had over 15 carries and nobody had over 90 yards on the ground. It was a well-balanced attack
• Let's be real for a second...this was a pretty dull game. Elon just looked outclassed and never really got itself going during the game. It doesn't help when they held the ball for less than 23 minutes but even when it had the ball it never really felt like Wofford was in any real danger. Even when Elon drove in the redzone late, that feeling of maybe things get interesting never happened and Elon turned the ball over and that was that
• This was also a very quick game...like a blink and you'll miss it kinda deal. The runtime on the ESPN3 broadcast...a brisk 2:21:52. That is fast. I know I missed a lot of stuff flipping back in forth to other games and had to rewatch this because it went by so fast

Southeast Missouri 28 - Stony Brook 14

• Another team who picked up its first-ever FCS playoff victory, SEMO continued its magical season after scoring 28 points on four, 3rd quarter possessions. It also tied the school record for victories in a season with its ninth win
• It was a weird game for SEMO. in the four touchdown drives - 13 plays, 140 yards...the non-scoring drives - 52 plays, 100 yards, 11 punts, 1 turnover on downs, 2 ends of half. Yikes
• With four more turnovers, SEMO now has a +27 turnover margin which is best in the FCS. It's also tops in interceptions (23) and overall turnovers (35). That will offset a productive Stony Brook offense who went over 400 yards
• Games like these are weird...not that they aren't boring but they lack a certain flow that makes them enjoyable to watch. It was a nice defensive game on both sides but offensively things just felt disjointed from start to finish save for a few possessions. Good news for SEMO is that they basically play a copy of Stony Brook, just a more well oiled and dangerous one in Weber St

James Madison 20 -  Delaware 6

• This was not a happy James Madison team...they definitely didn't feel like they should have been playing in the opening round and it showed. "...it's not where anyone, I think, in the entire nation expected us to be seeded. But it's where the committee felt like we deserved to be." JMU Head Coach Mike Houston. Should they have been seeded? No, there were more deserving programs but don't tell that to the Dukes
• This was a dominating defensive performance by JMU. Here are some of the numbers...Delaware had only 185 yards of total offense, didn't have a first down until the last drive of the first half, had a safety, allowed five sacks, threw two picks, and of its 16 plays in JMU territory only four went for positive gains (plus a holding penalty). That is lockdown defense)
• If there is one negative about the performance, it has to be the JMU running game. After rumbling for nearly 400 yards versus Towson in the week prior, JMU only managed 93 on the ground on 46 carries

Montana State 35 - Incarnate Word 14

• Talk about starting the game off with a bang...following a three and out by UIW, Montana St blocks the punt and returns it for a touchdown and there was no looking back after that
• For a team playing its first ever playoff game, on the road, in the cold, the nerves and mistakes definitely showed for the Cardinals. Offensively they had four turnovers and defensively never could make the necessary stops to give themselves a shot
• The key stat from this game: The Bobcats owned a 41:22 to 18:38 time of possession advantage which lead to 32 more offensive plays than UIW (86 to 54). 66 of those plays were on the ground

Nicholls 49 -  San Diego  30

• A game that was never really in doubt as the Colonels scored on its first five possessions (all touchdowns) and racked up 606 yards of total offense
• San Diego is not a very good defense, but the ease of which Nicholls ran their offense in the first half was a bit embarrassing for the Torreros. Lots of missed tackles and wide open lanes given up for that defense 
• One of the FCS best QBs played its last game...San Diego senior Anthony Lawrence did his best to try and keep the game close but his 322 yards and 4 touchdowns was not enough. We talk a lot of the accomplishments of Devlin Hodges but the ones of Lawrence should not be ignored. Hard to ignore over 12000 yards passing and a 120:24 touchdown to interception ratio

UNI 16 - Lamar 13

• Its a bit head-scratching that back-to-back years UNI not only got a home playoff game over more deserving schools but they also got (on paper) a cupcake opponent. Unlike last year's destruction over an overmatched Monmouth, Lamar gave UNI a game and the Panthers are a bit fortunate
• Going into the game UNI had allowed opponents to score 40 of 45 redzone possessions...Lamar went 0 for 3 in the redzone with two lost fumbles.  The cardinals also had two missed field goals and all of the woes happened in the second half. That would be the difference in the game
• This was not a very accurate game passing wise for either team. Eli Dunne was a woeful 8 of 21 and his counterpart Darrel Colbert Jr. didn't fair much better as he went 14 of 25

Jacksonville State 34 - ETSU 27

• The last game of the day turned out to be the most entertaining. Two very evenly matched teams had a back-n-forth affair that ended on a late 4th quarter ETSU fumble on the goalline as the were driving for the game-tying touchdown
• The win for the Gamecocks was a bit of vindication as the last two years ended in disapointing one and done trips to the playoffs and overall it snapped a three game playoff losing streak
• Shaq Davidson had himself a day...going into the year the senior WR had only one touchdown in his six games played. But Davidson had TD catches of 37, 5 and 13 with the final catch being the one that but JSU in the lead for good