Final Score: Gardner-Webb 12 - Richmond 10
What Happened: The Spiders lost its second consecutive heartbreaker at the hands of Gardner-Webb tonight. Richmond's offense did not click until the second to last drive where Strauss found Roller for the game's sole touchdown. Richmond took the lead on that score and looked like it was in good position to win, but Gardner-Webb kicker Jordan Day kicked his 4th field goal of the night with 25 seconds remaining to give the Bulldogs a two point lead. Strauss led the offense into field goal range in three plays to set up a possible last second field goal, but Brandon Jordi's kick came up just short.
Spider Positives: The defense didn't play great, but it made big plays when they were needed. The defensive line kept Gardner-Webb quarterback Lucas Beatty under pressure throughout the game and finally recorded some sacks. If your defense does not allow a touchdown in a game, you'll win nine out of ten times. You'll read more about the offense in the negative section, but the drive that led to Roller's touchdown catch showed a lot of resilience in the offense. Even-though not many things went the offense's way tonight, the players managed to put a great drive together when it was most needed.
Spider Negatives: Aside from that last drive, the offense looked abysmal tonight. Whenever Richmond got any momentum offensively, the drive would stall on one its nine failed third down conversions. The passing game was not as good as it has been so far this year, but running game was what was awful. Richmond picked up 10 yards on the ground tonight and had only one yard in the 1st half. Rocco tried giving several different guys carries from a variety of formations but nothing worked. Richmond needs to find some sort of running game before conference play starts if they want to compete for a CAA title. The possible season ending injury to Sam Roller, who adds a great deal of leadership to the team in addition to his playing ability, adds to a growing list of injured Spiders.
Up Next: Richmond faces Rocco's former school Liberty next week at Robins Stadium.
Contact staff writer Jack Nicholson at jack.nicholson@richmond.edu
Follow him on twitter at @URJackNicholson
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