Richmond football suffers debacle against James Madison

Update: If the Spiders win at William and Mary on Saturday, they will earn a playoff spot.

Rivalry games don’t always turn out to be hard-fought matches, and the Spiders learned that Saturday.

Richmond was steamrolled by James Madison in a battle of two 7-3 teams who had playoff aspirations. With the loss, the Spiders will likely need a miracle to earn a spot in the tournament.

James Madison was visibly comfortable from the start, and it helped that a significant portion of the crowd was wearing purple and gold. The Dukes scored the first points of the game fewer than five minutes in on a 93-yard touchdown pass. Georgia Tech transfer quarterback Vad Lee found a wide open DeAndre’ Smith for the long score, and from then on Richmond’s secondary never found its stride.

Lee finished the game with 433 yards and two touchdowns, but the true star of the game was James Madison’s Taylor Reynolds. The redshirt-sophomore cornerback intercepted two passes — both of which he returned for a touchdown — and forced two fumbles when Richmond’s offense was near the end zone. He also made nine tackles in the game.

“We practice drill work on stripping fumbles all week,” Reynolds said. “Every play is a takeaway. That’s our motto.” That motto was evident Saturday, as James Madison forced five Richmond turnovers.

Quarterback Michael Strauss looked to be finding a groove in the second quarter, when he led a long drive that ended with a 28-yard touchdown to Jacobi Green. But a hit earlier in the game re-aggravated his highly publicized ankle injury, and he was unable to move around in the second half, which allowed the Dukes’ defense to focus harder on covering receivers.

“I rolled up on [my ankle] pretty bad there, and for a second I thought I was done for the day at least,” Strauss said. “I couldn’t really move in the second half, so they did the best thing they could do. They played man coverage and dared me to run.”

Head coach Danny Rocco was expectedly disappointed after the game. He pointed to the five turnovers as one of the more prevalent issues, but still praised Strauss for his play.

“I thought Strauss did give us some legitimate momentum, some energy, some execution,” Rocco said. “But at the end of the day we really didn’t protect him very well.” Throughout the game James Madison’s pass rush was too much for the Richmond offensive line to handle, and Strauss was under pressure in fewer than three seconds numerous times.

With the loss, the Spiders fall to 7-4 (4-3 in the CAA) and have slim chances of earning a playoff spot. James Madison will likely earn a spot in the tournament following this win.

The Spiders will travel to Williamsburg, Virginia, next Saturday to play the rival William and Mary Tribe. Both teams have a 7-4 overall record and a 4-3 conference record, so this game could perhaps determine a playoff spot.