Stat dump: How good has JMU's defense been this season?
JMU's defense has been one of the most stout groups in the FBS so far this season. The Dukes have allowed just 4.0 yards per play entering Week 7.
Courtesy of JMU athletic communications
Not all wins are created equally, and JMU’s 14-7 win over Georgia State shed light on a couple of key issues for the Dukes.
However, none of those issues are on the defensive side of the ball.
After JMU’s defense started off slow, allowing a combined 124 yards during the Panthers’ first two possessions, they buckled down. The Dukes’ defense allowed just 125 yards for the rest of the game and led JMU to its fourth win of the season.
Let’s dig into how dominant JMU’s defense has been this season.
Saturday’s game was arguably the first time this defense had to face real adversity after struggling to contain the Panthers’ aerial attack in the first quarter. JMU responded quickly and forcefully.
The Dukes didn’t allow a single point after Georgia State’s first touchdown and allowed just a net gain of 46 yards of offense in the second half. According to TeamRankings, JMU is allowing just four yards per play so far this season. That’s good enough to be tied for seventh in the FBS in yards allowed per play.
The Panthers especially struggled to get anything going on the ground game, averaging just 1.7 yards per carry on Saturday. The Dukes used a strong rotation of interior linemen with Immanuel Bush, Mychal McMullin, Terry Lockett Jr. and Andrew Taddeo receiving 19 or more snaps on Saturday.
According to PFF, McMullin leads all of JMU’s interior linemen with nine run stops. That’s five more than the next highest defensive tackle, Lockett. McMullin’s average distance of tackle is also just 1 yard downfield, and PFF has credited him with 10 tackles in run defense so far this season.
JMU’s middle linebacker and signal caller, Trent Hendrick, is the Dukes’ highest-graded run defender with an 89.7 grade. He’s also the highest-graded player against the run in the conference and leads JMU with 13 run stops.
JMU is giving up just 85 rushing yards per game this season, which is 13th in the country and second for all teams in autonomy conferences. The importance of the per-game efficiency is especially exacerbated because the Dukes have been run against just 29.8 times per game so far this year. There are only 14 teams in the FBS that have faced fewer runs than JMU.
In the secondary, senior safety Jacob Thomas continued to display his versatility as a game wrecker against Georgia State. Cornerback Justin Eaglin came out of the gates aggressively, attempting to jump a pass while covering Panthers’ receiver Ted Hurst. Thomas, Eaglin and DJ Barksdale all faced adversity early in the game but quickly tightened their coverage as the game progressed.
“I don’t think our sideline really panics, we just go out there, we know our game plan and we know what we’re capable of and what we’re able to do,” Barksdale said. “So, we just had to come back to the sideline, regroup ourselves, see where we went wrong, see what we have to fix, and we just went out there and executed.”
An underrated part of the Dukes’ passing defense is the front seven. JMU is averaging 3.8 sacks per game, which currently ranks fourth in the FBS. Last season, the Dukes finished, ironically, fifth in the nation with 3.3 sacks a game.
Redshirt freshman Sahir West leads all of JMU’s edge rushers with 173 snaps and is also tied with a team-leading six hurries with redshirt senior Xavier Holmes.
This has been, without question, an elite start to the season for the Dukes’ defense. To further stress how dominant this group has been, JMU is fifth in the FBS in time of possession. A strong running game, offensively, will do that, but an even stronger defense will help a team capitalize on it.
Time will tell if this group will be good enough to do that.