Injured defense heads to postseason

The Dukes may have been victors in their final regular season game Saturday against the Towson University Tigers, but heading into the playoffs, JMU’s defense is battered and bruised.

"We looked up in the second quarter and we had seven starters out on defense," coach Mickey Matthews said. "We were playing seven second-string guys. We’re just not healthy."

The injury list is full of starters across the board. JMU played Towson without two of its defensive ends, redshirt senior Sid Evans and redshirt sophomore Kevin Winston. That forced Matthews to move sophomore linebacker Akeem Jordan to fill in that position.

"Kevin and Sid didn’t even play today," Matthews said. "Akeem Jordan played the entire game at defensive end because two of our three defensive ends were out."

Coming into the game, Winston and Evans had combined for seven of JMU’s 37 team sacks. Without them, the Dukes got to Towson quarterback Andrew Goldbeck only twice.

"Today was pass rush," Matthews said. "We couldn’t get a pass rush with four guys. We had all those defensive linemen out."

Without much pressure from the JMU defense, Goldbeck threw for 325 yards and a touchdown. It was the third 300-yard passing performance JMU has given up in as many weeks.

"They found something that worked and they did a good job of executing their game plan," redshirt freshman safety Tony LeZotte said of the Towson offense. "They found holes in our defense."

Another player who found chinks in the JMU armor was Towson tailback Nick Williams. Against a JMU run defense that entered Saturday’s game ranked No. 1 in the conference, Williams ran for 126 yards on 22 carries.

"We need to tackle better than we did today," senior linebacker Trey Townsend said.

Other injured defensive starters include senior’s defensive end Brandon Beach and cornerback Cortez Thompson. Beach played against Towson despite cartilage damage in his knee, while Thompson suited up but did not play.

Matthews said Beach is slated for off-season knee surgery. He also said it is important for his team to heal up fast.

"We have a lot of kids out," Matthews said. "We have to get those guys back on defense. It doesn’t matter who we play next week, if those guys aren’t healthy we don’t have a chance."