James Madison shows Liberty how to finish

The moment Corwin Acker tiptoed down the visiting sideline Saturday night at rain-soaked Williams Stadium, Liberty coach Danny Rocco knew there was a breakdown. A missed assignment. Something. Because with the defense Liberty had called, there was no way a tailback should be able to get to the outside and break free 65 yards down the sideline.

But that was exactly what Acker did, and the James Madison tailback’s first career touchdown gave the Dukes the lead for good as seventh-ranked JMU held off the 25th-ranked Flames, 24-10.

“A safety shows up in the alley and doesn’t make a tackle,” Rocco said. “Really, to be quite frank with you, it’s a defense that should not allow that play to go the way that it did.”

Acker’s touchdown broke a 10-all tie in the fourth quarter, and Liberty (2-2) struggled to respond. As the Flames trudged off the field after the final whistle, one thought crept through Rocco’s mind.

“They were the team that knew how to finish,” he said. “That’s the definition of a good football team.”

And though the Flames proved they could compete with JMU (2-1), Rocco and his players took little solace in that. Moral victories have never been acceptable in Rocco’s mind, and he wasn’t about to waver from that line of thinking Saturday.

“It is a game that was a measuring stick for us, and it shows us that we’re not quite where we want to be, or need to be,” Rocco said.

Acker was pressed into action once starting JMU tailback Jamal Sullivan went down early in the third quarter with what coach Mickey Matthews called a bruised patella tendon. Acker, who had 195 career rushing yards entering in the game, rushed for 147 yards on 12 carries. His 13-yard touchdown following Griff Yancey’s interception of Tommy Beecher late in the fourth put the game away.

“Just butterflies,” Acker said. “I’m not going to lie, I was running scared. They say being thrown into the fire is the best thing for you. I guess that’s what happened.”

After JMU went up 17-10, Liberty drove to the JMU 34 before the drive stalled on an incomplete pass from Beecher to Chris Summers, who played despite missing nearly all of this week’s practices with a foot injury. Mike Larsson pinned the Dukes back at their 5, and three plays later, JMU’s Matt Goff had to punt out of his own end zone.

Mike Brown was set up near midfield, but Goff boomed the punt well over Brown’s head. With the slick field conditions, Brown’s only option was the watch the ball roll to the Liberty 29. The 65-yard punt “flipped the field,” Matthews said, and Liberty didn’t record another first down the rest of the night.

“When we looked at the film, I don’t think we saw that kind of consistency out of the punt game,” Rocco said. “With this weather, that certainly wasn’t the expectation. It turned the field over and put us back on our heels.”

Liberty struggled all night to control JMU’s run game. Challenged early in the week by Matthews, the JMU offensive line opened huge holes form the outset, as the Dukes picked up five rushing first downs on their opening drive, which ended with a 35-yard Dixon Wright field goal. In all, JMU racked up 301 yards on the ground.

“They were a little more physical,” Liberty defensive end Trey Jacobs said. “The one thing they wanted to do was to establish a running game, and they did that on the first drive.”

Liberty did not, and the lack of production from tailbacks B.J. Hayes and Aldreakis Allen has become a huge concern for the Flames. A week after combining for 31 yards against Lafayette, the pair managed just 43 yards against JMU’s stout run defense.

“I think that’s fair,” Rocco said of the criticism of the run game. “When we had Mike (Brown) at quarterback a week ago, we were able to run out of that with him. But running the football, that has to be part of what we do.”

By late in the fourth quarter, though, Liberty was forced to pass the ball because of the inability of the run game to operate, and the results weren’t good. On the play that ended Liberty’s hopes, Beecher tried to find Mike Brown on a third-and-long play and he put everything into the throw. It went well past Brown into the waiting arms of Yancey, who returned it 34 yards to set JMU up inside the 20.