This was just another one of those cornerstone Mack Brown era games where the team goes to some road venue noted for having hostile crowds and plays like Timmy the Timid Turtle for a half (or so) even if said team isn't very good, a description which WVU most certainly fits. That pretty much summarizes the offensive performance. Defensively, we're starting to see serious issues regarding conditioning. Yes, Chris Whaley is a leader and his loss devastated the unit, but in the first half the entire DL was absolutely horsefucking the Mountaineers OL. They were an absolute non-factor in the second half and we have no one but Greg Robinson and Steve Edmond to thank for that goalline stop in Mack Brown's first ever OT game as a HC. Special Teams-...f**k.
I hear ya and maybe things will catch up to us but like Case said in post game interview, "Oklahoma State would have been happy to settle for a win like this when they came up here." (Or something similiar)
Maybe "Win 4th Quarter" should be "Win 4th Quarter or Win OT". Offense needs some credit for OT play.
Ugly. I think Daje alone was enough for three of those red boxes on special teams. He had such a clusterfuck of concentration. Weird environments do that to people, but he should have straightened it out a bit. The OL was playing full-on 2010 mode for about 3 quarters. They were confused by 5-man rushes. If they can do math, they should have been able to pick up more of those blitzes. Even Hopkins was beat a couple of times by doubling someone who didn't need to be doubled, letting a LB or safety right through. I think this unit has been marred by their inability to trust each other. Nice that they gave up only 1 sack, but it doesn't matter if your QB is forced to get rid of the ball early on every throw. Case getting pummeled throughout both halves shows that they don't know what it takes to adjust. And then his accuracy took a hit; even the great play to Marcus Johnson in OT showed how off target Case was. Major should also shoulder a lot of the blame for the offensive red boxes. Second and goal from the 4 and you line up in power formation with 3 TEs? You're on the ******* four-yard-line. You have four yards to get, not half a yard. This isn't 1971 and we're not Bama. Settling for FGs in those situations was unacceptable. Run a damn play. I know there's a contingent of people who hated it in 2009 when we'd run shotgun with Colt from the 5-yard-line, but sometimes you need to be able to run a play that has worked throughout a game. There was no chance for about 30 of the 40 called runs on Saturday. Without the decent 27-yard-gainers by Brown and Gray, we're down to 2.7 ypc. That's not even including the sack. WVU is pitiful against the run. That number won't suffice. My only complaint about the D was trying to incorporate a lot of "Manny" stuff on downs when they shouldn't have been doing it. The last TD was a prime example. Reminded me of the ISU 97-yard-TD. You don't bring 8 on a blitz with no one over the middle and too much field to work with. You can pull that **** off inside your own 10, because there's not much space for the opponent to find the slant. Thomas got burned on the route just as badly as he did against ISU. I thought they did fairly well except for maybe 3 series.
What hurt the most were the field goals in the red zone and our pass defense against a second string qb. Those 2 things were alarming to me in this game. Our guys typically play up or down to the competition so I think those will be better going forward.
Hps brought up a good point about conditioning that others hadn't. I was wondering about the same thing in the second half about the D. The D-line and the defense as a whole just didn't seem to have the energy like they had at first - and it didn't seem to be due to getting out-schemed or anything.
When he wasn't rubbing himself bald, Holgerson made some adjustments. Considering what he was working with, he did a decent job. I'm not suggesting that as an excuse for the defensive breakdown, but you have to give him some credit.
With the number of field goals we kicked, I thought Fred Akers was back. He's haunting this team, and he's not even dead.
I was at Texas too for "hey diddle diddle Fred up the middle." Those teams sure could play defense though. Still haunted by that 1984 Cotton Bowl. Don't try to catch that punt Curry! Fall on the ball Fields! Neither listened. Still thought it was holding against Hager on the touchdown run. Would have been different for Akers if we win that game.
The scheme GR had in that play was unnecessarily risky, I guess, but it was also a player-mistake. Clearly Duke Thomas reacted late and took such a bad angle too. The angle is what made it look like the WR pulled away so quickly from the DB. Duke probably gave up soon in running hard too, knowing there was no way he could catch him, having lost some momentum from changing angles and all. I haven't seen a replay but that's what I remember.
Doing a little research I found that Alford was the Georgia 100 meter champion in HS. That explains it.
