–West Virginia did what it needed to do in this game, although it certainly didn’t start in the convincing fashion that you would like to see it occur. The Mountaineers fell behind early off a special teams turnover, but bounced back as you would expect against an FCS team after a rough patch. As I felt after the opener, we truly weren’t going to find out a lot in this game either and all eyes now move toward this coming weekend with the Backyard Brawl returning to Morgantown for the first time since 2011. This wasn’t pretty at times, but many of the West Virginia players, especially at wide receiver didn’t suit up or play a lot of snaps. Quite frankly, I think West Virginia knew they could win this game without some of those players on the field. Still, the Mountaineers moved their record to 24-0 all-time against FCS teams but there are concerns despite coming out strong after the lengthy weather delay.
–The secondary looked shaky yet again in the first half with Duquesne completing only 8 passes but those traveled a total of 114 yards and a touchdown. The cornerbacks struggled yet again with challenging on the outside and at times including on the opening touchdown they simply fell asleep and allowed the Dukes pass catchers to get behind them. If that’s happening against an FCS team that’s a concern even with young players in there and the schedule definitely isn’t going to get easier.
–Redshirt junior quarterback Garrett Greene played only a half in this one and his numbers were only 10-18 for 240 yards and 4 touchdowns but it could have been even better as he had at least three passes dropped by wide receivers and several of them could have been touchdowns. He still missed some throws at times, especially short hopping one to Aaron on third down, and this is an FCS team but at least he displayed the ability to stretch the defense vertically. As long as Greene is accurate and his receivers help him out, the Mountaineers are going to have a chance to move the ball. It was good to get Nicco Marchiol in the game as well but it was pretty clear the difference between the two.
–Those four touchdowns are the first time that a quarterback under Neal Brown has hit that mark. Think about that and the fact it was Greene that hit it over the last four-plus years.
–Three of those went to walk-on wide receiver Hudson Clement who filled in admirably in this game with 5 catches for 177 yards and 3 touchdowns. Yes, it was an FCS team. Yes, it was brought on by some others not in the game but Clement joins some pretty lofty company. West Virginia wide receivers to go for at least 175 yards and 3 touchdowns includes two other names and those are Stedman Bailey, who did it twice, and Tavon Austin. The 177 yards is 23rd all-time in a game. I’m not sure how much that translates moving forward, but he deserves all the praise tonight.
–West Virginia is making a concentrated effort to get Kole Taylor the football and it’s playing out in the statistics book, too. After hauling in 2 catches for 31 yards in the opener, he followed that up with 3 catches for 55 yards and could have had even more. Through one game last season, the tight end position had one catch for 32 yards and with 86 yards total Taylor is over halfway to the 153 yards that the position had last year in total.
--Jaheim White has some real burst. The true freshman made his debut and eclipsed the 100-yard rushing mark and seems to be the most dynamic option back there with the different ways that he can be used in the run or pass game.
–West Virginia won third down, keeping Duquesne to 10.5 yards per attempt in those situations while the Mountaineers were at 6.6 yards. A big reason for that was constantly keeping them behind the sticks and on first down the Mountaineers held the Dukes to 1.4 yards per play and the home team averaged 8.3.That’s a massive shift.
–The defense struggled somewhat early, especially in coverage as mentioned above by the unit held the Dukes to just 145 total yards, 10 points and 4-14 on third and fourth down until the backups were put into the contest. After the weather delay this looked like a power five team against an FCS opponent. The Mountaineers held them in total to 3.3 yards per play while the offense was at 8.8.
–Thought Sean Martin was very active in this one and was very close to having a monster game with the ball getting out right before he got to the quarterback a few times. West Virginia is going to need him to be a factor up front and I know this was an FCS team but you expect him to show up. Another player that stood out yet again up front is redshirt freshman Tomiwa Durojaiye who added 1.5 sacks to his total after getting one in the opener. He’s more of a rotational piece right now but brings real juice off the edge that the program has lacked at times.
–I had some concerns about the WILL linebacker spot but for the second game in a row I really like what I’ve seen from Tray Lathan. He’s a name I talked about a lot in the pre-season but he was active in this one yet again with 3 tackles, 0.5 tackles for loss and two quarterback hurries.
–Outside the one turnover early on the punt that took an awkward bounce, West Virginia took care of the football for the second straight game and was hit with only a pair of penalties for 15 yards with the first team unit in the game. That’s again a positive after the previous struggles in those areas.
–Thought outside the obvious with the punt that hit Jacolby Spells, West Virginia played a very strong game in special teams yet again.
–Again, I don’t want to spend too much time over analyzing this game because it is what it was. West Virginia had some hiccups early, took control of the game and then was able to get their second and third team options in the game after a whacky weather delay. Now, onto the football games that could ultimately not only decide this season but the tenure of Brown atop the program.
–I don’t need to tell you what’s next, although I sort of already did in the lead. West Virginia now has a golden opportunity at home to get a major win not just for Neal Brown but the football program as a whole against Pittsburgh in the Backyard Brawl. The Panthers just lost at home to Cincinnati and both teams come in at 1-1 with the Mountaineers looking to enact some revenge. This will be a sell-out at home against the biggest rival on the schedule. There shouldn’t be any reason this team doesn’t come out fired up and ready to prove a lot of people wrong.
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