My Fiver on WVU's loss to the Nittany Lions in Morgantown Saturday....
1. Up until there were 45 seconds left in the 1st half, despite subpar play on offense, WVU was right in this thing. It's amazing that you can play 29 minutes and 15 seconds of football, where some events transpire, but nothing consequential, and then the entire thing can blow up in your face. The next 45 seconds would be some of the most awful, miserable, gut wrenching, no-good, rotten, four-flushing, low-life, snake-licking, dirt-eating, inbred, overstuffed, ignorant, blood-sucking, dog-kissing, brainless, dickless, hopeless, heartless, fat-ass, bug-eyed, stiff-legged, spotty-lipped, worm-headed sack of monkey shit football you will ever see. I give @17-14 credit for pointing out that we had the ball, 2nd & 1, with 45 ticks remaining, down just 10. As he points out, "13-10 was on the menu". I don't need to go through it, you saw it....but somehow we end up down 20-6 at the half, and this thing is cooked. There would be no 1984 BC comeback. The mountain was too tall to climb.
2. A tale of two secondaries. Penn State's secondary absolutely blanketed our guys. When we had the ball, I didn't follow the ball, but instead looked at our WRs to see if they were getting open on their routes. They weren't. Conversely, our secondary predictably looked timid and just unsure of things. We put a patchwork of transfers out there, other than Aubrey Burks and Anthony Wilson, and it showed. There was plenty of wide open real estate for Penn State's WRs, TEs and backs to roam. At times, Drew Allar had so many players running open that it appeared that he was suffering from paralysis by analysis. I will say this -- I give some props to Preston Fox. That dude fights. When the chips were down and Garrett Greene needed to make a play, he often looked for Fox. And Preston beat the PSU DB on the throw to the corner of the South end zone late in the game, and Garrett just threw an awful pass there. We're asking too much of Preston Fox. Others in the WR (and TE) room need to step it the F up. More targets for Huddy too, please.
3. We tried to beat Penn State in a phone booth, and that ain't gonna work for WVU. It may work for Michigan and Ohio State. It's not going to work for us. On that long 1st QTR drive where we turned it over on downs at the PSU 16 yard line, we just tried to play small ball with screens and plunges up the middle and predictably got stoned. I absolutely hated the "tush push" attempt on 4th down. Try that against Albany, OK. Try that against Penn State? You're going nowhere. Our offense really wasn't creative and lacked any semblance of spreading Penn State out and putting guys in a position to make plays in space. I thought we'd give Ric'Darius Farmer more than one touch as our quick twitch guy.
4. Still think our front 7 may end up being really good. Overall, PSU put up 222 yards rushing on 42 attempts, 5.3 ypc & we had zero sacks. Nicholas Singleton's 40-yard TD run was just a master class of an OL and supporting cast putting a hat-on-hat and giving their RB a free ride to the end zone. We got big boy'd there. However, the killer were PSU's two QBs combining for 9 carries for 74 yards. Time and again, Allar would break free and keep the chains moving on third down. But, I do not believe this success PSU had is going to translate to a season long issue. At times, our guys bottled up PSU's very talented backs. Josiah Trotter was fantastic. We did manufacture a couple three & outs in the first half when the game was still in question. Our guys will learn from this, and when we face offensive lines who are not nearly as big, strong and dynamic as PSU's, we'll see a difference.
5. We're 0-1, and after the 45 second mark of the 2nd QTR, we face planted. Penn State beat us again - it happens...a lot. That was one hell of an opportunity on a big, big stage and we just couldn't get it done. Fvck it, two tears in a bucket, let's take it to the stage. New Season starts Saturday against Albany. I've always hated Albany. Let's take it to these guys. And those next six games -- these are the ones where we will find out where we are. At Pitt, we're better and we should win, but anything can happen in the Brawl. Then, Kansas is ranked. Oklahoma State is ranked. Iowa State at home will be tough. Kansas State is ranked. Arizona is ranked. We're going to have the chance to be very good. But we need to play better than we did Saturday.
Any waxing poetic about the downfall of our program, firing Neal Brown, and starting a new HC search are a bit premature. We have a long season ahead and lots of big games. I still think this team can be a pain in the ass to our opponents. A lot to be determined ahead.
1. Up until there were 45 seconds left in the 1st half, despite subpar play on offense, WVU was right in this thing. It's amazing that you can play 29 minutes and 15 seconds of football, where some events transpire, but nothing consequential, and then the entire thing can blow up in your face. The next 45 seconds would be some of the most awful, miserable, gut wrenching, no-good, rotten, four-flushing, low-life, snake-licking, dirt-eating, inbred, overstuffed, ignorant, blood-sucking, dog-kissing, brainless, dickless, hopeless, heartless, fat-ass, bug-eyed, stiff-legged, spotty-lipped, worm-headed sack of monkey shit football you will ever see. I give @17-14 credit for pointing out that we had the ball, 2nd & 1, with 45 ticks remaining, down just 10. As he points out, "13-10 was on the menu". I don't need to go through it, you saw it....but somehow we end up down 20-6 at the half, and this thing is cooked. There would be no 1984 BC comeback. The mountain was too tall to climb.
2. A tale of two secondaries. Penn State's secondary absolutely blanketed our guys. When we had the ball, I didn't follow the ball, but instead looked at our WRs to see if they were getting open on their routes. They weren't. Conversely, our secondary predictably looked timid and just unsure of things. We put a patchwork of transfers out there, other than Aubrey Burks and Anthony Wilson, and it showed. There was plenty of wide open real estate for Penn State's WRs, TEs and backs to roam. At times, Drew Allar had so many players running open that it appeared that he was suffering from paralysis by analysis. I will say this -- I give some props to Preston Fox. That dude fights. When the chips were down and Garrett Greene needed to make a play, he often looked for Fox. And Preston beat the PSU DB on the throw to the corner of the South end zone late in the game, and Garrett just threw an awful pass there. We're asking too much of Preston Fox. Others in the WR (and TE) room need to step it the F up. More targets for Huddy too, please.
3. We tried to beat Penn State in a phone booth, and that ain't gonna work for WVU. It may work for Michigan and Ohio State. It's not going to work for us. On that long 1st QTR drive where we turned it over on downs at the PSU 16 yard line, we just tried to play small ball with screens and plunges up the middle and predictably got stoned. I absolutely hated the "tush push" attempt on 4th down. Try that against Albany, OK. Try that against Penn State? You're going nowhere. Our offense really wasn't creative and lacked any semblance of spreading Penn State out and putting guys in a position to make plays in space. I thought we'd give Ric'Darius Farmer more than one touch as our quick twitch guy.
4. Still think our front 7 may end up being really good. Overall, PSU put up 222 yards rushing on 42 attempts, 5.3 ypc & we had zero sacks. Nicholas Singleton's 40-yard TD run was just a master class of an OL and supporting cast putting a hat-on-hat and giving their RB a free ride to the end zone. We got big boy'd there. However, the killer were PSU's two QBs combining for 9 carries for 74 yards. Time and again, Allar would break free and keep the chains moving on third down. But, I do not believe this success PSU had is going to translate to a season long issue. At times, our guys bottled up PSU's very talented backs. Josiah Trotter was fantastic. We did manufacture a couple three & outs in the first half when the game was still in question. Our guys will learn from this, and when we face offensive lines who are not nearly as big, strong and dynamic as PSU's, we'll see a difference.
5. We're 0-1, and after the 45 second mark of the 2nd QTR, we face planted. Penn State beat us again - it happens...a lot. That was one hell of an opportunity on a big, big stage and we just couldn't get it done. Fvck it, two tears in a bucket, let's take it to the stage. New Season starts Saturday against Albany. I've always hated Albany. Let's take it to these guys. And those next six games -- these are the ones where we will find out where we are. At Pitt, we're better and we should win, but anything can happen in the Brawl. Then, Kansas is ranked. Oklahoma State is ranked. Iowa State at home will be tough. Kansas State is ranked. Arizona is ranked. We're going to have the chance to be very good. But we need to play better than we did Saturday.
Any waxing poetic about the downfall of our program, firing Neal Brown, and starting a new HC search are a bit premature. We have a long season ahead and lots of big games. I still think this team can be a pain in the ass to our opponents. A lot to be determined ahead.
