Taking Care of Business
The Blue Lot looks forward every week to the release of Dougity's hype video. Its filled with the best plays of the previous week paired to trending rap music that likely can be found on the playlists of many of our players. But as Dougity prepares the highlights of the ECU game, I would encourage him to reach a little further back into the music library and pull out some 70s Bachman-Turner Overdrive "Taking Care of Business" which is exactly what the Mountaineers did on Saturday.
ECU is not a good team. But In recent years against teams of that caliber, we have been plagued by slow starts and have generally left a lot of plays on the field. The Mountaineers played their most complete first half in this game since the Orange Bowl. The hype video's theme this week was "Just Win" and the Blue Gold did more than that. They took care of business and stepped on the throat of Pirates in the first half and, despite some second half stumbles, refused to let the visitors up off the mat. You know it was a great half of football when the biggest complaint on the Blue Lot at half time was our kicking.
Special Teams
It occurred to me after the game the Mountaineer special teams have a lot in common with my golf game. When I fix one part of my swing, something else always goes wrong.
The same with the Mountaineer Special Teams. After a miserable first week in the kick and punt return game, Marcus Simms broke off a 29 yard kickoff return, followed it with a 23 yard punt return and then another 32 yard kickoff return. Bush added a 27 yard return later in the game. And while it doesn't show up in a box score, Simms and Bush both made difficult catches on punt returns to avoid lost yardage from unfielded, rolling punts. Particularly impressive was Simms holding onto the punt that drew the targeting flag. Given our recent history, most Mountaineer fans will take those results in the return game for the remainder of the year if offered.
But even if you optimistically consider the return units "fixed', the kickoff and field goal units offset those gains. There were two kickoffs out of bounds and two missed field goals.
Molina went wide right from 44 yards following a couple wide receiver drops on the 6th possession. Up 35-3 the points weren't critical but it again highlighted the concerns with our kicking accuracy outside of 30 yards. He missed a second one with a minute to go in the 3rd quarter from 45. After the Virginia Tech game there was some second guessing of Dana's 4th down decisions but at this point he has to consider either punting or going for the 1st down on any attempt over 30 yards.
The other way my golf game is like the Mountaineer special teams is my golf game sucks because I don't invest in it. I don't spend the time on a weekly basis to be good. And with a walkon kicker and a walkon punter, you have to ask if West Virginia football is investing enough into special teams with scholarships to specialists to be good. Dana said on his weekly show that he has instructed Dorchester to figure out where everyone is getting these Australian punters that kick everything long and high with no return. He may have been half joking but there is some legitimacy to putting more effort into looking beyond walkons to fill our specialist positions. It has been successful in the recent past and will be successful in the future.
Offense
The Blue Lot looks forward every week to the release of Dougity's hype video. Its filled with the best plays of the previous week paired to trending rap music that likely can be found on the playlists of many of our players. But as Dougity prepares the highlights of the ECU game, I would encourage him to reach a little further back into the music library and pull out some 70s Bachman-Turner Overdrive "Taking Care of Business" which is exactly what the Mountaineers did on Saturday.
ECU is not a good team. But In recent years against teams of that caliber, we have been plagued by slow starts and have generally left a lot of plays on the field. The Mountaineers played their most complete first half in this game since the Orange Bowl. The hype video's theme this week was "Just Win" and the Blue Gold did more than that. They took care of business and stepped on the throat of Pirates in the first half and, despite some second half stumbles, refused to let the visitors up off the mat. You know it was a great half of football when the biggest complaint on the Blue Lot at half time was our kicking.
Special Teams
It occurred to me after the game the Mountaineer special teams have a lot in common with my golf game. When I fix one part of my swing, something else always goes wrong.
The same with the Mountaineer Special Teams. After a miserable first week in the kick and punt return game, Marcus Simms broke off a 29 yard kickoff return, followed it with a 23 yard punt return and then another 32 yard kickoff return. Bush added a 27 yard return later in the game. And while it doesn't show up in a box score, Simms and Bush both made difficult catches on punt returns to avoid lost yardage from unfielded, rolling punts. Particularly impressive was Simms holding onto the punt that drew the targeting flag. Given our recent history, most Mountaineer fans will take those results in the return game for the remainder of the year if offered.
But even if you optimistically consider the return units "fixed', the kickoff and field goal units offset those gains. There were two kickoffs out of bounds and two missed field goals.
Molina went wide right from 44 yards following a couple wide receiver drops on the 6th possession. Up 35-3 the points weren't critical but it again highlighted the concerns with our kicking accuracy outside of 30 yards. He missed a second one with a minute to go in the 3rd quarter from 45. After the Virginia Tech game there was some second guessing of Dana's 4th down decisions but at this point he has to consider either punting or going for the 1st down on any attempt over 30 yards.
The other way my golf game is like the Mountaineer special teams is my golf game sucks because I don't invest in it. I don't spend the time on a weekly basis to be good. And with a walkon kicker and a walkon punter, you have to ask if West Virginia football is investing enough into special teams with scholarships to specialists to be good. Dana said on his weekly show that he has instructed Dorchester to figure out where everyone is getting these Australian punters that kick everything long and high with no return. He may have been half joking but there is some legitimacy to putting more effort into looking beyond walkons to fill our specialist positions. It has been successful in the recent past and will be successful in the future.
Offense
- ECU won the toss and deferred their choice until the second half. I know that is standard practice for most coaches. They would rather have the ball coming out of the half after they have made adjustments to either build or maintain momentum. But I'm not sure Id want to put the West Virginia offense on the field first. The Mountaineer offense has the ability to have you down, demoralized and gassed before ever receiving the ball.
- Spav's unit caused ECU huge issues with their tempo in this game until backing off mid-third quarter. You could tell as early as the first series that ECU's defense would have problems with the Mountaineer offensive pace. The Mountaineers sliced through the pirates with a surgeons precision on the first drive. On the second series you saw ECU take a timeout on 2nd and goal to catch their breath and get the right defensive personnel into the game.
- Blue Lotters expressed concern following the Tech game that we had returned to an Air Raid offensive philosophy after building success the past two seasons on the ground. If you had those concerns, you should feel better after this game. The first two plays were Crawford runs and Spav might have gone three straight if Crawford didn't lose a shoe. But 3 of the first 4 plays were runs setting a tone for the game. They also opened the second drive with 2 straight Crawford runs. The third drive only included 3 plays before a McKoy TD run but 2 out of the 3 plays were runs. In the first quarter, Spav and Grier struck a perfect offensive balance with 10 passes and 10 runs. At half? 22 passes and 22 runs. Can you say balanced?
- For the game, we ran the ball 47 times and only attempt 34 passes. And if I had any criticism of the play calling, it would be that we overly forced the run and needed to pass more. Dana expressed similar thoughts following the game but the score and substitutions likely dictated the calls. Going forward I think you will see a 50/50 distribution similar to the first half or 60/40 pass/run split. But I don't see any evidence that Air Raid has returned.
- After struggling to get in the endzone a year ago, it was good to see Crawford get a running touchdown on the first drive. Late in the second quarter, Crawford got his second TD of the day from 41 yards out finishing a long run with a score another issue that plague him last season.
- Dana said in his post game interview that if they had Simms last week the results probably would have been different. And I found myself saying the same thing during the first half as he is obviously a difference maker on both offense and special teams. After the Mountaineers had failed to return any kickoffs against Tech and watch ECU's first kickoff land for a touchback, Simms had a nice 29 yard return on ECUs second kickoff. He hesitated on bringing it out but made up for it with his speed and a little wiggle. Simms followed it up by returning a punt following ECU's second drive for 23 yards. He got leveled on the targeting penalty when fielding the punt to start the 6th drive and I don't know how he held onto the ball. Heck of a job fielding that one. I think we found our new punt returner especially with Jennings role increasing on the offensive side of the ball. And as we discussed last week following the loss, SImms showed another gear getting downfield that probably would have created the separation necessary to hit on one or two more of the deep throws against the Tech zero coverage. Football is a team sport and it sucks when poor decisions of an individual impact the entire team. Hopefully, the situation proves to be a learning point for the entire roster.
- Just in case you were stuck in line waiting for concessions and missed the first half, we have a Quarterback. Will Grier threw for 329 yard and 4 TDs IN THE FIRST HALF. There isn't a QB out there that wouldn't take those numbers for a game. And honestly he probably could have had a lot more but I felt like Spav was making a concerted to get our backs carries after a light load against the Hokies.
- Dana and the staff had told the media repeatedly that Grier could make all the throws and he proved it again to the fans as he perfectly placed The Blue Lots favorite fade route to White for a touchdown on the second drive and another perfectly thrown ball to Sills for a TD on the fifth possession.
- Any criticism of Grier is nitpicking but last week I felt like he could have helped his receivers by putting a little more air under the ball on the deep throws and allowing them to go get it. He accomplished that on Saturday putting a lot more touch on his balls especially the 52 yard throw to Simms and the 38 yard catch by Jennings. I've seen Grier make prettier throws but both balls had the touch and placement that allowed his playmakers to make plays.
- The coaching staff and fans have both expressed concerns about Grier exposing himself to injury by running too much. But I saw something extremely positive on 2nd and 4 around the 7:40 mark of the 2nd quarter. There was a bit of a broken play and Grier was left alone to take a big hit. Grier slid down on his own to avoid the hit rather than challenging the defender or trying to shake loose. That is a huge sign of awareness and maturity from a QB that is obviously highly competitive.
- Chugunov looked better throwing the ball than in his five previous attempts in mop up duty last season. He was delivering the ball to the right spots on the field with accuracy. Its hard to fairly evaluate a QB surrounded by 2nd teamers but I thought he played well. If I had any criticism of Chugs play, it would be that he held the ball too long when pressured. But my hope entering that game was for Chugs to get a bunch of snaps and not turnover the ball. Mission accomplished. He exceeded my expections.
- Chugunov's numbers (5/9 for 51 yards) would have been better if he received some help from the playmakers around him. Simply, the receivers have to catch the ball. Maiden in particular hurt the second team QB with his drops on the first drive. That was followed by a really bad drop by Dru Bowen. If the receivers catch those three balls, Chugs is 8/9 and may have thrown a TD. We have some talented wide receivers in the first unit but the lack of depth in the receiving corp was on full display as we substituted heavily in the second half.
- Gibson' defensive unit was the big question mark entering the season and surprisingly after a week 2 win and giving up 11 fewer points, I feel less confident about the unit than I did after the loss to the Hokies.
- Admittedly, the first team defense limited the Pirates offense for 30 minutes before yielding to the reserves. But the top 4 corners all had struggles at times and the safeties outside of White had lapses as well. Against the Hokies, the secondary's problems could be isolated to 3 or 4 big plays where mental mistakes occurred and Jackson and his receivers made plays. I felt it was pretty easy to dismiss those as lack of experience in game 1. Against the Pirates, I saw more issues with technique, positioning and speed that are not as easily dismissed or corrected. Its rarely a good thing when your leader in tackles is a corner and that happened.
- The next couple of games are unlikely to tell us where this defense actually stands but the corners are going to have to improve greatly before the higher powered Big 12 teams make it onto the schedule. If not, we may be back to the 2012 season where we relied upon Geno to win shootouts with his arm for wins against Texas and Baylor.
- It's not to early to put your deposit down on a Kyzir White jersey at NFL.com. He was everywhere. Great to see him get the Moutaineers' first INT of the season even better when he followed it up with his second of the game late second quarter. For the game, he finished with 7 tackles (5 solo) and was constantly around the ball both against the run and pass.
- The play of the second team units in the second half was frustrating but Im not sure that is a bad thing. Like last week against Virginia Tech, I think the end of the game left the players and coaches with a bad taste in their mouths and a desire to get back on the field. We played well as a team but we also made enough mistakes to keep the team focused on improving in the weeks to come.
- In the first half, we largely cleaned up the penalty issues from week one which was encouraging. Like the other phases of the game, things got a little sloppy in the second half as focus was lost and we substituted freely. Two holding penalties derailed the opening drive of the second half when you would have liked to have seen the ability to keep the momentum going. But that is a tough ask after a 49-3 first half. And a Qualls personal foul continued an ECU drive to start the 4th quarter. And late 15 yard penalty for participating without a helmet (10). For the game, the Mountaineers were flagged 4 times for 55 yards after being flagged 9 times for 81 yards against the Hokies.
- On the Roberson targeting call, why did it take them so long to review it? At least they got the call right which had to shock Mountaineer nation. If you cant make that block, you might as well play flag football. That was just a good, hard block downfield by a receiver. While I am sure that Carrier will advise his unit to be cautious, I bet that play will be a huge hit in the receivers' film room.
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