If you had told me that we would give up a 70 yard TD run on their 3rd offensive play, a long TD pass on a broken coverage and a pick 6 of a terrible pass along with another pick that cost us points and that we would give up 31 points to ISU, I would have guessed that we had about a 1% chance of winning against a very good ISU defense. Heck, against almost any defense in the Big 12. This was by far, Brown's biggest win at WVU. You could tell by his reaction after the last pass was broken up. I was as hard as anyone on Brown (we had made no progress during his tenure). But the team is finally showing progress these past two weeks. Hopefully, this means better home crowds going forward. Hopefully this means a better team going forward.
1. We were very buttoned up offensively (except for two poor time outs in the second half). We were efficient running and passing the ball. RPO's worked. We threw short, intermediate and long passes effectively. Wheaton became the threat we desperately needed causing ISU to pay him extra attention. Leddie ran very hard. And the OL did its job keeping Doege clean and opening some nice holes. All in all, the best offensive game against a major opponent. Doege, except for his very poor interception, was very efficient and accurate. He made good decisions and got rid of the ball on time. His best game as a Mountaineer. And we were excellent in the red zone.
2. The defense was schizophrenic. We gave up some huge, costly plays. On these plays we had poor gap control, we over ran plays, and we had poor tackling. Later in the game, we had a lot of missed tackles especially on Purdy. Most of the other time, we played very good defense. We were great on 3rd downs. We got good penetration disrupting plays. And our coverage was excellent. We stopped, almost completely, their two best receivers. Except for two running plays, we held Hall in check (you can' take away his two best runs but if you did, he had around 50 yards on 22 carries and did not give them second and third and short.
3. I thought Doege's post game interview was pure class. He took ZERO credit. Gave it all to the team. For as much grief as he has taken he could have taken a justified victory lap but he didn't. Great leadership.
4. Game balls to a lot of players. Stills had a magnificent game, his best as a Mountaineer. Mesidor is special. Semedo is a tackling machine (although he did miss a few he should have had). Banks displayed a toughness I did not know he had. Frazier and Milum did a fine job. The entire OL did. Doege made smart decisions, was accurate on short, intermediate and long throws and his timing was good. Easily our MVP. Wheaton, Wright and Esdale were excellent. Wheaton made one of the finest catches I have seen at Puskar. Leddie was tough as nails (loved it when he threw the ISU defender to the ground). And credit to the d-backs. Good in run support and took away ISU's biggest passing game weapons.
5. The game plan was good on both sides of the ball. We ran for more offense than any Big 12 team on ISU in quite a while. We gave up too many big plays but except for those, we held ISU's offense in check. I know you can't take away those big plays but without them, we dominated play. The long td run (where our gap control was poor), the broken coverage on the long td pass and the pick 6 kept ISU in the game. But make no mistake, we should have won by a bigger margin. Credit to the coaches and credit to the players for that team meeting and pulling the players together.
6. The only big negative other than the big plays was our kick-off team. We can't continue to let other teams start at their 35 yard line. Got to get that fixed somehow.
As good as this victory was, it will all be for naught if we don't finish the season strong and go to a good bowl. Tough schedule. Tough task. And please, don't tell me that officiating cost ISU the game. Poor calls on both sides. One of the worst offensive pass interference penalties I have seen cost us points. And a very poor defensive pass interference penalty as well. And the refs looked at their goal line fumble for at least an hour and could not overturn the call. I also believe Wheaton's left foot grazed the ground for his TD. You couldn't overturn that one with the replay I looked at. Campbell has nothing to fairly complain about.
1. We were very buttoned up offensively (except for two poor time outs in the second half). We were efficient running and passing the ball. RPO's worked. We threw short, intermediate and long passes effectively. Wheaton became the threat we desperately needed causing ISU to pay him extra attention. Leddie ran very hard. And the OL did its job keeping Doege clean and opening some nice holes. All in all, the best offensive game against a major opponent. Doege, except for his very poor interception, was very efficient and accurate. He made good decisions and got rid of the ball on time. His best game as a Mountaineer. And we were excellent in the red zone.
2. The defense was schizophrenic. We gave up some huge, costly plays. On these plays we had poor gap control, we over ran plays, and we had poor tackling. Later in the game, we had a lot of missed tackles especially on Purdy. Most of the other time, we played very good defense. We were great on 3rd downs. We got good penetration disrupting plays. And our coverage was excellent. We stopped, almost completely, their two best receivers. Except for two running plays, we held Hall in check (you can' take away his two best runs but if you did, he had around 50 yards on 22 carries and did not give them second and third and short.
3. I thought Doege's post game interview was pure class. He took ZERO credit. Gave it all to the team. For as much grief as he has taken he could have taken a justified victory lap but he didn't. Great leadership.
4. Game balls to a lot of players. Stills had a magnificent game, his best as a Mountaineer. Mesidor is special. Semedo is a tackling machine (although he did miss a few he should have had). Banks displayed a toughness I did not know he had. Frazier and Milum did a fine job. The entire OL did. Doege made smart decisions, was accurate on short, intermediate and long throws and his timing was good. Easily our MVP. Wheaton, Wright and Esdale were excellent. Wheaton made one of the finest catches I have seen at Puskar. Leddie was tough as nails (loved it when he threw the ISU defender to the ground). And credit to the d-backs. Good in run support and took away ISU's biggest passing game weapons.
5. The game plan was good on both sides of the ball. We ran for more offense than any Big 12 team on ISU in quite a while. We gave up too many big plays but except for those, we held ISU's offense in check. I know you can't take away those big plays but without them, we dominated play. The long td run (where our gap control was poor), the broken coverage on the long td pass and the pick 6 kept ISU in the game. But make no mistake, we should have won by a bigger margin. Credit to the coaches and credit to the players for that team meeting and pulling the players together.
6. The only big negative other than the big plays was our kick-off team. We can't continue to let other teams start at their 35 yard line. Got to get that fixed somehow.
As good as this victory was, it will all be for naught if we don't finish the season strong and go to a good bowl. Tough schedule. Tough task. And please, don't tell me that officiating cost ISU the game. Poor calls on both sides. One of the worst offensive pass interference penalties I have seen cost us points. And a very poor defensive pass interference penalty as well. And the refs looked at their goal line fumble for at least an hour and could not overturn the call. I also believe Wheaton's left foot grazed the ground for his TD. You couldn't overturn that one with the replay I looked at. Campbell has nothing to fairly complain about.
