Before the Pitt game, I said it would be a very West Virginia thing to do if it beat Pitt after losing to Ohio U. And guess what happened? WVU did just that.
If you had asked me what the recipe would have been for a WVU upset, I would have gotten one thing very wrong: I would have guess that the Mountaineers had to take care of the ball. That didn’t happen. WVU gambled on backup quarterback Scotty Fox in the third quarter after an inconsistent first half by Nicco Marchiol (although WVU did lead 7-3 at halftime). His first drive was a success, resulting in a touchdown, and West Virginia had its biggest lead of the game at 14-3. Pitt answered with a TD drive of its own, and the next two possessions, Fox threw two very bad interceptions. To make matters worse, Pitt started the drives well into WVU territory – at the 14 and 24 yard lines. This is where the defense stepped up. Both Pitt drives resulted in only field goals. It could have been a disaster where Pitt could have almost put the game out of reach, but instead they led just 17-14.
That led to WVU trying Jaylen Henderson at QB. Unfortunately, he was sacked on a fourth down, which gave the Panthers another short field. This time, Pitt did manage to crack the WVU defense, and had a 24-14 lead. Things did not look good for WVU.
So the Mountaineers went back to Marchiol at quarterback, and he led a gritty comeback. His first drive was a 12 play, 72 yard drive that ended in a field goal. The defense ended up forcing a Pitt punt, and the Mountaineers had the ball at their own 13, with just 2:47 to play. Marchiol marched the team down the field, and WVU scored a tying touchdown with just 11 seconds to go.
In overtime, the Mountaineers scored a touchdown on their first drive, and the defense once again stopped Pitt in their tracks. The Mountaineers pulled off a big win in a very entertaining game.
There were multiple standout performances, but a special tip of the cap to Tye Edwards, the running back transfer from Northern Iowa. He had not seen action in the first two games (he was one of the four players who sued for eligibility), and he introduced himself to Mountaineer fans with a 141 yards rushing performance. He looks like he might be the guy who can step up and fill in for Jahiem White, who is out for the year injured. Another almost overlooked play was by punter Oliver Straw. He was back in his end zone, and was able to field a bad snap, and get away a good punt. Had he not made a very impressive grab of that errant snap, it would have been at least a two point safety for Pitt.
As good at the Pitt game was for WVU fans, the Kansas game ended up being as bad. Tye Edwards missed the game with an injury, and the WVU offense sputtered (four of their first five possessions were three plays and a punt). The special teams were subpar for the first time this year (allowed a big punt return, and then a kickoff return for a touchdown). And the defense had its worst day of the young season.
Now they face a team licking its own wounds – Utah. The Utes were ranked in the top 20, but Texas Tech put on a dominant performance and beat the home-standing Utes, 34-10. Utah has a talented quarterback, Devon Dampier, and WVU will hope to contain him as well as Texas Tech did. The main concern for the Mountaineers might be how their offensive line matches up against a pretty good Utah defensive front.
Notes: The Utah game on September 27 will kick off at 3:30, and be televised by Fox…The golf team is off to a strong start, and this past week received votes in the Coaches Poll. Overall, they ranked 32nd in the poll…The volleyball team swept another invitational, and is now 12-0 on the year. That is the best start ever for a WVU volleyball team. And while they haven’t beaten any high level teams yet, they are beating the types of teams that they often didn’t beat last year, so they have definitely made progress under Jen Greeny.
