Smurph's Smack (Cincinnati)

[smurph]

Sorry this is late, but my home computer crashed (similar to the hopes of the Mountaineer football team).
Last week when we won I took a glass-half-empty view. Therefore, following this week's loss I am taking a glass-half-full attitude. We lost to a better team (at least for that day). Our team never gave up and made a couple of miraculous plays to get to overtime. Although we have become used to being a top-10 team, we still have a chance to finsh 9-3 (pretty good) and still have a chance to go to a BCS game (we need some help). And 2 of our 3 losses have been in overtime.

1. Cincinnati - A very good team with 10 Seniors starting on defense. They did the one thing necessary to beat the Mountaineers the last few years. The outplayed our offensive line in the trenches. And their quarterback, Pike is going to be a very good player for at least two more years.
2. Coaching - C-plus. I think play-calling is talked about too much. If the play works, it is because the players made it work, not because it was a great play call. I do hold Coach Stewart accountable for our kick-off coverage and kick-off return teams being horrible. And I hold our coaches responsible for allowing the Bearcats to be more fired up for the game than we were.
3. Offensive line - D-minus. What was supposed to be our biggest strength is our biggest weakness. If you want to get after one of our coaches, make it our offensive line coach.
4. Quarterback - C. One of Patrick's worst games. Missed a few passes, made a couple bad decisions on the options.
5. Running backs - B. Can't fault these guys. There was nowhere to run.
6. Defense (overall) - B-plus. Hard to fault this unit, although they created no turnovers. Kept us in the game and were still playing with fire in the fourth quarter.
7. Special teams - D-plus. McAfee had his usual good game. Kick-off teams absolutely suck.
8. Players of the game - I will go with the defense as a unit. No real standout players - maybe Hogan, Ivy, Andrews. Julian Miller got some playing time and played very well.

[WVUfanPHILLY]

Thanks, Smurph! Not one play did I see...

[smurph]

Forgot the receivers.......C-minus. Much like the O line, blocking was very poor, and Sanders had 2 dropped passes.

Also forgot to mention JT Thomas and Sidney Glover as playing well for the defense.

[joemountaineer]

Gotta add that I am impressed with our defense. For a unit that was really not supposed to be anything to brag about this season, it's truly become a strength for this WVU team. Looks like we'll have solid defense for a couple more seasons, while we'll have offensive line questions and quarterback questions for the next couple. It's going to be a while before we see a team like we had last season, where all or most of the pieces come together to make a true run at a Championship. As for this Cincy game, I give the offense a flat D and the defense a B plus as well. I think we all know the offensive issues - line crappy play, dropped passes, missed reads, so no point in pointing them out, they just continue to happen. I was happy to see the team not roll over and it was impressive to see them force the OT, but Cincy owned this game. They especially owned our offensive line. This was supposed to be the unit that was the most solid on this team and would make this offense go. Not happening, very, very inconsistent. WVU has been a slow starter in every game this season, and after nine games, it should have been figured out. Bad Special teams will kill a team and our kickoff coverage is a season killer. I don't know what the answers are to fix this, I would think if anything this is an area of strength for our coaches and if they can't find an answer than maybe no one can. Very perplexing. When we look back on this season, one word will come to mind: inconsistency. All this said, w're not out of it yet, and we need a little help, but this team has the talent to win the rest of it's games and get to a BCS (if someone can topple Cincinatti for us that is). If not, I am hoping for a Gator Bowl bid, the trip to Jacksonville is fun and it's a good bowl and I don't want to see Pat's last game as being in the Tire Bowl or some such mediocre bowl. Hopefully Notre Shame can choke against Navy and be taken out of the Gator picture.

[mountaineerinpa]

I actaully was at this game and I thought that the O didnt do a whole lot until the last 3 miutes of the game. the D was another story though and they played good and kept the game close.

[mountaineerinpa]

The one thing that bothers me that I didnt bring up in the other post is this: The lack of getting plays in in time for the team to run. I saw the late play calling cause delay of games and timeouts used. I know this has to be coaching cause the team had to rehuddle after it went to the line and didnt get the play ran. PITIFUL what it was and unexcuseable for this point in the season.

[smurph]

Take it one step further. When was the only time our offense functioned? Answer: During the hurry-up offense, which is what we ran the last 3 years and averaged 40 points a game. Part of that strategy is to keep the defense off balance by running plays quickly.