Post by elp525 on Sept 25, 2011 10:15:30 GMT -5
09/25/2011
Shawn Falkenstein
Morgantown
West Virginia turned the ball over four times and the defense wore down in the second half as No. 2 LSU defeated No. 16 West Virginia 47-21 in primetime Saturday night.
“Yeah, not very happy,” said West Virginia head coach Dana Holgorsen of his first ever loss as a head coach. “Hats off to coach [Les] Miles. It’s a very established program, very good place, number two in the country, they have very good athletes, they win a lot of games and they outplayed and outcoached us.”
Geno Smith set school records for pass completions (38), attempts (65) and yards (463) in a single game as the Mountaineer offense rolled up 533 yards of total offense, but it was not enough to overcome a Tiger team that methodically moved the ball on offense and came up with big plays on defense and special teams.
“There were a couple of times I thought we had momentum,” said Holgorsen. “We did some good things offensively and defensively, but you can’t beat a good team by doing that. You can talk about 500 yards if you want to, but the only thing I’m going to talk about tomorrow is four turnovers.”
The biggest turnover came at the end of the first half when Tyrann Mathieu intercepted a Geno Smith pass and returned it to the one yard line. The Tigers punched it in two plays later.
“He’s a great football player,” said Holgorsen of Mathieu. “I thought he was the best player on the field the first three games they played and I felt he was the best player on the field tonight.”
LSU (4-0) beat their third ranked team on the road by jumping out to a 13-0 lead in the first quarter and cruising from there. The only time the game was in jeopardy was when West Virginia (3-1) closed the gap to 27-21 after two third quarter touchdowns, but Morris Claiborne returned a kickoff 99 yards to kill the Mountaineers’ momentum on the very next play.
“It definitely took the wind right out [of our sails],” said cornerback Keith Tandy. “Our offense was pretty much having their way with them and our defense was stopping their offense so we felt like we had the game in control and then the kickoff return took the wind right out of us.”
There were two missed tackles on that kickoff return and several more throughout the game. “I don’t think we tackled very well,” said defensive end Bruce Irvin. “If you come up here tomorrow you’ll probably hear coach Kirelawhich and coach Casteel in the meeting rooms, but we could have tackled better. If you don’t tackle you’re not going to win, especially when you’re playing teams like that.”
LSU’s offensive line wore down the Mountaineers, rushing for 186 yards on 41 carries. It was very noticeable in the fourth quarter as Spencer Ware and Michael Ford began busting off longer runs.
“I think we just got tired,” said Irvin. “Spencer Ware’s a big back, he runs hard. The other one runs hard too. You’ve got to wrap those guys up. You saw we had them stopped in the backfield and then he’s spitting out of there. We were just tired.”
Conversely, West Virginia’s offensive line held up against a deep and talented LSU defensive unit, giving Smith plenty of time in the pocket.
“I thought the pass protection was fantastic and Geno had time, and we had some guys get open and make some plays,” said Holgorsen.
“That was a big success for us,” said tackle Don Barclay of giving Smith time to throw the football. “If we give him time he can do a lot of things, he’s special. We could have run the ball better, definitely. I think that could have helped us out a lot.”
West Virginia only rushed for 70 yards on 22 carries, led by Dustin Garrison who had 46 yards on 10 carries and one touchdown.
“He played well,” said Holgorsen of Garrison. “We averaged five yards a rush. That’s probably more than I thought we were going to get. It just got to a point where we got behind a little bit.”
Tavon Austin caught 11 passes for 187 yards while Stedman Bailey had eight catches for 115 yards and a touchdown. In all, nine different players caught passes Saturday night.
Up next for West Virginia is a Homecoming matchup against Bowling Green Saturday at noon.
Official Attendance: 62,056
SCORING SUMMARY
LSU—Rueben Randle 11 yd pass from Jarrett Lee (Drew Alleman kick) 0-7
LSU—Michael Ford 22 yd run (conversion failed) 0-13
WVU—Stedman Bailey 20 yd pass from Geno Smith (Tyler Bitancurt kick) 7-13
LSU—Odell Beckham 52 yd pass from Lee (Alleman kick) 7-20
LSU—Chase Clement 1 yd pass from Lee (Alleman kick) 7-27
WVU—Tyler Urban 12 yd pass from Smith (Bitancurt kick) 14-27
WVU—Dustin Garrison 1 yd run (Bitancurt kick) 21-27
LSU—Morris Claiborne 99 yd kickoff return (Alleman kick) 21-34
LSU—Ford 15 yd run (Lee pass failed) 21-40
LSU—Alfred Blue 18 yard run (Alleman kick) 21-47
Shawn Falkenstein
Morgantown
West Virginia turned the ball over four times and the defense wore down in the second half as No. 2 LSU defeated No. 16 West Virginia 47-21 in primetime Saturday night.
“Yeah, not very happy,” said West Virginia head coach Dana Holgorsen of his first ever loss as a head coach. “Hats off to coach [Les] Miles. It’s a very established program, very good place, number two in the country, they have very good athletes, they win a lot of games and they outplayed and outcoached us.”
Geno Smith set school records for pass completions (38), attempts (65) and yards (463) in a single game as the Mountaineer offense rolled up 533 yards of total offense, but it was not enough to overcome a Tiger team that methodically moved the ball on offense and came up with big plays on defense and special teams.
“There were a couple of times I thought we had momentum,” said Holgorsen. “We did some good things offensively and defensively, but you can’t beat a good team by doing that. You can talk about 500 yards if you want to, but the only thing I’m going to talk about tomorrow is four turnovers.”
The biggest turnover came at the end of the first half when Tyrann Mathieu intercepted a Geno Smith pass and returned it to the one yard line. The Tigers punched it in two plays later.
“He’s a great football player,” said Holgorsen of Mathieu. “I thought he was the best player on the field the first three games they played and I felt he was the best player on the field tonight.”
LSU (4-0) beat their third ranked team on the road by jumping out to a 13-0 lead in the first quarter and cruising from there. The only time the game was in jeopardy was when West Virginia (3-1) closed the gap to 27-21 after two third quarter touchdowns, but Morris Claiborne returned a kickoff 99 yards to kill the Mountaineers’ momentum on the very next play.
“It definitely took the wind right out [of our sails],” said cornerback Keith Tandy. “Our offense was pretty much having their way with them and our defense was stopping their offense so we felt like we had the game in control and then the kickoff return took the wind right out of us.”
There were two missed tackles on that kickoff return and several more throughout the game. “I don’t think we tackled very well,” said defensive end Bruce Irvin. “If you come up here tomorrow you’ll probably hear coach Kirelawhich and coach Casteel in the meeting rooms, but we could have tackled better. If you don’t tackle you’re not going to win, especially when you’re playing teams like that.”
LSU’s offensive line wore down the Mountaineers, rushing for 186 yards on 41 carries. It was very noticeable in the fourth quarter as Spencer Ware and Michael Ford began busting off longer runs.
“I think we just got tired,” said Irvin. “Spencer Ware’s a big back, he runs hard. The other one runs hard too. You’ve got to wrap those guys up. You saw we had them stopped in the backfield and then he’s spitting out of there. We were just tired.”
Conversely, West Virginia’s offensive line held up against a deep and talented LSU defensive unit, giving Smith plenty of time in the pocket.
“I thought the pass protection was fantastic and Geno had time, and we had some guys get open and make some plays,” said Holgorsen.
“That was a big success for us,” said tackle Don Barclay of giving Smith time to throw the football. “If we give him time he can do a lot of things, he’s special. We could have run the ball better, definitely. I think that could have helped us out a lot.”
West Virginia only rushed for 70 yards on 22 carries, led by Dustin Garrison who had 46 yards on 10 carries and one touchdown.
“He played well,” said Holgorsen of Garrison. “We averaged five yards a rush. That’s probably more than I thought we were going to get. It just got to a point where we got behind a little bit.”
Tavon Austin caught 11 passes for 187 yards while Stedman Bailey had eight catches for 115 yards and a touchdown. In all, nine different players caught passes Saturday night.
Up next for West Virginia is a Homecoming matchup against Bowling Green Saturday at noon.
Official Attendance: 62,056
SCORING SUMMARY
LSU—Rueben Randle 11 yd pass from Jarrett Lee (Drew Alleman kick) 0-7
LSU—Michael Ford 22 yd run (conversion failed) 0-13
WVU—Stedman Bailey 20 yd pass from Geno Smith (Tyler Bitancurt kick) 7-13
LSU—Odell Beckham 52 yd pass from Lee (Alleman kick) 7-20
LSU—Chase Clement 1 yd pass from Lee (Alleman kick) 7-27
WVU—Tyler Urban 12 yd pass from Smith (Bitancurt kick) 14-27
WVU—Dustin Garrison 1 yd run (Bitancurt kick) 21-27
LSU—Morris Claiborne 99 yd kickoff return (Alleman kick) 21-34
LSU—Ford 15 yd run (Lee pass failed) 21-40
LSU—Alfred Blue 18 yard run (Alleman kick) 21-47
