Post by cviller on Oct 5, 2007 9:30:04 GMT -5
Mountaineers put up staggering statistics
By Dave Hickman
Staff writer
MORGANTOWN — The last time West Virginia and Syracuse met, the Mountaineers put up some offensive numbers that, even by their own obscene standards, were just a bit staggering.
• Steve Slaton ran for 163 yards and was almost an afterthought.
• That’s because Pat White averaged 16.5 yards every time he ran it, piling up 247 yards, a record for a Big East quarterback.
• The Mountaineers had scoring drives of 88, 83, 80 and 80 yards (among others), none of which exhausted more than seven plays.
• By the time Syracuse kicked a field goal with three minutes remaining — obviously just for the practice or to allow Morgantown High’s Patrick Shadle a moment in the sun — West Virginia had run for 457 yards, gained 562 total and won 41-17.
So is Syracuse (1-4) any better equipped to handle the No. 13 Mountaineers (4-1) when the teams play at noon Saturday in the Carrier Dome?
“Well, I think if you went by numbers you’d say no,’’ Syracuse coach Greg Robinson said this week. “But I think we’re going to be better than last year. I believe that.’’
Of course, it would be hard not to be better.
Robinson — a defensive coach by trade who was a coordinator with three NFL teams and Texas — has had some success against West Virginia’s spread offense. The last time the Mountaineers were at the Carrier Dome was Robinson’s first game as the Orange coach, the 2005 season opener. West Virginia didn’t score an offensive touchdown that day, getting two Pat McAfee field goals, a safety and an Eric Wicks interception return for a touchdown in a 15-7 win.
Of course, that was before Slaton and White really emerged, which is why Robinson fears the WVU system not nearly as much as its personnel.
“I can sit here for a half an hour and talk [about the scheme], but it’s usually the individuals that are doing it that make it difficult,’’ Robinson said. “Whether it’s the wishbone or the veer or whatever, it still comes down to the last man. You have to defend the man that has the football.
“We got the ball away from them five different times [in that 2005 game, referring to four WVU fumbles and an interception]. So that was a factor. And, quite frankly, while Pat White was in that game some and so was Slaton, they didn’t play as much as they played last year.’’
West Virginia’s offensive performance — and, conversely, Syracuse’s defensive effort — last year weren’t quite what the statistics or the final score make them seem. If West Virginia had been beating the Orange like a drum on every play, it would have been one thing. That wasn’t happening.
Instead, White had runs of 69, 40, 32 and 22 yards and Slaton went 52 on a touchdown. That’s five plays that accounted for 215 yards and led to or resulted in five touchdowns. The Mountaineers ran the ball 40 other times for 242 yards, solid numbers but nothing mind-boggling. And WVU gained just 99 yards passing, most of that on short dumps and screens.
“We had three or four really long runs where we got some good downfield blocking and Pat and Steve got a crease and went,’’ West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez said. “That was the biggest difference [between 2005 and 2006] because we didn’t break any of the really long runs two years ago.
“They were pretty solid defensively except for the four or five big plays. Of course, you’ve got to count them.’’
Yes, it’s hard to minimize those four or five big plays because that’s what West Virginia’s offense is designed to do — spread the field, isolate great runners against single tacklers and see what happens. In that regard, Syracuse’s defense was just as deficient as the numbers make it appear.
But for a tackle here or a tackle there, though, the Orange might have been nearly as successful last season as the 2005 game in Syracuse, in which West Virginia — with Adam Bednarik, Jason Colson and Pernell Williams the primary ball carriers — gained only 172 rushing yards on 45 carries.
Tackling White and Slaton, though — not to mention Noel Devine or Darius Reynaud — is sometimes tricky, which is what Robinson is emphasizing this week.
“The key is to minimize. They’re going to make some plays and the key to the whole thing is minimizing the big plays,’’ Robinson said. “Last year we really didn’t do that. There were five plays there that make a big, big difference in the football game because they were long yardage.
“Everybody is involved. It takes 11 guys to do it the right way. I think we have a better understanding, but we have to go out and do it.’’
And even if West Virginia breaks some long plays, all is not lost for Syracuse if the Orange can at least turn a potential 70-yard touchdown into a 50-yard gain. Robinson isn’t worried at all about how many yards the Mountaineers gain as long as they don’t get the last one. A few turnovers — like the six WVU committed last week at South Florida — might help, too.
“I go back to when I was with the Jets and we were playing Warren Moon and Houston. We beat them 12-7,’’ said Robinson, who was the defensive coordinator in New York in 1994. “They probably had 500 yards of offense that day, but they couldn’t score because they kept making mistakes.’’
To contact staff writer Dave Hickman, use e-mail or call 348-1734.