Post by cviller on Oct 8, 2007 6:17:03 GMT -5
Dominating performance helps Mountaineers forget loss to USF
By Dave Hickman
Staff writer
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Whether West Virginia is really this good or Syracuse simply this bad is certainly open to debate. What is not is that the Mountaineers apparently suffered no ill effects from their first loss of the season.
No letdown, no moping, no residual psychological damage. It was simply back to the business at hand.
Saturday’s 55-14 obliteration of the Orange at the Carrier Dome, in the wake of last week’s 21-13 loss at South Florida, may not have been No. 13 West Virginia’s best performance of the season, given that Syracuse is quickly proving itself inept in virtually every way. But aside from yet another injury to quarterback Pat White, the Mountaineers couldn’t have had a much better day at the office.
“Any time you lose, you’re going to do everything you can to fight back,’’ said tailback Steve Slaton, who more or less wasn’t even needed in this one. “That’s what we did. We fought back.’’
Another big day from White — before he left in the third quarter with an as yet undiagnosed but painful injury to his chest — and the re-emergence of fullback Owen Schmitt helped West Virginia’s offense roll up 486 yards and score on nine of its first 11 possessions.
The defense, meanwhile, forced three turnovers, got a lumbering touchdown on — of all things — an interception by nose tackle Keilen Dykes and was so effective that Syracuse managed to advance the ball less than 20 yards on eight of 12 possessions.
With the exception of a few long kickoff returns and one long pass, West Virginia (5-1) did virtually what it wanted to do and allowed Syracuse (1-5) nothing. It was as if there had never been that six-turnover glitch in Tampa that cost the Mountaineers their spot in the top 10.
“I think you always have concerns after a loss, whether you lose by one and play really well or lose and play poorly like we did. It takes a lot of your confidence away,’’ West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez said. “The only way to get it back is to make plays. That’s why I thought it was critical in this game to make plays early, so our guys would get some confidence.
“In the locker room at halftime I could just sense that confidence was back. It was louder than normal, even when we’d played well before. There was a lot of excitement in our players, just judging from their conversations and saying, ‘Hey, we can do this,’ or ‘We can do that.’ ’’
At times, it was surprising what some of those things were. Take running the football, for example. That’s usually the responsibility of Slaton, a 2006 consensus All-America, and White, last year’s Big East offensive player of the year. But while White had a game-high 89 yards rushing and a touchdown — not to mention his 12-of-15, 148-yard passing performance — before leaving midway through the third quarter, Slaton was held to 69 yards on 15 carries.
No problem. Just plug in Schmitt, tweak a few plays and move on. Schmitt was averaging just four carries per game while splitting his time between fullback, tight end and even some slot receiver, but on Saturday he seemed at times almost the featured back. He carried eight times for 39 yards and his first two touchdowns of the season and caught a pass for 31 yards.
The most consistently effective play the Mountaineers ran was a rather warped version of the standard triple option, on which White faked the dive handoff not to the fullback but to Slaton, then pitched to the 260-pound Schmitt, who would then bulldoze 180-pound cornerbacks in the open field.
“He’s got some tailback skills,’’ Rodriguez said.
As impressive as the offense was, though — 235 yards on 18-of-21 passing, 251 yards and five touchdowns rushing — it was West Virginia’s defense that set the tone early when safety Ryan Mundy intercepted a deflected pass on the third play of the game and set up the a short touchdown drive. Before the day was over the Mountaineers would have two other turnovers that led to scores, limiting usually solid SU quarterback Andrew Robinson to 5-of-15 passing for just 100 yards and allowing all of 94 yards rushing.
“We didn’t get a lot of sacks, but we got a hand in his face, batted a few balls down, created the big turnover early,’’ Rodriguez said. “The guys [on defense] are getting excited. They’ve got a lot of confidence in what we’re doing right now.’’
No one was more excited Saturday than Dykes. Early in the second quarter, Robinson threw a quick pass to Taj Smith cutting under the linebackers along the line of scrimmage. The ball got into Smith’s hands, but linebacker Reed Williams hit him immediately and the ball popped up in the air. Dykes caught it at the Syracuse 19-yard line and the 6-foot-5, 295-pound senior ran straight into the end zone amid a confused collection of players from both teams.
“I found it in my hands and I had to do something with it,’’ said Dykes, admitting he was in the right place at the right time. “It was the longest 20 or 25 yards of my life. I haven’t even touched a football in five years.’’
Again, though, how much this was a case of West Virginia being really good or the Orange being really bad is debatable.
Syracuse was pretty much Syracuse right from the start — inept and mistake prone. For instance, the first three plays of the game went just fine — a 14-yard run by Robinson, an offside penalty on the WVU defense and another running gain. But on a simple second-and-2 situation at midfield, Robinson had to call timeout when apparently no one understood the play.
Before the day was through, Robinson would throw the two interceptions — stopping his string of 104 passes without a pick — both of which were in the hands of receivers. Before connecting with Mike Williams on a 61-yard scoring pass late in the third quarter, his passing numbers were 4-of-13 for 39 yards and two interceptions. He also lost a fumble that WVU turned into a fourth-quarter touchdown to go over 50 points.
For West Virginia, though, it doesn’t matter what Syracuse’s problems are because the Mountaineers’ shortcomings are a thing of the past, at least for the time being. Now comes a week off before an Oct. 20 game at home with Mississippi State and then into the meat of the Big East schedule beginning at Rutgers.
Rodriguez welcomes the break.
“We’ve got to work on some fundamentals,’’ Rodriguez said. “We’ve got to work on our kickoff team. Our special teams were very poor at times and we have to get that fixed up. I’m not going to give them the whole week off, but they’ll have [Sunday] off and we’ll get back to work Monday.”
To contact staff writer Dave Hickman, use e-mail or call 348-1734.