Post by joemountaineer on Sept 19, 2007 19:14:59 GMT -5
Well, I've been doing some reading on this Pirate team. They beat a mediocre North Carolina team and lost to an overrated Va Tech 17-3 at Tech and then last week lost in the last few seconds to Southern Mississippi at home. In all three games, they've demonstrated an inability to run the ball. The leading rusher is the quarterback with 109 yards on 30 carries. The running back rushing leader is Chris Johnson with a whopping 93 yards on 31 carries in three games. As a whole, ECU has 303 rushing yards for the entire team in three games. Folks, that ain't good at all. Last I looked, Southern Miss and North Carolina weren't giants on the defensive side of the ball. Guess the juries out on Va Tech, they normally are very good against the run, so these stats would sort of make sense with them, but then again after watching LSU shred Tech the other night, I'm not so sure Va Tech is really all that good on their defensive line. So, in short, I'm of the opinion that these guys simply can't run the ball.
I'm hearing a lot about Patrick Pinkney, the ECU QB. So far this year, as noted above, he's the leading rusher on ECU, and his passing stats are 65 completions on 99 passes for 724 yards and 5 TDs, with 1 interception (it was returned for a TD against Va. Tech). Their receivers appear to be pretty good, with Jamar Bryant leading the way and Philip Henry being the other leading receivers. 3 of Pinkneys touchdowns were throws to a running back (to Chris Johnson). I'm guessing we will see a lot of short, screen like passes. Their longest TD pass this year was 20 yards.
Defensivley, I'm reading and hearing things about ECU's defensive tackle Linval Joseph, # 77 - he is mammoth, 6'6" 344 lbs and is quite the player supposedly. Wow, hope he doesn't get a clean hit on Noel, he'd simply squash him. ECU appears to be weak in the secondary, especially the two safeties. This doesn't bode well for them if WVU can get Slaton and Devine past the line and into the secondary, look for big plays. ECU hasn't given up any plays over 25 yards this year. So, overall they appear be stout on defense - at least for a while. Not sure what is with the Pirates, but they seem to always give WVU fits and they are the only WVU opponent that has held Slaton and White each to under 100 yards rushing in two games against them. So, who knows what the magic formula is with ECU so I won't be surprised if they make us struggle on offense. I don't expect it will be enough though for ECU to win. Maybe keep it close for a while, but if they jam up the line, it's time to see Pat White compile some passing yards. Hopefully the WVU coaches have been keeping a secret about a second receiver to compliment Darius Reynaud, because in my opinion this is the one ingredient missing from us having an elite offense. We just need one more playmaker out there and we could put up huge numbers.
Overall analysis, I just don't see anyway that ECU will be able to stay in this game unless WVU is flat and maybe looking ahead to USF. I doubt ECU will suddenly discover a running game against our defense. ECU will need to run the ball to keep WVU's offense off the field. I don't think they can do it. The passing game worries me some. BUT, hopefully we'll see the Defense turned loose like they FINALLY were against Maryland. I hope to see a lot of man to man, blitz schemes to make Pinkney make some bad throws and create some turnovers. On the defensive side of the ball, ECU seems pretty solid, but they simply have not played a high powered offense yet so it remains to be seen how this will go. ECU Coach Ski p Holtz seems to be doing a lot of talking in the press that the way to stop WVU is to just play base defense and not try to throw anything unusual at them in the way of tricky schemes etc. Which tells me, this is probably a lot of coach-speak on Holt'z part and we're going to see something weird from them.
I think bottom line, WVU will be prepared and focused and we will win handily. All the advantages lean heavily to WVU. You can't win if you can't run, and ECU just doesn't look like it can run. Which means they'll be throwing all over the lot, so it'll be in the defenses hands to set the tone early and make some early stops on ECU. I think if we get out on top of them quickly, ECU will be out of it emotionally (hopefully still a little hung over from losing their game last week in the last minute of the game). I'm looking for a first half score somewhere along 21/24-10 WVU and then we pull away second half and win 42/49 to 13.
Can't wait to see Devine get another TD this weekend!
Go Mountaineers!!!!!!
I'm hearing a lot about Patrick Pinkney, the ECU QB. So far this year, as noted above, he's the leading rusher on ECU, and his passing stats are 65 completions on 99 passes for 724 yards and 5 TDs, with 1 interception (it was returned for a TD against Va. Tech). Their receivers appear to be pretty good, with Jamar Bryant leading the way and Philip Henry being the other leading receivers. 3 of Pinkneys touchdowns were throws to a running back (to Chris Johnson). I'm guessing we will see a lot of short, screen like passes. Their longest TD pass this year was 20 yards.
Defensivley, I'm reading and hearing things about ECU's defensive tackle Linval Joseph, # 77 - he is mammoth, 6'6" 344 lbs and is quite the player supposedly. Wow, hope he doesn't get a clean hit on Noel, he'd simply squash him. ECU appears to be weak in the secondary, especially the two safeties. This doesn't bode well for them if WVU can get Slaton and Devine past the line and into the secondary, look for big plays. ECU hasn't given up any plays over 25 yards this year. So, overall they appear be stout on defense - at least for a while. Not sure what is with the Pirates, but they seem to always give WVU fits and they are the only WVU opponent that has held Slaton and White each to under 100 yards rushing in two games against them. So, who knows what the magic formula is with ECU so I won't be surprised if they make us struggle on offense. I don't expect it will be enough though for ECU to win. Maybe keep it close for a while, but if they jam up the line, it's time to see Pat White compile some passing yards. Hopefully the WVU coaches have been keeping a secret about a second receiver to compliment Darius Reynaud, because in my opinion this is the one ingredient missing from us having an elite offense. We just need one more playmaker out there and we could put up huge numbers.
Overall analysis, I just don't see anyway that ECU will be able to stay in this game unless WVU is flat and maybe looking ahead to USF. I doubt ECU will suddenly discover a running game against our defense. ECU will need to run the ball to keep WVU's offense off the field. I don't think they can do it. The passing game worries me some. BUT, hopefully we'll see the Defense turned loose like they FINALLY were against Maryland. I hope to see a lot of man to man, blitz schemes to make Pinkney make some bad throws and create some turnovers. On the defensive side of the ball, ECU seems pretty solid, but they simply have not played a high powered offense yet so it remains to be seen how this will go. ECU Coach Ski p Holtz seems to be doing a lot of talking in the press that the way to stop WVU is to just play base defense and not try to throw anything unusual at them in the way of tricky schemes etc. Which tells me, this is probably a lot of coach-speak on Holt'z part and we're going to see something weird from them.
I think bottom line, WVU will be prepared and focused and we will win handily. All the advantages lean heavily to WVU. You can't win if you can't run, and ECU just doesn't look like it can run. Which means they'll be throwing all over the lot, so it'll be in the defenses hands to set the tone early and make some early stops on ECU. I think if we get out on top of them quickly, ECU will be out of it emotionally (hopefully still a little hung over from losing their game last week in the last minute of the game). I'm looking for a first half score somewhere along 21/24-10 WVU and then we pull away second half and win 42/49 to 13.
Can't wait to see Devine get another TD this weekend!
Go Mountaineers!!!!!!
