Have you ever felt so apathetic after a WVU win in your life? First let’s hit the positive: this defense is elite. I no longer want to hear people complaining that losing Vic Koenning is a big deal because it wasn’t/isn’t. We came in with the 5th ranked pass defense nationally and continued to play like it. Tykee Smith and Dreshun Miller each had an interception. Darius Stills was a man among boys that spent the entire day in Baylor’s backfield, he came away with 2.5 sacks. Tony Fields II had 10 tackles and a sack. Jeffrey Pooler and True Freshman Ahkeem Mesidor each had a sack. If we could simply move the chains without committing turnovers and a million penalties, we could beat nearly anyone with this defense.
The passing game was pretty terrible for most of the day. Aside from the 1st drive, Doege wasn’t very good, throwing 2 INTs and fumbling twice. He also threw 42 times for only 211 yards which is a 5.0 YPA. The leading Receiver was Sam James who caught 8 balls for 66 yards but had a big drop late. The running game was solid and the offensive line played well, especially given that starting LG James Gmiter was out for testing positive with Covid and True Freshman Zach Frazier stepped in without missing a beat. Leddie Brown had 2 TDs and 93 rushing yards on 27 carries. Sinkfield added 53 yards on only 6 carries.
Now onto the negative: 12 penalties for 102 yards, 2 INTs and 3 fumbles total with 2 fumbles lost. At one point I sent a text to my brother that said, “it’s hard to watch a football team this sloppy and I haven’t felt that way since the second half of 2012 when the team and QB Geno Smith quit on Coach Holgorsen.” Fortunately, our opponent this week was just as bad. For the 2nd week in a row, WVU was one of the most undisciplined teams that I have ever seen.
Yes, we won – but that performance was putrid. I’m a defensive guy and I’m all for the ugly slug-fest. But our performance had little to do with Baylor’s defense. Double digit penalties has nothing to do with the other teams D. Everyone throws a pick or fumbles on occasion but FOUR TOs is a lack of fundamentals. And nearly every other play resulted in a flag.
I highly doubt any die-hard Mountaineer feels good about today’s win. Through the last two games, we actually look worse than last year. Our Defense is better but our offense is just as bad (if not worse) and add to that the lack of discipline and fundamentals. Baylor also played about as bad as they could possibly play and we barely came out of there with a victory. I just said this last week after the Okie State loss and it continued this week: we may actually be able to beat Kansas playing this terribly (don’t hold your breath, beating KU playing this awful is 50/50) but after the Jayhawks, if we continue down this road, we’ll be lucky to win another game. Hopefully Neal Brown can get this offensive mess cleaned up because the Big 12 is wide open and we have the Defense to win it.
