West Virginia may be 3-0 and fresh off its first road victory of the season, but the Mountaineers have yet to put together a complete game.
That was never more evident than in Saturday’s 37-31 victory over Maryland at Byrd Stadium.
If this trend continues, No. 18 WVU will not make it to 4-0 as it hosts No. 3 LSU (3-0) Saturday in Morgantown. It was announced today the game will be at 8 p.m., but it’s still not clear if ESPN’s Gameday crew will come to Morgantown.
After building a 34-10 lead, WVU put everything on cruise control, which gave Maryland a chance to mount a furious comeback. The Terps (1-1) were on the verge of completing the miraculous comeback when Eain Smith intercepted Danny O’Brien to end the late drive.
Oh, the defense.
This was WVU’s strength last year, but Maryland exposed a weakness on Saturday. Playing a hurry-up offense, the Mountaineers got winded and couldn’t get any pressure on O’Brien. He proceeded to shred WVU for huge chunks of yards and personally finished 34-of-52 for 289 yards and a touchdown. But WVU’s defense did tally three interceptions.
The Terps had 477 yards of offense, the most West Virginia has given up since Connecticut (who was also coached by Maryland’s Randy Edsall), finished with 501 in 2009. Maryland even ran the ball efficiently in the second half with Davin Meggett (114 yards and a touchdown).
So what should Dana Holgorsen and the Mountaineers take away from this game?
On the positive side, getting out of Byrd Stadium with a win is never easy so don’t devalue the close win (even though it looked like it would be a blow out). This is one of those times where the coaching staff should not dwell on the fact the win almost got away from them.
Geno Smith’s performance was once again stunning as he displayed a strong arm and outstanding accuracy. He finished the day 36-for-49 for 388 yards. Where he struggled was near the goal line. Ahead 34-31, Smith led the Mountaineers on a late drive that could have sealed the win. But Smith’s accuracy was an issue here and WVU had to settle for a field goal.
On the negative side, the Mountaineers have to figure out a way to balance the emotional side of the game. A week earlier, WVU trailed Norfolk State 12-10 at half after playing flat for a half. This week it was the defense that stopped being aggressive in the second half and gave Maryland hope.
Now it’s time to focus on LSU, and what a win over the Tigers could mean to WVU, Holgorsen and a Big East Conference that has a pretty shaky future right now.
