West Virginia Football 2006 Wrap
Up:
24 45
“Everyone Chill!!”
-Bob W.
My take on the game:
By: Bob W.
Overall:
This one was tough to watch, but was anyone really shocked by the outcome? For WVU this was their season. Loss to us and they are done, beat us and they maintain some hope that no one else will go undefeated and they have a chance to go to the National Championship game (God Forbid!). We all kind of figured that we would be 2-1 going into the Florida International game and here we are. So pick up the pieces and move on. It’s a long season.
I, unlike probably most Terp fans, did manage to stay glued to the tube for the entire 60 minutes and I must say I am proud of this team. Sure their open field tackling was atrocious at times, and Slaton made us look like a high school team, but this team kept fighting. Hell we won the last 3 quarters. Of course after the 28-0, WVU sort of lost it’s sense of urgency, but how easy would it have been to just roll over. I wanted to see an upset, but this young team wasn’t able to pull it off, oh well. Learn from the mistakes, grow as a team, and get ready for the games that really matter.
Game Highlights:
OK, there really weren’t too many bright spots. The Defense looked clueless and WVU seemed to move the ball at will, but if I had to go with one it would be our TD drive in the second quarter. When I saw that we were kicking off to start the game, I really wasn’t happy. In my mind for us to have a chance we had to get the ball first, move down field at a slow and methodical pace and punch one in. Well we did end up doing that, but unfortunately it was 28-0 by then. Everything worked on the drive and it showed that as good as WVU’s offense is, the defense is pretty average.
Game Lowlights:
Wow, I feel like a fat guy at the buffet. Where do I begin! So many choices! So many in fact I am going to go with 2 Lowlights this week. The first one was the kickoff return before half time. Despite the situation I hadn’t give up hope when we cut the lead to 31-10 with just a minute left in the first half, and then it happened. It started out good with Reynaud dropping the kick, but it quickly went south from there. The coverage on the kick was terrible and WVU easily ran it back for a TD to make it 38-10. I choose this moment over all the turnovers, and missed tackles because I felt that momentum was starting to come back our way. Had we held them, it would have been a 31-10 game at halftime with us getting the ball to start the second half. And had we scored on our first possession of the half (which we kind of did via an interception followed by a WVU fumble) the lead would have been cut to 31-17 with us on a 17-3 run. It may not have been enough to overcome the first quarter, but it could have changed the game and put a little anxiety into the Mountaineer faithful. But oh well. Special teams dropped the ball, but unlike Reynaud, they weren’t able to pick it back up.
The other low light was the fumbled kick off in the first quarter. As mentioned above I wanted our first drive to be time consuming. I wanted to give our D a break and keep WVU’s offense on the side lines for as long as possible. The botched reverse kick off not only had disastrous results, it was a terrible idea under even the best case scenarios. Say we run it back for a TD, we just put Slaton and White right back on the field to shove it down our throats again. I thought that was a terrible call that wound up not getting the ball into Hollenbach’s hands until it was 14-0. Bad call, bad result.
MVP:
This is tough, no one really stuck out, but I think I am going to go the unconventional route and give the MVP to Joey Haynos. He didn’t do anything spectacular, but he was always there when we needed a safe out. Haynos had 8 catches for 51 yards and a TD. Good work Joey, unless there is a fumble or other terrible play that has slipped my mind, you are this weeks D-7 Tailgate MVP.
Random Thoughts:
In the opening credits for Entourage, why does Debbie Mazar get credited with all the other stars of the show? She’s had like 2 lines in the last 2 seasons. For God’s sake Lloyd has more relevance to the story than she does. It makes no sense!
Around the ACC:
Due to the Thursday Night start and the sense of urgency to get this recap done while the wounds were still fresh, there will be no Around the ACC this week. Should be some good ones, but you’ll just have to read about them in the newspaper (sans witty comments).
ACC Standings:
Atlantic
BC 1-0 2-0
FSU 1-0 2-0
Wake 1-0 2-0
Maryland 0-0 2-1
NC St 0-0 1-1
Clemson 0-1 1-1
Coastal
VT 1-0 2-0
GT 0-0 1-1
Virginia 0-0 1-1
Miami 0-1 1-1
Duke 0-1 0-2
UNC 0-1 0-2