COMMENTARY
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — After West Virginia’s 17-point win a week ago against N.C. State, there was cautious optimism that the Mountaineers had finally figured it out. It wasn’t a win that many expected, much less in the fashion they did it in.
But heading into Saturday’s game at Kansas, there were still a lot of questions that needed to be answered, and after West Virginia was able to walk away from Lawrence with a 29-24 win, there is still just as many questions and too few answers.
Starting with one concern that was crossed off, the Mountaineers do, in fact, know how to win on the road. After the 38-7 loss at Missouri on Sept. 7, it was an unknown how this coaching staff could handle playing away from Morgantown, and while Kansas is far from one of the most intimidating places to play — attendance was near 20,000 at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium — getting a win on the road was crucial.
“I thought we showed a lot of poise here today,” coach Neal Brown said. “This is a good environment — they pumped in some noise and I thought the crowd got into it when they made some plays. I thought it was a really good college football atmosphere here.”
Another key was not turning the ball over, which was a major factor in the loss to the Tigers two weeks ago. With no sudden changes and the ability to keep drives alive, time of possession was drastically in favor of West Virginia at 37:41-22:19, an entire quarter longer.
That brings us to another major step forward — the running game is not nearly as bad as what it was in the first two games. With only 64 yards combined on the ground against JMU and Missouri, West Virginia averaged 183 yards the last two games against N.C. State and Kansas.
With cohesiveness along the offensive line, as well as the return of Leddie Brown from an ankle injury, the preseason strength of the Mountaineer offense appears to be moving in the direction we thought it would.
Brown finished with 70 yards on 12 carries, good for 5.8 yards a pop.
“He plays the game the way it’s supposed to be played,” Neal Brown said. “He plays really hard and is really physical. He makes mistakes but overcomes those with his effort. I don’t think it’s any coincidence that in both games he’s played, we’ve ran the ball well.”
But as the negatives go, consistency is something that has been a thorn in the inside of West Virginia all season, especially defensively. In the first three games, the first half was a struggle on defense, but it didn’t allow a single touchdown in the second half.
That trend was reversed against the Jayhawks with two poor series that kept Kansas in the game late. After West Virginia went up 10 points in the third quarter, Kansas quarterback Carter Stanley hit receiver Andrew Parchment on a 75-yard post route with a breakdown in the secondary, leaving cornerback Hakeem Bailey with no safety help.
In the fourth quarter trailing by 12, Stanley led the Jayhawks on a 10-play, 70-yard drive that ended in another Parchment touchdown.
“We didn’t do a very good job … we didn’t play as well defensively today as we can,” Brown said. “[The 10-play drive] and the long score were the disappointing drives. We’ve gotta do a better job. We were trying to keep the ball in front of us and weren’t getting our guys in the flats, so we were letting Carter make those easy throws. We just have to do a better job of communicating.”
Offensively, after an easy scoring drive to open the game, West Virginia couldn’t get much of anything going. The only other points the remainder of the half were an Evan Staley field goal as time expired.
In the second half, though, WVU scored on every possession except its last, which was in an attempt to wind the clock down. Quarterback Austin Kendall played poised and did not make mistakes, while the running game grinded out drives.
A win is a win, and West Virginia sits at 3-1 heading into a bye week with Texas looming Oct. 5 in Morgantown. But a month into the season, we still don’t know what this team is yet, but as long as you keep winning, it doesn’t really matter what’s a question and what’s been answered.
