Week 4/5 Mountaineer Review and Preview

[smackemz]

 

Week 4 Score: West Virginia 27 #6 Kansas State 31

POTG: KSU WR Danny Cichy - 5 catches 154 yards and 2 TD

What Happened: West Virginia could not stop the big play when it mattered and Danny Cichy made them pay in heart-breaking fashion. With under 30 seconds to go in the game and West Virginia clinging to a 27 - 24 lead. the Wildcats would have 70 yards to drive if they wanted to win in regulation. Not a problem for Danny Cichy as he would sprint past the corner and get in the seam between the safeties, Brandon Smith would loft up a perfect pass that was caught in stride for the back breaking touchdown. There's really no other way to put it other than inexcusably poor defense at the end of a game when you have a chance to knock off the number 6 team in the nation. The Mountaineers would only bend most of the game, but on 2 separate long passes they would break for Cichy touchdowns.

 

The positives are that the duo of Chad Dolis and Mario Allen combined for 170 yards and 3 touchdowns and quarterback Shelby Musa continued his streak of taking care of the football. The Mountaineers would have another costly mistake near the end of the 3rd quarter when star wideout Avery Sterling would catch a pass deep in Kansas State territory. It seemed as if WVU would be in prime position to add on to their lead, but as Sterling went to juke he was hit hard by the linebacker and coughed up the football. The Mountaineers would miss out on a costly opportunity to grow their lead in their bid to upset a top 10 team. Mike Fox would also miss his first field goal attempt of the year giving us another thing to think about in our giant game of what if this week.

 

Match up: Kansas (1-1) at West Virginia (2-2)

 

What to watch for (WVU): Does anyone know a good hangover cure? When a rebuilding team is so close to knocking off a top opponent, you have to worry about their focus going into their next game. The Mountaineers need to put their loss to Kansas State behind them and focus on a winnable game against the Kansas Jayhawks. Similar to their game against Army, Kansas QB Tyler Summers has a lot of talent in his legs, but has struggled mightily when called upon to pass the football. If the Mountaineers can take care of the football and force Summers to pass more than he's ready for then it could be a good day for the WVU defense. The Jayhawks have more talent across the board, however; so the task will be much more difficult to accomplish. The rumor in Morgantown is that Sr RB Mario Allen earned himself more carries after his explosive game against Kansas State. We will be watching closely to see if he takes advantage of the extra reps.

 

What to watch for (Kansas): Can Tyler Summers be the guy? There was a lot of hype in Lawrence about the redshirt freshman signal caller, but so far in 2 games he has been very up and down. He led Kansas to a victory over Michigan, but turned around and struggled against Iowa State. The strength of the WVU defense is their ability to slow down the run, they kept KSU's star RB Mitchell Reynolds in check, so it's imperative that Summers is able to do enough to open up lanes for RB duo Casspi and Humber. The talent is there, can he put it all together?

 

What will happen: The Mountaineers took a big step forward offensively against Kansas State. It was their best performance of the season and could be a turning point for a unit that has struggled all season. Kansas is a talented team, but we feel that their strengths on offense match up well with the strength of the WVU defense. If this game were in Kansas we would take them, but since it's in Morgantown we think WVU will win a close one.

 

Prediction: WVU 20 - Kansas 17

[Bundy]

I want to disagree but with the way the seasons been going... I think you could be spot on down to the score ?

[smackemz]

Feels like a toss up to me, so I'm just going with the home team tbh.