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[Anotherwvufan]

We may have just lost to the best team in the country last night. We had a great first half, but the size and strength of Oklahoma was too much for this team.

Clint Trickett was by far the best QB on the field. He made some bad decisions and had some wide open opportunities that were missed, but was accurate and really leads WRs with his throws. One pick should have been stopped by Thompson and the other was a bad throw. His biggest weakness was throwing when running left. A couple of those passes could have changed the game. I could see him with a chance to play in the NFL. Reminds me of Mark Bulger Grade A-

OL. Pass protection was good but we had trouble on Blitzes. Good initial push on runs but they were not able to make second level blocks. This unit held up well against OKs D line, but linebackers killed us. Grade B.

WRs. Have earned the name Frisbee Catching Dogs. White May the best receiver in CFB. Alford did great but had some critical drops along with his frisbee catches. After those two there is a significant drop off. Thompson could have stoped the int on a jump ball. Shorts was often open where the ball was forced to Alford. Gotta give this group an A for the great TD catches.

RBs. Everyone had some nice runs, but no breakaways or long runs. Smith was the best guy last night and should have played more. He has the best chance of getting through 2nd level tacklers and make a long run. These guys were mostly limited by the OU linebackers. Grade C+

DL. Undersized and overmatched in this game. No sacks, little pressure. We need a pass rusher. Riddick was a non factor in this game. I was hoping he would be the answer. But he has not. Rose held the nose well but we had nobody who could stop their big back. We wore down late in the game. Grade C

LBS. Kwitikowski was everywhere and was dominant. Nobody else really showed up and were overpowered by OUs big back who always fell forwards for a yard or three while being tackled. Grade C.

DB. Joseph will play Sundays and showed it last night. When the Safty is your leading tackler, that says a lot about your D. CBs did well withou t Worley, but the had many assists by bad Trevor Night throws. Grade B-

ST deforest must have been reading Dads posts as they took a knee on every kickoff.3-5 yards back we need to take some chances as we have the fastest guy on the field. Some teams go years without allowing a punt or KR touchdown. The return changed the complexion of the game. This unit did nothing to help us. Grade D

Overall, our offense is great, but when you let a back run for 242 yards, it is really hard to win. We can blame STs, or bad ref calls, but the bottom line is that our DL and LB could not match up and stop the run. Take away the bad calls and KR and we still lose this game.

Looks like we are out of playoff contention now. Everybody was expecting us to be 2-2 a at this point. We lost to two playoff teams and looked respectable in both. Oklahoma was a better team than Alabama. We could still go 10-2 if we keep playing like we did today.

 

[Mike]

I look for 7-5 or8-4 this season the same as I did before the season started. I see improvement, and we still need some pieces to the puzzle.

 

[WVUDAD]

Mostly agree with your assessment, once again we play even with a great team, get some momentum going, and a failure in an Efore coached unit swings the momentum to our opponent. Once again, our opponent made halftime adjustments and WVU did not, the kick return was what swung the game, then the first OU drive of the second half broke our back, once OU changed up their blocking scheme and decided to pound it with that big back, WVU's defense had no answer. The kids played a good game until halftime, then the OU defensive calls seemed to be dead in sync with what our offense was running. Yet again I question some of the play calling, 3-10 and we run, 3-2 and we pass. I see the coaches did look at some of the nonsense last week, we took a knee when kickoffs were 5 yds deep, we had better use of time outs, we kicked fgs when we should have. Overall effort was good, we got approached, but the kids have nothing to be ashamed of. I LOVED the long field goal, Woody was our kicker when I was in school, a great kicker is a great weapon, when you have a guaranteed 3 when you get to the 35, it is huge.

 

[bbwvfan]

I was impressed with the atmosphere last night. Hats off to the WVU fans who attended the game. You could feel the electricity, and the striped stadium looked awesome!

Weird how similar this game was to the LSU game of a few years ago. While the KO returns happened at different points in the game, the effect was almost exactly the same.

After the call had been reversed giving WVU a TD… the stadium came alive. The KO return took all of the wind out of crowd. And, when OU's offense kept pounding the rock against an over-matched and tired defense… the buzz kill was complete.

In the LSU game, we had to witness a complete domination from the time of the KO return as well.

The OU O-line was huge. Hats off to Bob Stoops. He has adjusted his offense to match its personnel. The past two year's team have been lead by QB's who are not as good at slinging the ball downfield. So, they have abandoned the Air Raid, and gone with the zone read.

It was tough watching our defense get manhandled in the 2nd half. The kids lost their fundamentals, and only Joseph and Tonkery made tackles consistently as a result.

I knew Knight would be incapable of beating WVU with his arm. I wish WVU would have stacked the line, done more rush blitzing… forcing Knight to have to be the one to beat 'em… but, give OU credit… they're good.

The other buzz kill came after Tonkery's INT. WVU had great field position… was down 4… and looking like it would go back on top… forcing OU to continue its chase. Then Clint threw a terrible INT trying to force it to Thompson.

WVU had over 500 yards against one of the best defenses in the conference. I don't think there were too many injuries either. So… a bye week and KU coming for a Gold Rush… the team can take a lot of positives away from this loss too. Confidence should continue to grow knowing they can handle teams like Bama and OU.

This WVU team is really good. Just not elite good. I expect WVU will have a really solid year, and beat everyone's expectations.

Dana has righted the ship. He will likely be given a contract extension following the job he's done.

I was disappointed in the loss. But, proud of how well the team played… how hard they fought… and how well they were prepared for the challenge.

OU fans stated before the game at the tailgate I was at that they think this year's OU team could be really special. They were anxious to see how they looked against WVU. They really believe in our program and have great respect for it.

The OU fans were a class act. But, I hated the Boomer Sooner song repeatedly be heard in my stadium…

 

[DCWV4life]

Great night for football for sure, once the lights came on the stadium looked great. It was a packed house for sure, but I tell you what come the second half I heard to many drunks scream this thing is over......IT WAS A TIED GAME YOU IDIOTS, so IMO I saw to many fans sitting on their a$$, chugging back those extra beers they so obviously needed. ...when I saw things being thrown at the OU bench in the 4th I felt embarrassed to be a WVU fan.

So my positives for the game:

Even though no running back stood out stat wise with a great day all but one avged 4.0 YPC or more (Garrison 2 car 6 yards) Buie is going to get more reps, I think once they get a good rotation of him and Shell we are going to have a great tandem.

Kevin White- what can you say, he demands more coverage and it opens up a lot for Mario...for as much attention he drew he still had a good second half.

Wes Tonkery....played with reckless abandon...was all over field...made what I thought at the time a game changing play and a tough INT to make.

OLine...first series I thought "Oh My we are going to be in for a long night" but after they settled in I thought they did a pretty solid job out there. Striker is a beast of a player but I did not think he ran wild in our backfield like he has their previous three opponents. 3.7 YPC minus the sacks(two of those we in final plays of game)

Josh Lambert-54 yard bomb...this kid is going to be one of our best, mark it down.

Negatives:

Tempo-On drives we scored we seemed to move quick, but more often than not we had this half huddle thing going on. From a fans view only a couple of drives did we seem like the O was running smoothly.

Not so Special Teams:Agree KR and PR TDS are a once in a while issue, but not only are we giving them up we give them up when the "MO" is in our favor bigtime. I mean we were playing toe to toe with them and that just popped the balloon. From my angle it did not even seem like he was touched.

Letting defense dictate play calling-I know we needed to protect Clint, but the fact that we did not have a third WR in a lot of second half formations boggles my mind. They could not match up with all three WR's and when we had a slot on Whites side it opened up big things. In todays game you cannot limit offensive choices to three receivers.


On Monday morning this is all I can think of...I could say defense on the negative side, but between being worn down by a offensive line that was HUGE and the precision at which they blocked those plays I am not sure there was much more they could have done to stop that attack. I will say I for one do not think Oklahoma is that special of a team, other teams will match up better to them up front and they do not have a OB who can win a game for them IMO. Bama last year was an exception, but they way he played against us IMO is the rule.

Great time for a bye week....LETS GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Anotherwvufan]

On second thought, Oklahoma does have a couple of holes that Alabama does not. Knight is not an elite QB, Simms is starting to show that he may be. The Oklahoma D Line was weaker than Alabama. We were able to run against Oklahoma where we were really shut down at Alabama.

On the other side of the line, I do think that Oklahoma could pound it on Alabama with Perine. That kid is a monster and could end up being the best back in CFB.

Oklahoma will have a harder road to toe going through the B12 and making it through undefeated will be hard for anyone in this conference.

 

[Slaton10]

On second thought, Oklahoma does have a couple of holes that Alabama does not. Knight is not an elite QB, Simms is starting to show that he may be. The Oklahoma D Line was weaker than Alabama. We were able to run against Oklahoma where we were really shut down at Alabama.

On the other side of the line, I do think that Oklahoma could pound it on Alabama with Perine. That kid is a monster and could end up being the best back in CFB.

Oklahoma will have a harder road to toe going through the B12 and making it through undefeated will be hard for anyone in this conference.

Well my take..I saw nothing but positives...as I told BBW this is the 4th consecutive year they are running a new defense...I like how they played...they played hard and physical until the last snap..what else can you ask for?...OU like Alabama, leaned on them in the second half and DAD it was right there in front of you the difference between a 5 star recruit and 2 star recruit..a Kyle Rose type player is not going to have is way for 4 quarters...West Virginia needs to get bigger in the front 3 to truly dictate on defense...

Hopefully this team knows they can hang with anyone in the country...and IMHO every game from here on is winnable...8 or 9 wins in this teams future as they continue to gel...

BTW I don't think they could have gone to White anymore than they did...he was getting tripled teamed in the second half....Thompson was the go to guy..and Trickett should have found him...

 

[bbwvfan]

There are a couple of defenses in the Big 12 well suited to stop power rushing. KSU and TCU. Neither one of those teams has an offense that will pose much of a threat to OU.

Once OU started using traps and power, they gained an edge which our defense was not built to handle.

 

[Slaton10]

There are a couple of defenses in the Big 12 well suited to stop power rushing. KSU and TCU. Neither one of those teams has an offense that will pose much of a threat to OU.

Once OU started using traps and power, they gained an edge which our defense was not built to handle.

I agree..and then they have a 250lb bowling ball to run behind those blocks...it has to sting after awhile!!.

Was thinking about what those have said about getting the ball downfield to White or whoever...they really couldn't if you think about it...OU's defense was so fast off the edge that Wv had to keep a back or even two and sometimes a tight end to slow the rush...when you do that you take recievers out of the pattern and it's easier for the backend of defense to cover...man that #13 created all kinds of havoc in the second half...great FB player!...makes you miss Bruce Irvin!!..

 

[bbwvfan]

The only issue I have about targets to White... was that the kid was open all night. Safety help was only effective on the deep ball. White and whomever was the CB opposite him were quite chippy. But, you knew White had the edge, the CB could not cover him. Funny... on WVU's last possession... the two are going at it before the snap... and you see the safety pointing to the scoreboard.

Enough said...

 

[Slaton10]

The only issue I have about targets to White... was that the kid was open all night. Safety help was only effective on the deep ball. White and whomever was the CB opposite him were quite chippy. But, you knew White had the edge, the CB could not cover him. Funny... on WVU's last possession... the two are going at it before the snap... and you see the safety pointing to the scoreboard.

Enough said...

You maybe right...but Tricket's time in the pocket between the first and second half dwindled from 3.5 seconds...to no time!..LOL!..Kind of reminded me about the Fiesta Bowl..accept in reverse!

 

[Anotherwvufan]

You maybe right...but Tricket's time in the pocket between the first and second half dwindled from 3.5 seconds...to no time!..LOL!..Kind of reminded me about the Fiesta Bowl..accept in reverse!

That corner had a hard time covering White. When he went downfield there was safety help, when he went across the middle there was tons of attention. On short and intermediate sideline routes white could not be beat. White had a mismatch and could have dominated that corner on jump balls. I would have loved to use a bunch of quick outs to him when the pass rush got quicker. Slaton is right that Thompson should have been a go to guy. I saw Shorts wide open a couple of times when the ball went to Alford.

Imagine if WVU had A guy like Striker on D. I'll take one of him and one of those OK D lineman to make us a playoff team. We are not there yet,but we look to be getting closer.

Now what we need is a tough consistent winning attitude. Baylor, Ok state, Kansas and TCU are all on the horizon. My question is whether we can play these games at the same level as we played Saturday?

I can see vast improvement in athletes, depth, preparation in this squad. We made it through this stretch with our biggest loss due to suspension. Now the task for this staff is to be able to string together some good wins and turn us into a contender. If football was like car racing, we have a car capable of going the distance. Now it is just up to the driver. And just like a race, if you spin out on turn 4 ,KO return, you could lose the race. You can't drive like tony Stewart one race and Danica Patrick the next and have success.