Initial Thoughts on West Virginia's Win over North Carolina

The West Virgnia Mountaineers (9-4) beat the North Carolina Tarheels (8-5) Wednesday night in the Duke's Mayo Bowl 30-10.

First play touchdown

West Virginia scoring a touchdown on the first play of the game on play action was a great call, perfectly schemed and executed. Naturally, it grabbed the early momentum in a heavily favored Mountaineer crowd and put the North Carolina defense on its heels.

First half penalties

West Virginia came into the game averaging 4.8 penalties per game but committed six first half penalties against North Carolina and four of them killed four first half drives, keeping the Tar Heels in the game, which should have been at least a three possession lead at the break.

Strong second half

The West Virignia defense held North Carolina scoreless in the second half. It was a good stand after allowing the Tar Heel offense to score a touchdown in less than a minute prior to halftime, giving them momentum. The Mountaineers also limited the Tar Heels to 131 yards of offense and five of the seven sacks came in the second half.

West Virginia may have diminished that momentum pulling out a field goal as time expired.

The Tar Heel defense ramped up as well, but the Mountaineers still produced 123 rushing yards in the second half. '

Overall

West Virginia did what they were supposed to do, which was beat a depleted North Carolina squad. The Tar Heels may not have had their top talent, but they've had strong recruiting classes since head coach Mack Brown returned to Chapel Hill and credit goes to the UNC staff and players for playing hard.

The Mountaineers met the challenge of playing in the bowl game they were favored in and competed at a high level throughout the game and it was obvious they were not overlooking UNC.

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