Sunday Morning Thoughts: A Missed Opportunity

Recapping West Virginia's loss to Pitt in the season opener.

Whew. What a game that was on Thursday night. The rekindling of the Backyard Brawl lived up to the hype with a game that went down to the very wire in front of the largest attended sporting event in the history of Pittsburgh (70,622).

West Virginia played a hard-fought game and battled through adversity all throughout the night. Unfortunately, timely errors and decisions from the sideline cost the Mountaineers a win to start the season and extend what was a three-game winning streak over the Panthers. 

JT Daniels balled out despite taking shot after shot in the pocket. For his first game in a Mountaineer uniform, I was thoroughly impressed. The two fade balls to Bryce Ford-Wheaton in the end zone were on the money, looking effortless. When pressure collapsed the pocket. he stood firm and poised. The most impressive play of the night for him, in my opinion, was in the fourth quarter where he was flushed out of the pocket to his right and kept the play alive in order to find TE Mike O'Laughlin down the field for a first down. He was as good as advertised and if he can stay on the field, WVU will have a chance in every game it plays. 

My biggest star of the game offensively? You guessed it. True freshman running back C.J. Donaldson. I knew the coaching staff has been really high on him but man, I did not expect that kind of performance right out of the gate. The stage wasn't too big for him whatsoever. He looked like a third or fourth-year back who has played in a dozen big-time games. If Donaldson continues on this trajectory, he'll be the starting running back by the Texas game, maybe sooner.

Defensively, tackling was a big problem, but when isn't it in a season-opener? The defensive line was stout getting a ton of pressure on Kedon Slovis and for the most part, took away the run game. 

After Charles Woods left the game with an injury, the WVU secondary didn't hold up very well. A ton of new guys playing their first game in the program and that's exactly what it looked like. Regardless of Woods' status moving forward, West Virginia has to shore up the back end or it's going to cause a lot of issues when they face more potent offenses in the Big 12. 

Alright, we have to talk about it. The decision to not go for it on 4th & 1. 

Look, I don't have a problem punting the ball and pinning Pitt deep. However, I also think this was an analytical move more than it was trusting the flow of the game. Pitt was on their heels and West Virginia had all the momentum. C.J. Donaldson had been gashing the Pitt defense up the middle all night long and if you get the first, it greatly increases your chances of winning the game. Neal Brown said that part of the reason he punted it was because of how well the defense was playing at the time. 

This is what I don't understand. 

All offseason long, we heard all about how much better this offensive line is and all the experience that returns, yet Brown didn't have enough trust in that very group to get half a yard. I could argue that going for it makes more sense with your defense playing well because if you fail to convert, you can rely on the defense to get a stop. With it being a 31-24 game, the worst that could happen is you go for it, don't get it and Pitt goes down and ties the game up. Had it been a three-point game, that's a different story. There would have been no decision to be made, you punt the ball. In a year where you need to start winning football games, you have to be willing to take chances. It's time to trust that experienced offensive line to get you one yard and essentially deliver the knockout punch. 

Although I disagree with the decision to punt the ball, I'm not ready to put Neal Brown on the hot seat just yet. 

They played their tails off and quite honestly, outplayed the 17th-ranked team in the country on the road with a new starting quarterback, a new offensive coordinator, and without its best corner for the majority of the night. That doesn't mean I'm giving Brown a pass though. This team should be 1-0 and the inability to win games on the road or against quality teams has to change. You can't continue to win six games a year with two of those coming against Kansas and an FCS opponent and expect to keep your job. As bad as Kansas has been over the years, this is going to be a much tougher game than you would expect. If Brown doesn't have these guys ready to go next week, it could be trouble.

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