Sunday Morning Thoughts: There's No More Room for Excuses

Typically following a West Virginia loss, fans on social media immediately place the blame on the head coach for bad playcalling, lack of development, being out-coached, or needing to make a quarterback change. Most of the time, I look right past it and say it's just the normal overreaction to a loss. However, this time around, I actually agree with those very fans.

It's one thing to lose a game to a team that is far superior but it's another to lose a game to a team that was beatable and you hand them opportunity after opportunity to win. That's exactly what West Virginia did on Saturday evening. Nearly every time the defense came up with a stop, there was a miscue that followed offensively. Whether it be a muffed punt, a fumble, an interception, you name it, it happened.

For a team that returned its starting quarterback, running back, top two receivers, and three linemen, this is stuff that shouldn't happen. More importantly, having such poor play from the quarterback position is inexcusable. For me, the Jarret Doege experience needs to come to an end. At this point, the offense is what it is and you're never going to win games because of it. There's no consistency, efficiency, or heck, even any confidence from QB1. Careless football will lose you a lot of football games and that has played a part in why West Virginia is 8-6 with Doege as the starter.

What I don't understand is how this year's offense, albeit one game, doesn't look any better than the team that finished 2-1 down the stretch in 2019. 21 points will not win you football games, especially in the Big 12 Conference. The 2nd half adjustments have not been there since this coaching staff took over in 2019. I went back and did some research and in 20 games against Power Five opponents, WVU has averaged 9.9 points in the second half. Furthermore, WVU has 13 scoreless quarters over that stretch. Seven scoreless third quarters, six scoreless fourth quarters. When all of your points are coming in the first half, that's going to put in you a lot of trouble.

Is Garrett Greene the answer? Maybe, maybe not but it's not just the quarterback position. It's everything. The offensive line was expected to be in a much better place and on paper, it looked as if they would be able to control the line of scrimmage against Maryland. Instead, they got pushed around all game and didn't open up holes in the running game nor protect Doege that well in the pocket.

The story of the receivers logging over 100,000 reps during the summer did not show either. Multiple drops occurred and were drops on plays that could have resulted in first downs. How this unit, in year three, still has trouble holding onto the football is beyond me. First game jitters? Alright, maybe but this isn't their first rodeo. This isn't the first time they've played in front of thousands of fans.

Basically, the moral of the story here is that excuses are no longer allowed. Year one you get a pass because you're learning a new system, verbiage, etc. In year two you have to give a pass because of the pandemic and all the oddities that came along with it. But now that this is year three, a year in which there was a regular offseason, there's no excuse for a lack of execution in several areas.

If you look at the schedule, which I would advise not to, there's a good chance that the Mountaineers will be a 1-3 by the end of the month. Could they finish 2-2? Yes, but it's not likely.

Whether it's a lack of development, execution, game planning, or anything else, the product that is put on the field on game day should never result in what happened on Saturday in year three of a coaching regime.

Is it time to stop trusting the climb? No, not yet but you can certainly question it.

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