WVU Football Report Card: Offense vs Texas Tech
West Virginia's offense only put up 27 points on the road against Texas Tech this past weekend and much of that was due to an unbalanced offense. Let's take a look at how each aspect of the offense graded out this past weekend.
Passing game: C
If you've been reading a lot of my stuff over the last year or so, I'm sure you know that I am a big critic of Jarret Doege. Not that I don't want to see the kid succeed, I just don't see "it" in him. With that said, I thought he played one of his best games on Saturday and a lot of it had to do with just playing clean football and not really forcing the ball into tight windows. He finished the game completing 32 of 50 questions for 347 yards and a touchdown, but those numbers could have been WAY better if the wide receivers hadn't dropped so many passes. Unfortunately, this is becoming a reoccurring theme. If the receivers at least cut the drops in half, the outcome may have been different, maybe it wouldn't. If I'm grading Doege alone, I give him a B. But the awful showing by the receivers and their drops knocks this down a letter grade.
Running game: C
Maybe I've just become accustomed to expecting so much out of Leddie Brown that Saturday's outing just seemed kind of pedestrian to me. He ran the ball for 77 yards on 21 carries, which averages out to be just 3.7 yards per tote. His longest run of the day was only 14 yards, so there was not a lot of yards after contact which is something he feeds on. Alec Sinkfield has struggled two weeks in a row now with a combined 20 carries for 29 yards (1.4 yards/att). He has to get back to being that electrifying back to help form a respectable one, two punch out of the backfield.
Blocking: B-
Texas Tech had four QB hurries and generated one sack, but for the most part, I thought the big guys up front did a solid job in pass protection and gave Doege time to throw. Running the football was a struggle as previously mentioned and I place partial blame on the offensive line. They were getting a push, but it wasn't consistent enough. Coming into the game, I felt that West Virginia was going to be able to run the ball at will on Texas Tech and it just simply didn't happen. Expect this group to bounce back this week.
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