WVU Will Try to Break Ohio With Relentless Tempo and Zero Fear on Fourth Down

Tempo, tempo, tempo. That's the name of the game for this West Virginia offense under Rich Rodriguez, and while you could already tell a major difference from last year's pace in Week 1, this week's pace versus Ohio should be even faster.

Why? Well, another week of practice has been logged, one game has been played, so there's actual live experience now under the belt, and you would assume that four first half fumbles won't happen again.

The tempo was certainly affecting Robert Morris at times, but probably not to the level it would have had they protected the football. Each of those fumbles disrupted WVU's rhythm on offense and prevented the RMU defense from defending more snaps. In the second half, when they took care of the ball, you could see several Colonials gasping for air, going down with an "injury" — doing whatever they could to slow things down.

This week, it's going to be key to get into that tempo early and often. All six members of Ohio's front six are new starters, and they don't have quality depth established behind them. One thing head coach Brian Smith does is play keep away on offense to help protect his defense. Last season, the Bobcats defended just 63.9 plays per game, which was the 19th fewest in all of FBS.

Last week vs. Robert Morris, WVU had 76 snaps (excluding punts).

That extra baker's dozen of plays, at minimum, will impact Ohio's defense. If they're able to convert two or three fourth downs, then Ohio is going to be in trouble. Their unit did a good job against Rutgers on third down, holding them to 1/10, but the Scarlet Knights converted all five fourth down opportunities, and most of those weren't gimmes, including a 4th & 7 to put the game away.

You should expect Rodriguez to be extremely aggressive in this game and leave the offense out on the field in 4th down and manageable situations, within reason. Moving the sticks on fourth down and forcing OU to defend more plays is like stealing an extra possession without forcing a turnover.

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