WVU's Keys to the Game vs Texas Tech

These three things should help lead West Virginia to a victory.

West Virginia hits the road this week with an opportunity to be on the right side of the .500 mark for the first time this season. The Mountaineers are 0-3 against Texas Tech in Neal Brown's tenure but the team has found some momentum winning three of its last four games, including last Thursday agains the defending Big 12 champs.

Here are my three keys to this week's game.

Bully ball

It starts with going back to last week with what WVU did against Baylor. I know you don't necessarily want to carry a gameplan over from week to week, but I think this is a really good opportunity for Neal Brown to show he can win games in many ways. If you go back to his time at Troy, they weren't this ground and pound team that was going to beat you with the run game. And they weren't going to spread it out and throw for 500 yards a game. They never had an offense that put up video game like numbers that shows this is how they beat you. Every win that they had at Troy under Neal Brown was totally different. Each game painted its own story and sometimes, it was ugly. But they found ways to win. And because of this defense and the secondary you almost have to play clock control, keep that unit off the field, and run the football.

Limit explosive plays

Texas Tech is going to want to hit the big deep shots over and over again regardless of who is at quarterback. Both Donovan Smith and true freshman Behren Morton have the arm to challenge this WVU secondary to make plays down the field. Unlike WVU, they have no issue with dropping back to throw 50-60 times a game. In their last game against Texas, Morton had 62 pass attempts. The two weeks before, Smith attempted 55 and 48 passes. They are going to throw the football, that's no secret. It's about forcing Tech into checking the ball down and having to dink and dunk their way down the field.

Contain SaRodorick Thompson

Very talented, experienced running back that has the potential to hit the home run play from anywhere on the field. West Virginia has to find a way to control the point of attack and bottle him up. If they can take away Thompson and force them into being a one-dimensional offense, that's going to help out that young secondary immensely. When Thompson has 10 or less carries in a game, they are 0-2. Take away the run, you increase your chances of winning. 

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