Mountaineer Retweet: A Look Back At WVU's Loss To Texas Tech

Blue hat, blue shirts and yeller britches: THE WAY GOD INTENDED MOUNTAINEER FOOTBALL TO LOOK. I knew it would be a good day as soon as I saw this. My uniform evaluation system is flawless.

This tweet was sent in the first quarter. Yeah.

This is a problem. There was a time when Shaq Rowell and Will Clarke were monsters on the D line and Clarke was nationally ranked for sacks. I don't think either has notched a sack since Oklahoma State. If this team is going to turn things around, that has to change.

Smallwood was horrible on kick returns. Awful. He brought balls out of the end zone that he should have kneeled and consistently ran out at an angle like a kid in a bat spin contest. Listen Wendell I like you. You're really talented and I think we'll be spending a lot of time together. I think you can be a good returner. Catch, accelerate and HIT THE HOLE STRAIGHT AHEAD.

To a larger point the return game is killing WVU. I'm not saying we're Kick Returner U, but it's a solid tradition with the Terry brothers Nate and Shawn, Pacman Jones, Darius Reynaud, that Austin kid and more. You take for granted how nice it is to start drives at the 30 yard line or beyond. This WVU offense needs all the help it can get and returners making stupid decisions that result in starting drives at the 15 doesn't help matters. The $500,000 question is how do you fix it? Unless there are players hidden on the roster I don't know about, that's a tough question.

Pretty much. Things did not get off to a great start.

There was about a 4 month period where my Dad would play me in Tecmo Bowl in the early 90s. I beat him every time. Eventually he would get frustrated and do things like go for it on 4th and 14 instead of just kick the field goal. Did I mention I beat him every time?

I know I'm contractually obligated to bitch and be negative because WE LOST but there were good things to take away. This one was headed to a place that we've seen all too many times in the last two years. WVU was getting ran and their M.O. has been to ball up and let it happen. Not today. They fought back from down 13-0 and while it wasn't a win, I think that's important and that matters. Maybe you disagree. Well then go write your own damn column.

And this is why I always mute whatever empty suit Fox throws at me and listen to the WVU radio crew. Don't ever change, Tony.

I normally try to steer clear of superlatives, but yeah. It's the worst ever.

ORRRRR.....they could build a stadium where the end zones are in the EAST AND WEST!!!

And you know why?

Texas Tech's DBs sucked. I got a little tired of people referring to those pass interference penalties as "breaks." Let's get something clear - the Red Raiders secondary being awful isn't a 'break,' it's a thing about their team that is true. WVU was on the wrong side of that a lot last year and I don't remember those being breaks. As far as I can tell chucking it downfield and letting things happened seemed to work. I just wish they'd tried that a couple more times late.

So far Dreamius' 3 biggest plays of the year - two today, one against Oklahoma - were off cutbacks against the grain. He has absolutely spectacular vision and is a treat to watch. When he figures things out a bit more and if the line can develop some more consistency, he could be really special.

(Also isn't there a bylaw against saying that score, even in passing on an unrelated matter? There's not? OK, now there is. I just made it.)

And this is what made the entire 4th quarter so inexplicable. This team fought their asses off for 3 quarters and then just kinda packed it in. That was baffling.

I have nothing to add to this.

Mountaineer fans have come to play for a pair of noon kickoffs. Kudos to them. Here's hoping for some night games.

Haven't had a chance yet, but in my breakdown for TheSignalCaller.com later this week I'm going to look at 3rd down distances and what led to them. I did put myself through the torture of watching those last 5 drives again and those early failed 3rd downs were rooted in bad plays on first down. I bet if you calculate the average 3rd down WVU saw on their 5 scoring drives against the 5 drives to end the game there's a huge difference.

Tell me about it.

This was on one of the TT red zone possessions that ended in a field goal and not a touchdown. Again, "breaks" don't happen in a vacuum. WVU did a lot of good things today.

Offensive line with one of their better performances of the year and that despite being banged up throughout the afternoon. Not saying they were road graters, but they allowed Trickett and the tailbacks room to operate. That had been lacking.

You call them penalties. I call them offense.

The best part about this tweet is it could have been sent about 3 different times and meant 3 different things. It was that kind of day.

It was a thing of beauty. But it was a tenuous grasp on competency. Because

They are a delicate flower. A big catch by Kevin White and a couple penalties converted a pair of 3rd and longs and obscured that fact for a few minutes, but eventually it would rear its ugly head.

It looked like they might get back on track. It really did. Then they got cute with the reverse to Alford. When you run the ball straight ahead you crush a team's will. WVU was about 3/4 of the way there and then for some reason plugged the life support back in the wall for the Raiders. Sometimes simple is good, guys. You don't have to prove how damn smart you are. You really don't.

Again, really close. The defense held TT a few times and Holgs was pounding Red Bulls and I thought we'd get the swagger back. They just CAN'T give yards away on first down.

It didn't end up mattering, but this was (flippin) terrible. Just awful. How are you RIGHT THERE and miss that call?

The last two games have looked a lot more like last year than I'm comfortable with. Holes in coverage, a couple bad angles (in all fairness there aren't really any good angles against Baylor) and shoddy tackling. If this team wants to make a bowl that has to stop.

I mean, if you're going to inexplicably abandon the run game, can you at least throw it to the guy nobody can cover? Please?? Nothing about the playcalling in the 4th quarter made any sense to me.

Seriously, what part of that makes sense!?

I'll be lyin' in bed, wondering what Holgorsen did. (see what I did there?)

In addition to that he spat a naughty word that sounds a lot like 'fork' on air as WVU radio broadcast sideline reporter Jed Drenning attempted to perform his standard postgame interview, which he always does immediately after the coaches have shaken hands at midfield. In all fairness it sounded like they were in the midst of being jostled around by some folks and I haven't talked to Jed yet so I don't know what happened. Here's a link to the audio for what it's worth, listen to it for yourself:

Holgo Post Game

I will say this - at best it still didn't look good and if you're going to be the head coach of a major football program you need to comport yourself with more professionalism than what that sounded like, even after such a frustrating loss. Fortunately for Holgorsen Tony Caridi, Dwight Wallace and Jed are all pros and did the best they could to cover it and the coach did give a full interview after a break, but again, no part of that sounded good.

OK, let's end this with a little happiness.

Love Talley. Glad he made the trip in for homecoming. Speaking of fan-damn-tastic Mountaineers who made the trip in:

Awesome. I'll just print that out and hang it on the wall.

That was a pisser of a loss but perspective, folks. For the 4th straight time in conference play WVU was playing an undefeated and ranked league foe. The road gets a little easier, although unfortunately a couple of those potentially winnable games - TCU and Kansas State - are on the road. The goal here remains what it's been since day one, 6 wins, a bowl game and an extra month of practice. There are 3 wins left to be had on this schedule if only this Mountaineer team can go take them.

And hey, it could always be worse:

Sleep it off, bow your back and get ready for next week. There were good things today, there will be more good things in the future and Operation Bowl still has hope.

LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!