Three Guarantees For West Virginia Against TCU

This will be low-scoring

Despite the overall record of TCU, Gary Patterson still has a solid defense. Texas scored 31 points against the Horned Frogs in a game that was still one score until midway through the fourth quarter. Texas intercepted the ball and nearly ran it in, otherwise, the Horned Frogs would have held five of their last six opponents under thirty points. Oklahoma finally overwhelmed the Frogs but Patterson held Texas Tech and Iowa State under 20 points.

Last year, Patterson employed a zone press scheme where his corners would start off the ball then switch to pressing at the last moment. This confused Grier for most of the first half before we began to see places we could exploit the game. Still, after scoring 100 points the last two weeks, expect a lower scoring game this week.

West Virginia will stay ahead of the chains

Taking a look at TCU’s defensive footprint, two major things jump out at me: TCU is below average on Passing Down run rate and the Frogs are below average in Havoc Rate. What this tells me is that West Virginia will find itself staying ahead of the chains a lot of times. TCU isn’t creating a lot of 2nd and 3rd and long situations which allows the team have plays at its disposal. When it is forced to pass, teams are able to gain a good amount of yards on run plays in long situations.

TCU does do a good job of creating some havoc with their defensive linemen, but overall, they are swarming to the ball after the play has started. This will keep the team on pace.

You’ll see the Turnover Helmet

The one negative about the Texas game was that we didn’t generate any turnovers. That won’t be the case this week against TCU who ranks near the bottom in turnovers. On offense their expected turnover margin would rank as 130th in the nation while their actual ranks 126th. That’s bad y’all. Shawn Robinson has thrown 8 interceptions while Michael Collins has thrown 2. Their two main running backs, Darius Anderson and Sweo Olonilua, have fumbled four times losing two while Shawn Robinson has fumbled three times losing one. You’ll get to see Kenny Robinson don the Miner’s helmet and but on some swag.