By: James Gravley | WV Sports Chat
If there ever was a silver lining in West Virginia’s 17-10 loss to Ohio on Saturday, it definitely is the defense, but that’s as far as the positivity goes.
West Virginia’s defense forced three turnovers, all interceptions from Ohio’s quarterback Parker Navarro. I even said it last week that if WVU had any chance of winning this game they would need to force turnovers.
And they did.
But, even in the good, there is plenty of bad. WVU’s offense couldn’t get it going. The offensive line got bullied by a pretty good defensive front from the Bobcats, but let’s be honest here — WVU will face bigger and stronger defensive fronts not only in the Big 12, but against Pitt next week, too.
The offense scored a total of zero, yes zero points off of the defenses turnovers. That is not acceptable. And Rich Rodriguez knows that.
“This is very disappointing; it starts with me,” Rodriguez said. “I failed them this week. I thought we had a good week of practice, thought we were ready to play, and we weren’t. We didn’t execute a lot of things that we work on.”
And to make matters worse, starting running back Jahiem White and starting receiver Jaden Bray both were injured and carted off of the field. There has been no update on their status, but Rodriguez knows losing them hurts.
“That doesn’t make things easier without those guys,” Rodriguez said.
Next weekend is the Backyard Brawl and Rodriguez knows that this loss to Ohio is going to hurt, but states his team will be ready for Pitt.
“I want it to hurt,” Rodriguez said. “It’s going to hurt all of us I think for the next twenty hours or so. We know who’s next so we’ve got to get to work and I’ve got to get these guys ready to go. They’ll be ready to play next Saturday.”
WVU is now 0-3 while playing at Ohio.
Photo: WVU Athletics
