By: Justin “Couz” Walker | WV Sports Chat
The West Virginia Mountaineers welcomed the Colorado Buffaloes into Morgantown for a week 11 matchup of 3-6 teams. WVU was coming off a huge upset win over Houston, while the Buffs were reeling after getting blown out in two straight games by Utah and Arizona respectively.
Both teams were also starting true freshmen quarterbacks. Scotty Fox Jr. was starting his fourth straight for WVU and had been awarded as Big 12’s Freshman of the Week for his wok 10 performance against Houston. Colorado was starting highly touted five-star recruit Julian Lewis for the first time this season. Lewis put up much bigger numbers than Fox, but it was ultimately the Mountaineers who came out on top.
Here are my three biggest takeaways from WVU’s win.
Injuries Played a Role in the Game
Both teams had several key players out with injuries. The injuries that have plagued WVU have been well documented here, but the Buffaloes also had several key players out, including star offensive tackle, Jordan Seaton. The 6-foot-5 inch sophomore is arguably one of the top offensive lineman in the Big 12. Another offensive lineman that was out for the Buffs was Larry Johnson III. The West Virginia defensive front seven took advantage of these injuries by sacking Lewis seven times. WVU also held the Buffs to 51 yards rushing.
West Virginia’s Offensive Line Showed Signs of Improvement
West Virginia only averaged 3.2 yards per rush on the day, which doesn’t wow anyone. However, they were able to run the ball when it was needed. On the final scoring drive of the game, the Mountaineers were able to run the ball on nine consecutive plays. This allowed them to burn clock and move ahead by two scores with less than five minutes remaining. While some individual players on the offensive line had low PFF grades, the unit as a whole showed signs of improvement. The overall run blocking grade of 64.3 was the highest so far this season. The PFF pass blocking grade was 71.8.
Big Plays Continue to be the Story for the Mountaineer Defense
Zac Alley’s defense has given up a lot of explosive plays this season and that was no different in the game against Colorado. The Buffaloes offense had 13 explosive plays for a total of 290 yards, of which 216 were through the air. Much like past games, WVU made up for it by making some big plays of their own. They were only able to turn Colorado over once, but in addition to the aforementioned seven sacks, they had 15 total TFLs and 35 total stops. Per PFF, a stop is a tackles that constitutes a “failure” for the offense.
Next up for WVU are the defending Big 12 champion, Arizona State Sun Devils. Arizona State comes into the game with an overall record of 6-3 and are 4-2 in Big 12 play. The Sun Devils will be without star quarterback Sam Leavitt. In his place will be veteran Jeff Sims.
The game will take place in Tempe, Arizona inside Mountain America Stadium. It is set to kickoff at 1:00pm Eastern Time and air on TNT/HBO Max.
Photo Credit: WVU Athletics
