You know in Cincinnati they put pasta on Chili. I'm serious. They take a glorious American tradition and mix it with spaghetti noodles. If you like such a thing, all I have to say is Wendys and the Olive Garden don't mix. I have severe disdain for Ohio, and its things like this that fuel my little fire pit of hatred.
At some point around 10 pm Thursday, I was thinking about Cincy chili, listening to their fans do their basketball cheer (weak, gay) and thinking about how unpleasant my drive home was about to be. As you all know a few things happened, I got really happy, a grown man confessed his love for me, and we lost in OT on a bullshit, nutless, dumb fuck call. We didn't deserve to win at all and that is all that matters. Although it would have been one hell of a story.
I missed the UCONN game or at least missed blogging about it and at this time it doesn't matter. All the good things we were doing ended. However, you only have to go down one post to see my keys to WVU winning games. After Auburn, I said that we HAVE to run the ball up the middle to be successful. We did for two games and then a gigantic, proverbial Dent hit or left our program. Next to guard the center is the most unglorified position on the field. However, I was amazed at the beginning of the game how nobody seemed to be concered how we were going to be without our big guy in the center. My fears were realized when we rushed for only 99 yards the whole game and the middle of the line was dominated by their DL. For all the trash that we talked about Mike Dent we needed him most and he might be the most important part or our team other than Pat.
For a few brief moments on Saturday, though, we almost jumped the general lee over the big bowl of carbohydrate laced chili. The worst thing about it was how it would have been......However, for all of these types of games you have to think of the Louisville game in 05, the Rutgers game in 06, etc. and how these things tend to work themselves out for good and for bad. Not even gastric bypass and the rest of the delusional Notre Dame fans are lucky enough to win all of them.
Despite all of the gloom and doom and all of the projections of a 6-6 season and a bowl game in mid-December, we have some good news for Mountaineer Nation. Fans, welcome Euguene (Geno) Smith to our team. He came via, Damon Cogdell, who played at WVU back when the author was raising hell in White Hall and the Mountainlair. Eugene is a 4 star QB and will fit in nicely with his good friend and high school teammate Bailey Stedman. I don't know if it makes a dam bit of difference or not, but after the game was over on Saturday we all clapped for the team. Despite the loss ,the fans that stood in their seats and even stayed after the game (that would be me), all cheered for the team when the game was over. ES and BS were there to see that, and I would think that the team's effort coupled with the fan's disappointed yet warm reaction would mean a great deal to a young man trying to choose his football destination. We need to remember this moment when ES is in the game in a few years, throws a pick, and we want to boo him. He believed in us when we needed him most (and we do).
Monday, November 10, 2008
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Turning the corner
I recently said that WVU was running the prevent offense and that they couldn’t score in a Women’s Prison with a handful of barbies. The quote is actually supposed to be with a handful of pardons, but I thought I heard barbies and just left it that way. At any rate, today it appears that I was incorrect about the WVU part too.
For the first time since the Fiesta Bowl, it felt like the good old days. WVU pounded Auburn (like every SEC team they have played), and they did it very convincingly. The most impressive thing is that WVU all but spotted Auburn 17 points, and it didn’t even matter. I think that everyone in that stadium from the Chik-a-filet guy, to me, to Captain Green Bean, to Little Daddy and Pat White knew that there was no reason to panic and that good things were about to come to the old gold and blue. Of course after the game, the question that was on everyone’s mind was, “Where has this been all year?” Answers to this question include but are not limited to:
“Auburn sucks….”
“Chris Beatty is calling plays”
“Rich Rod and Calvin were calling plays in from the couch”
“Auburn really sucks…”
“Noel figured out how to run in the zone”
“Mike Dent can finally block”
“Mullen figured out how to call plays”
“Pat played extra hard because it was against a school from Bama”
“Tubberville is a moron.”
I will not address all of these, but some of them are just too good to pass up. Firstly, Auburn has the most talented defense we will face all year. I was watching the replay of the game with my attorney and on our first scoring drive Noel had a 4 yard run off of the right side that would have gone for 40 against any other team. In the words of our beloved Stew, the boys at Auburn strained and really got after it(at least in the first half), and to categorize that performance against them as anything but improvement would be a serious case of bad judgement. Sure their offense is weak, but I have to call them like I see them and what I saw was our team dominate a good Auburn defense for 60 minutes. Since that issue has been cleared up, I’m sure that all of you are now on the edge of your seat asking what we did differently on Thursday? Well, baby birds, you came to the right place because I’m going to feed ya. Out of all the things that it could be, I’m convinced that the success we saw on offense can mainly be attributed to one thing. For the first time all year the inside zone play worked more than it didn’t work. Auburn had to respect our inside running game and it opened out those beautiful outside runs that we love so much. On the first scoring drive Pat faked the middle hand-off to Jock and optioned to his left where he later pitched to Little Daddy. The backers froze on the fake and allowed Pat to get outside where he then pitched it. Now the reasons for being able to run the inside zone play are many, and whether its better second level blocking by our lines interior or more patient running by Noel or just better playcalling by Mullen I do not know. I do know however, that WVU is 4000-0* over the last couple of years when we run the inside zone play with success, and to me that is all that matters. Furthermore, if we can continue to run the inside zone play with great success (said in my best Kazahk accent) I strongly feel that every team left on our will have a very difficult time stopping us.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)