Game 2: 16 vs. 11 and we still won.

I didn't sleep well on Friday night, I won't lie. I really thought this was going to be a tough one for us. After one quarter it appeared that I was going to be right and I was not too happy even at the half. However, in the end, WVU pretty much dominated these guys. They only scored when we gave them a short field and the Big 12 refs did all they could to keep them in the game. I'm not into blaming officials on things, but this one had some blatantly bad calls, and its why I titled this one 16 vs. 11 because, at times, it appeared that we were playing against the ECU 11 plus 5 officials.

QB-Jarrett's play was a landmark...really. For the first time since Marc Bulger was here, we were a passing team. And for the first time in 11 years, teams are going to think twice about loading the box on us in order to stop Noel. I can't say how important the pass to Arnett was. In the face of pressure and off of his back foot Jarrett hit his man in stride for a TD. It was an Oh shit moment for ECU to, but they didn't learn their lesson. Jarret would burn them later on a big pass to Starks that was underthrown but still effective and yet again on a beautiful bomb to Tavon. He still runs with the ball too loosely and trusts his arm a little too much sometimes, but I can handle that. Overall I would have to give him an A-....it would be an A but the two turnovers on ECU's side of the 50 dock his grade.

RB-Noel hit the hole better but still danced a little too much. Notice all the plays out of the pistol? I did. I think its a good wrinkle, and I said before that Noel runs better out of the I. Granted its not the I, but he can still line up deep and have a little more time to pick his hole. We are still left side dominant with our running game and even then there were not many wide open holes. I would have liked to have run a little better, but the new regime wants to take what the defense gives ya and if that's 50 yard bombs so be it. Overall grade B-.

WR-In the pro's players tend to do a littler better in their contract years. Chance to get big money so you might watch a little more film, run a few more sprints, etc. Jock Sanders was close to being kicked off the team for his little run in with the law, and he appears to be out to prove something this year. In two games, he has not dropped an easy pass like last year and he is always open. Not only that lil daddy can thank him for an extra 5 yards or so on his longest run of the day because it was jock that was lighting up a corner to help him get the final five yards. Arnett's lack of production is still puzzling. Starks is emerging as a viable 3rd down target. Wes Lyons is back on the ER and I have to think that he can twist an ankle if someone says injury report. Tavon as a slot receiver just adds yet another hell athlete out on the field and makes us even better.. Overall grade A-.

OL-Jarrett saw some defenders in his face and either got rid of it or made them look silly. Some blocks were totally missed on blitzes but that is to be expected. We are still left side dominant and teams know it. So does Noel and he looks for the cut back when running to that side since teams tend to overload against us to that side. We were honestly a few nifty moves away from seeing about a 4 sack day on Jarrett. But it always seems to go that way. We burnt them for it and that is why we won. In the end I still think it could have been better and will have to improve to keep the southern Alabama dirt off of Jarrett. Overall grade is a C.

TE-Nothing other than one TD catch by Johnson. Urban was un heard of. I think he was left to block more often than not because of the blitzes, but I honestly didn't watch that much. Hell he might not have even been in there or he could have been running routes all day long. I just know they didn't throw his way that much. Overall grade C.

DL-With Scooter going down soon and a guy I didn't even know was on the team playing the nose I thought they did ok. Julian Miller will have to be double teamed by most linemen and if we don't develop some sort of third down package that has either Lazear and/or Golbourne coming off the edge than Casteel is seeing something I'm not. We had 5 sacks and could have had about 10 had we been one second sooner. They stopped the run game pretty well, but the added athleticism really is a positive. Overall grade B.

LB-WE still have trouble with short passes and reacting off of play action. JT is a monster. Golbourne, and Goode played in well in relief and showed that our LB depth is not just a facade. I'm still looking for that classic Reed Williams pick this season where he takes the deep drop and stretches all of that 20" vertical to catch a TE bound pass. Hopefully we can see one at Auburn. Overall grade B-.

DB-Man there were a few passes where I thought they had it. Hogan almost got beat a few times and the pass in the endzone that they reviewed forever was a TD I would say. Lucky catch despite it, Hogan got his hand on it. Sands is doing a better job this year at rolling to the coverage. Overall grade B.

ST-If its not one thing its another. For the first time since RR was here we figure out how to cover a kick....now we can't field a punt. And there is nothing worse than stopping a team and then fumbling the punt. Its like getting a hot chica in the sack and being too drunk to get it up. Good thing the redzone D came through. Overall grade D.


Like I said above, if someone told me that we would fumble two punts inside our twenty, spot them an easy TD off a punt return, and have over 100 yards of penalties I would be thinking loss. I don't care how bad they are, but we played like shit and still won easily. That says something. The O line needs to play better and the LB's need to get more aggressive against screens and such for Auburn.