Well Mountaineers last week I talked about the much maligned WVU defense improving just marginally and they could defeat the Cincinnati Bearcats on Homecoming Saturday. Well they did and they did. The WVU defense had been basically allowing teams to score at will the past 3 games making at most 2 or 3 defensive stops in a game. Against the Bearcats the WVU defense put together 6 stops and generally played a more inspired defense and it was just enough of an uptic to allow the Mountqaineer offense to outlast the Cincinnati Bearcats 45-42 on a heroic last second 34 yard field goal by the Irishman Jack Cassidy for a MUCH NEEDED win for the WVU Mountaineers, keeping their Bowl Game Hopes alive. As I stated last week I believed they would beat Cincinatti and beat a 2-4 Kansas team in Morgantown in 3 weeks leaving next weeks showdown with the TCU Horned Frogs as the swing game that WVU needs to win in their path to 6 wins and a bowl game birth. If they cannot upset the Frogs in Fort Worth I dont believe the Mountaineers have enough to upset BYU, Texas Tech or Houston the rest of the way.

Now, having said that if the Cincinnati defensive performance was a precurser to the WVU defense continuing to improve week to week then anything is possible but I dont really see that as a posibility. I believe a few more incrimential improvements is all we can hope for this season. After the victory over Cincinnati the Mountaineers offense is now ranked 5th in the Nation in yards per game among Power 4 Conference teams averaging 497.1 yards per game. 224.7 yards passing and 272.4 yards rushing per game. With the offense performing like this any improvement whatsoever by the WVU defense would be a major factor in winning a few more games. In Scoring WVU ranks 14th among Power 4 Conference teams averaging 37.6 points per game. Individually Michael Hawkins Jr leads the Nation in rushing touchdowns with 14. Tailback Cam Cook is 3rd in the nation among Power 4 Conference players in rushing the football with 833 yards averaging 5 yards a carry with 6 touchdowns and Michael Hawkins is 6th in the nation with 749 yards averaging 5.2 yards a carry and of course the before mentioned 14 touchdowns.

As for receiving D.J. Epps is #17 among Power 4 Wide Receivers with 22 receptions for 556 yards and 5 TDs and is averaging 25.3 yards per reception which ranks him 3rd in the nations as a formidable deep threat. Despite the dominating running attack WVU needs to throw the ball at least 10 more times a game to keep the defenses honest, especially since Michael Hawkins Jr showed in the Cincinnati game that he can throw the ball effectively when called upon to do so.

Next week the Mountaineers travel to Fort Worth Texas to take on the TCU Horned Frogs. WVU is 8-6 against the Horned Frogs all time with WVU and TCU splitting the last for contests with each team wining at home and on the road. This season the Frogs are 3-3 having defeated Grambling 63-7, Arkansas State 31-7 and Baylor 17-6 while losing to North Carolina 15-10, Central Florida 21-13 and BYU 17-10. This is a solid but not great TCU defense and WVU should be able to move the football against them and get the ball into the end zone. Offensively TCU is no juggernaut so the much maligned WVU defense with an effort like we saw against Cincinnati could hold their own in this game. If they do not WVU most likely loses. Either way this will most likely be another shootout with WVU hopeful on the positive end.

The concern that we all share is that right out of the gate TCU will start airing it out and may throw 50 times in the game to expose the secondary so Zak needs to have the defense ready for an ambush

As for the Cincinnati game the Bearcats jumped ahead 7-0 in he opening possession with a sharp 13 play 75 yard drive and I thought here we go again the Mountaineer offense will have to virtually score on every possession to stay in the game however after the 1st two WVU drives produced nothing they did stop them on downs and forced a punt before opening the 2nd quarter with a 10 play 81 yard drive to tie the game at 7-7 on a 12 yard Hawkins TD run. The defense then forced another punt before the Bearcats scored again to take a 14-7 lead. After both teams traded touchdowns the Bearcats took a 21-14 lead with 1:22 to go in the half on a 28 yard TD run by Cole Tabb. To their credit the EERs did dive to the Cincinnati 31 before Jack Cassidy badly shanked a 49 yard field goal before the half ended.

WVU did open the 2nd half with a 7 play 75 yard TD drive to tie the game at 21-21 on a beautiful 38 yard TD pass from Hawkins to senior wideout DJ Epps and at this point I started to believe that WVU had a shot at sending the 48000 Mountaineer fans home with a victory. Both teams would trade TDs on the next 4 possessions and with and 1:37 to go in the game after a fake punt/punt left the Mountaineers offense trapped at their own 1 yard line they drove 82 yards on just 8 plays to set up the Jack Cassidy 35 yard game winning field goal as time expired. Exciting game to say the least. This was a great bounce back victory and now its time to see It this WVU team can actually salvage the season or simply fade away to the bottom of the Big 12 standings.