Well Mountaineers its not too good is it. Yet another brutal defensive effort has WVU now sitting at 3-3 on the season getting ready to face rival Cincinnati this Saturday afternoon in Morgantown. These three consecutive losses, 2 of which were basically blowouts, have come at home in Milan Pushkar Stadium which used to be a tough place to play. This WVU defense may be the least effective defense in the entire country. In the last 3 games, all WVU losses the defense has surrendered 138 POINTS!!!!! Yes, thats correct, it is not a misprint. This is an average of 46 point a game allowed. No matter how prolific the Mountaineer offense under Michael Hawkins Jr can be you simply cannot score enough points consistently to overcome that kind of defensive performance.

On the season the WVU defense is allowing 32.5 points per game but that is a bit skewed by a 52-7 win over UT Martin an FCS school. Take that game out of the calculation and the WVU defense is allowing just under 38 points a game. Its sounds strange to say this but the defense looked much better under former head coach Neal Brown.

The Mountaineer offense has averaged 33 points in these last 3 games with nothing to show for it. On the season the WVU offensive has averaged 36.3 points per game. They are exciting and fast but unfortunately, its not enough. In looking at the rest of the schedule its tough for me to find 3 more victories to get the Mountaineers bowl eligible. Since I am not going to make anyone sick to their stomachs by breaking down this last pitiful home performance, Lets take a look at the remaining games and see if we can find 3 more victories to make the EERs bowl eligible. I will give you my humble opinion as to whether the games will be wins or losses.

10/17 Home vs Cincinnati-Despite their 4-1 record the Bearcats have only played one really good team in Arizona and lost. I believe this is a winnable game at home in Morgantown. With a few changes in defensive personel and just Marginal improvement in the defense WVU could finish the season strong but my fear is that if those players were available, they would already be playing. Still I believe a WVU victory as they bounce back from last weeks poor performance.

10/24 TCU in Fort Worth-WVU does not traditionally play well in Texas but this game is definitely a winnable game with any type of defensive support for the Mountaineer offense. Unfortunately, I dont believe they will get such support.

11/6 Texas Tech at Lubbock Texas-This Mountaineer program is a few years away from competing with the Red Raiders. Definite WVU loss.

11/14 Kansas Jayhawks in Morgantown-Jayhawks are struggling, Mountaineer victory. Offense is good enough to win this one.

11/21 Houston Cougars in Morgantown-Mountaineer loss. Cougars have too much high-powered offense for the WVU defense.

11/27 Utah Utes in Salt Lake City-The 5-0 Utes are playing very well right now and there is no reason to thing they will not still be cruising when WVU comes to town. Utah wins this on easily.

Well there it is. I see WVU at 5-7 and missing a bowl game. Some of the Mountaineet faithful will say I crazy to predict even 5 wins but I do see this week at home against the Bearcats as winnable and I see the 11/14 Kansas game against the struggling Jayhawks as wins. The swing game that could make the Mountaineers eligible is the 10/24 game in Fort Worth against the Horned Frogs. A win there and WVU could see 6 wins and a bowl game in their future.