A slop fest is officially in the books in Morgantown. A gloomy cloud hovers over the hearts of mountaineer fans and pours rain upon them, just as it did at Milan Pusksr Stadium on Saturday. The only thing sloppier than the weather was the gameplay of the West Virginia football team, as they were dominated by Penn State, 34-12
The game was delayed for more than 2 hours after the first half, due to lightning, as rain poured down onto the field. Needless to say, this was not the season opener one would hope for. I just hope some of that rain will wash the egg off my face, after predicting a WVU win.
The lackluster performance for the mountaineers started early in the 1st quarter when they were unable to capitalize after recovering a Penn State fumble. By not capitalizing I mean that they turned the ball over on a bad snap on the very first play of the drive.
Things didn’t get better from there, and Neal Brown showed that he loves a good Gamble on 4th down rather than taking 3 points. This wasn’t the only problem with the playcalling. Score-wise, the game was still competitive near the end of the 1st half, when a run play by Penn State caused the Mountaineer defense to relax, thinking that Penn State was content to run out the clock and go to halftime. They were then immediately torched by a huge pass play that would set Penn State up for a touchdown, making the score 20-6.
Halftime brought more bad news to the Mountaineers, as heavy rain and lightning moved onto the area, drenching fans and causing a 2+ hour game delay.
Once the second half started it was obvious that the sold-out crowd of 60,000+ had shrunken in significant numbers, taking away the loud crowd factor that West Virginia is known for. Soon into the 3rd quarter, Penn State would score again, making the score 27-6. I think we all knew it was likely over at that point.
The Mountaineers did manage to score its only touchdown in the 4th quarter, but it was only symbolic.
With so much preseason hype built up around this team, today’s performance was anything but good. Maybe it’s a good thing that WVU will face a (hopefully) easy opponent next Saturday when they host the Albany Great Danes in Morgantown. Hopefully, they can iron out some wrinkles in that game.
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