To say the last 3:41 of the fourth quarter was anything but awful for the Mountaineers would be selling yourself short. Fortunately though for the Mountaineers, the first 56:19 of the game brought a lot of good mixed in with some bad.
Quarterback Play
West Virginia has seemed to have found their guy. Two-time transfer JT Daniels completed 23 of his 40 passing attempts, while throwing for 214 yards and two touchdowns in the process. Daniels was able to manage broken plays and keep his composure late. Daniels gave West Virginia a chance to win and the Mountaineers seem to have a true leader in Daniels. After the game, Daniels praised his team’s effort, and is looking forward to fixing their mistakes.
“I think of all the things you can fix from a week-to-week basis, execution is one of them,”Daniels said. “Culture and fighting, like a team of fighters, you can’t fix that. And this team can fight. There’s a lot that I’m very optimistic about [with] this team.”
Daniels not only gave his team a chance to win the game, but his leadership was shown both on and off the field, which is certainly a welcomed sight for Mountaineer fans.
Defensive Line
Dante Stills is that dude. Stills finished the night with six tackles, 1.5 sacks, as well as two tackles for a loss. Stills was all over the field, and showed he will be a true force this season. It wasn’t just Stills though. The West Virginia defensive line played really well against a very experienced Pitt offensive line. The Mountaineers allowed only 76 rushing yards on 38 rushing attempts by the Panthers. Carrying that type of performance into the rest of the season should bode well for West Virginia.
Special Teams
After not naming a starter for all of fall camp, West Virginia head coach gave the starting punter job to freshman Oliver Straw. Straw, who is from Australia, pinned Pitt deep on his first two punts. Then in the fourth quarter, Straw was again able to pin Pitt inside their own 10 yard line.
CJ Donaldson… WOW
There was some hype around running back CJ Donaldson over the past few weeks, but nothing could have compared to his performance last night. Donaldson made an impact on both sides of the ball, rushing for 125 yards and a touchdown on just seven carries. Add in he blocked a punt to set up his own score on the very next play.
“Later on during fall camp, they made the adjustment and put me at running back. I was very open to it,” Donaldson said. “I was just living in the moment,” Donaldson said of his performance.
Secondary needs help
Losing Charles Woods early was the last thing West Virginia wanted to happen. A secondary who has limited snaps with each other was pushed into a tough spot early. Add in Wesley McCormick getting ejected late due to a targeting call, this group will have to clean up some things if they want to win games this year.
Tackling in space needs to improve as well as preventing the big plays. West Virginia got burned a couple times deep and Pitt just was unable to execute. The Mountaineers will have to do better at keeping things in front of them and not forcing the issue if they want to improve this season.
O-Line needs more consistency
The Mountaineers ran the ball well last night, but when it mattered the most, West Virginia’s group did not play their best under pressure. Wyatt Milum did not have his best game, with three penalties, including two procedure penalties which forced West Virginia to have to punt the ball away when they were going to go for it.
The Mountaineer offensive line was able to do well in run situations, and they held up in spurts against a talented Pitt defensive line.
Photo by Dale Sparks, All Pro Photography
