WVSports.com continues with our popular feature: The 3-2-1. We'll break down three things we learned that week, two questions we have and give one prediction.
Here is the next installment of the 3-2-1 looking at the West Virginia football program, the latest on basketball and what’s happening in recruiting.
3 things I learned:
1–West Virginia blows the Brawl. You can point to a lot of different reasons or make a lot of different excuses but any way you slice it West Virginia collapsed in the final five minutes of the 107th edition of the Backyard Brawl and ultimately that falls at the feet of Neal Brown.
Leading 34-24 with 4:55 left the Mountaineers had allowed only four yards on 11 offensive players in the second half but then permitted to give up a 75-yard touchdown drive in 1:49 and then proceeded to go three and out and lose seven yards. From there, the Mountaineers then allowed a 77-yard drive in just 1:23 to complete the collapse.
Brown made it clear that the Mountaineers simply didn't make enough plays and didn't do enough to win the football game down the stretch. That much is clear, as it's now the second trip to Pittsburgh in a row that's ended in a crushing defeat.
It's a damaging loss to the fan base who felt that the Mountaineers didn't even put worth a respectable showing in the opener against Penn State and then found a way to allow this game to slip away late to their most hated rival. The question will now shift to what's next for this team but the way this game unraveled could have real negative consequences for the rest of the season if Brown isn't able to get his team focused.
The Mountaineers are going to have to make some changes and in a hurry because this season has the chance to go south in a hurry if things aren’t corrected. Any way you slice it this is just a truly poor start and that is on the coaching staff. Losing to Penn State in a game you didn’t show up is one thing, blowing a 10-point lead with 4:55 left to your biggest rival is quite another.
Still, this team is coming off a nine-win season and was billed by Brown himself as the most talented that he has had since he has been in Morgantown. But that doesn't mean much now as the Mountaineers sit at 1-2 entering the meat of their schedule and yet another late loss to Pittsburgh with this one perhaps stinging even more.
