Each week WVSports.com Managing Editor Keenan Cummings provides a look at some of the things that stood out to him during the course of the game and on the stat sheet.
These observations are a snap shot of what unfolded in the West Virginia 44-27 win over North Carolina State and what could happen next for the Mountaineers.
--Well, just like we all expected. West Virginia not only looked better against North Carolina State but controlled the game for the most part from start to finish. This didn’t even look like the same team that was essentially pounded by Missouri on the road the week before. And all of this came with two of the starting offensive linemen out of the lineup. I thought coming into this game it said a lot about the team with how they responded after what unfolded in Columbia and they not only answered those questions but was able to win the game in rather convincing fashion. I’ll be the first person to admit that coming into this match up I wasn’t sure how good of a team N.C. State was, but they had taken care of business two weeks in a row and the Mountaineers were able to simply out-tough them. That’s going to be the formula moving forward as well and it needs to be for West Virginia to have success. We’ll see how this translates moving forward but for at least one week, it’s easy to trust the climb after what you saw unfold on the field over the course of the 60-minutes Saturday.
--This game was 21-all at halftime and the Mountaineers outscored the 23-6. That says a lot about where this team was at today.
--West Virginia came into the game with 54 carries for 64 yards (1.14 per average), zero ten yard runs and a goose egg in the rushing touchdown department. Today, the Mountaineers rushed for 28 times for 173 yards (6.62 yards per carry) and a trio of touchdowns. The Mountaineers had four rushes over 15+ yards in this one and did a good job first stretching the Wolfpack east and west and then taking it at them north and south later in the game. Senior Kennedy McKoy had 26 touches for 31 yards coming into the game but actually surpassed the year-long team rushing total coming into the game by himself with 66 yards and a pair of scores, including a 23-yard touchdown run. This N.C. State allowed only 24.5 per game coming into today on the ground albeit against inferior competition but they had only allowed a long run over 12-yards and the Mountaineers controlled the line of scrimmage.
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