West Virginia head coach Neal Brown wanted to his how his football team responded against Albany and for the most part he was satisfied with the results in most areas.
The Mountaineers won the game 49-14 and overall put together a much better effort, especially on the offensive side of the ball. That group piled up 553 yards on just 58 plays and was a perfect five for five in the red zone when it came to scoring touchdowns and scored on seven of nine drives total.
“Offensively we really had three bad plays in the game and the rest of them we kind of showed the beginnings of what we’re capable of being which is a team that’s balanced that can run and throw it. We have multiple weapons,” he said.
The defense held the Great Danes to 14 points and permitted just 1.9 yards per carry in the run game. The Mountaineers also were able to hold Albany to 2-5 on fourth down, including a goal-line stop.
But on the flip side, the Mountaineers didn’t record a turnover and also allowed 306 passing yards mainly due to the defensive backs not playing the ball down the field well.
“I think that is evident,” Brown said.
The head coach felt that the statistics told the story in that department and the Mountaineers simply must be better there moving forward with Pittsburgh up next and then nine Big 12 Conference games. Seven McGee hauled in four catches for 90 yards and the Oregon transfer looked the part, but it was certainly an issue.
The Mountaineers came into the game wanting to play more man coverage and that has helped to allow them to understand some things that they can or can’t do. In two of those situations, the Great Danes were able to connect on deep balls in man coverage to extend drives despite it being third and long.
“I didn’t think we played real fast back there, and we have to figure out why that is. We didn’t play real fast, but we did a much better job with alignment and a much better job of handling t their formations, but we didn’t play the ball in the air real well and we didn’t play very fast,” he said.
On the plus side, Brown felt that West Virginia did do a better job in the area of alignment and handling the formations that Albany threw at them but playing the ball in the air will be a focus moving forward in practice.
The Mountaineers were able to get a number of players into the game on the defensive side although he would have liked to see more on offense. But now, the focus must shift to putting this game to bed and preparing for what’s next with the Backyard Brawl in a critical game for both teams.
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