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Live blog: West Virginia put away Cyclones 30-6

West Virginia receiver Shelton Gibson celebrates with coach Dana Holgorsen after scoring a 60-yard touchdown during the first quarter against the Iowa State Cyclones on Saturday.

 

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Welcome back to Mountaineer Field, where there’s an emotional overload from West Virginia’s senior day, Paul Rhoads’ farewell and the fact that Americans staged Black Friday’s most compelling store fight video. (Kudos to the makers of that veggie steamer, if indeed, they’re behind this.)

Regarding Rhoads, his onions were cooked when Iowa State fumbled not once BUT TWICE in the final 91 seconds to give away the tying and go-ahead scores in K-State’s 38-35 win. Nice touch by Cyclones AD Jamie Pollard allowing Rhoads to coach six days after his firing, and in kind, methinks Rhoads gave this one every bit as much oomph as he did throughout his previous seven seasons.

— WVU went three-and-out on its opening drive, with Smallwood rushing twice for minus-1 yard, including a third-down stuff by linebacker and Cyclones captain Levi Peters.

— Iowa State converted a third-and-9 with a 14-yard pass from Joel Lanning to Allen Lazard and eventually reached the WVU 31. That’s where Lanning fired an interception to KJ Dillon, who ran back the pick 25 yards to the WVU 40.

TOUCHDOWN: Shelton Gibson 60-yard pass from Skyler Howard (10:37) WVU leads 7-0: On the first play after the turnover, Gibson caught a sideline curl, made cornerback Sam E. Richardson miss and then raced across the field for his first TD since the TCU game. In fact, Gibson had only one catch for 9 yards in his previous three games. (Drive: 1 play, 60 yards in 0:15)

— Shaq Petteway jumped offside on third-and-2, but Iowa State could go no further as Lanning has started 1-of-5. Talented freshman Mike Warren, meanwhile, has 34 yards on six carries.

— West Virginia assembled a 10-play drive that led to fourth-and-1 at the Cyclones 42, where Smallwood was swamped for no gain testing the left side. Again it was Peters leading the charge. WVU’s short-yardage failures are a little alarming so far.

FIELD GOAL: Cole Netten 33-yard kick (14:55) WVU leads 7-3: Lanning worked the intermediate passes well, including a 14-yard to Trever Ryen on third down. After a Kyle Rose sack brought up a third-and-18, Lazard got loose for a 15-yard gain and Rhoads played the percentages with a field-goal try. (Drive: 10 plays, 43 yards in 5:02)

FIELD GOAL: Josh Lambert 33-yard kick (12:56) WVU leads 10-3: Gibson’s speed struck again on a 53-yard kick return that saw him wrangled out of bounds at the Iowa State 47. After Jovon Durante dropped a pass over the middle, Gibson delivered a 13-yard catch on third-and-7 to move the Mountaineers within scoring range. The drive stalled on third-and-1 at the ISU 22 when Howard threw incomplete for Daikiel Shorts. No doubt WVU’s earlier short-yardage mishaps played into the decision to throw. (Drive: 7 plays, 25 yards in 1:49)

— Another poor decision by Lanning leads to a second interception, this one by Daryl Worley at the Cyclones 45. WVU dropped eight on third-and-9 and Lanning forced a sideline throw to Quenton Bundrage.

FIELD GOAL: Lambert 30-yard kick (7:03) WVU leads 13-3: Skyler Howard showed nice patience on two third-down completions to Gibson and Jordan Thompson, the latter a 12-yarder at the sticks. However, four runs netted minus-3 yards and right tackle Marcell Lazard drew back-to-back flags for illegal motion and illegal man downfield. Howard nearly overcame that with a 13-yard fade route to Gibson, who had separation from Nigel Tribune in the end zone, but the pass led the receiver out of bounds. (Drive: 10 plays, 32 yards in 3:59)

FIELD GOAL: Netten 49-yard kick (0:00) WVU leads 13-6: A crazy-long drive for the Cyclones took us to half. Iowa State converted a fourth-and-2 fake punt at its own 44 when Holden Kramer gained 3 yards on a tuck-and-run. But wait, there’s more … on the ensuing fourth down Kramer faked another punt, lobbing a 5-yard pass to Kane Seeley, who came down with the grab among three defenders. The Cyclones also got 22 on Lanning’s third-and-17 pass to Bundrage before an unsportsmanlike conduct flag on Wendell Taiese—for rudely unstacking NIck Kwiatkoski from the pile—led to a long field goal try. After ISU moved the ball to the center of field, Lanning took a 3-yard loss on kneel-down and Netten barely had enough leg. (Drive: 19 plays, 43 yards in 7:03)

HALFTIME STATS: West Virginia has gained only 46 yards on 16 carries, with Smallwood off to an especially slow start (six carries for 16 yards). … Iowa State holds a 178-174 edge in yardage. … Lanning’s two INTs led to 10 points for WVU. … Skyler Howard is 8-of-13 passing for 128. … The Mountaineers ran only 29 plays in the half compared to Iowa State’s 44.

— Iowa State, still gambling, faced fourth-and-1 at the WVU 49 when Noble Nwachukwu gashed through the line to drop Warren for a 1-yard loss. This is the risk an offense takes by running out of the shotgun or pistol on short-yardage.

— Given stellar field position on its first second-half series, West Virginia loses 3 yards on a three-and out and Nick O’Toole punts for a touchback. (In last 11 minutes of game action, Iowa State has run 25 plays to WVU’s three.)

— Iowa State goes nowhere on its drive. Punts.

— West Virginia commits a holding infraction (Kyle Bosch) before Howard’s pass for Thompson was picked by ISU’s Qujuan Floyd at the Mountaineers’ 46.

— Iowa State was unable to capitalize as Petteway sacked Lanning on third down. And then ISU’s punt-coverage unit allowed a perfectly placed punt to bounce across the goal line.

FIELD GOAL: Lambert 34-yard kick (7:31) WVU leads 16-6: Gibson went deep for 52 yards, giving him 146 today on five catches. Three plays later, on a third-down try in the red zone, officials failed to notice that Gibson was grabbed by the cornerback as Howard threw high and incomplete. (Drive: 6 plays, 63 yards in 1:25)

— Iowa State earns one first down but can’t advance past the WVU 49 where Worley bats down a third-down pass for Bundrage.

TOUCHDOWN: Howard 32-yard run (7:31) WVU leads 23-6: A huge gainer by Rushel Shell was negated by a holding call on Daikiel Shorts and a gorgeously thrown bomb to Gibson was jarred loose when the receive hit the turf at the goal-line. All of that was forgotten when the QB followed pulling guard Stone Underwood through a gaping hole for the touchdown. (Drive: 7 plays, 83 yards in 1:52)

— Joshua Thomas coughed up Iowa State’s third turnover of the day on a hit by Jeremy Tyler, who also recovered the fumble at the Cyclones’ 46.

— Backed up by a personal foul on Marcell Lazard, WVU went three-and-out.

— Iowa State’s offense has devolved into a trainwreck in the second half. Lanning was dropped for an 8-yard sack by Eric Kinsey bringing up another punt.

— WVU earned a first down on a 15-yard pass to Smallwood before punting.

— Iowa State, facing fourth-and-14 inside its own 20, tried Punt Fake No. 3. Why not, right? This time it was reserve quarterback Sam Richardson in punt formation, and the senior’s pass was batted down.

TOUCHDOWN: Shell 9-yard run (10:22) WVU leads 30-6: Two runs by Shell—sandwiched around an incomplete fade route to Shorts—tacked on an insurance score. (Drive: 3 plays, 15 yards in 0:50)

— Richardson came in at quarterback for Iowa State, a nice gesture for the senior. He completed a 23-yarder to Lazard before the Cyclones were forced to punt.

— William Crest getting some mop-up duty in place of Howard, who finishes 12-of-26 for 202 yards passing.

___________________________________________

PREGAME NOTES

Some reactions from the Cyclones this week on their coach’s firing:

— “It’s going to suck not playing for him,” said receiver Allen Lazard. “Everyone’s thinking back on the past few weeks and the season and what they could’ve done to maybe prevent this.”

— “I’m very happy that he’s coaching this last week,” said linebacker Levi Peters. “I knew if he had the option there was no doubt he would.”

— “A very, very passionate guy, who loves the game,” said quarterback Joel Lanning. “You can’t thank him enough for what he did for me. It’s heartbreaking.”

On a more cheerful note, the Mountaineers are celebrating the careers of 20 seniors, including one extremely influential guy who hasn’t suited up since early October. I’ve got to think there’s something brewing for Karl Joseph in today’s pregame.

West Virginia Mountaineers safety Karl Joseph (8) is honored on senior day before their game against the Iowa State Cyclones at Milan Puskar Stadium.

Big 12 rushing race: After Shock Linwood gained only 58 yards in Baylor’s mucky loss at TCU on Friday night, Wendel Smallwood has a chance to grab the Big 12 rushing lead with a 65-yard performance today. He’s averaging 123 per game this season and Iowa State’s defense is only eighth in the conference allowing 4.7 per carry.

Prediction: I’m taking West Virginia 33-20. Share your picks below.





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