Mountaineers defense asserts its dominant side

West Virginia nose guard Darrien Howard (49) pounces on Texas Tech quarterback Patrick Mahomes in pursuit of a fumble.

 

COMMENTARY

LUBBOCK, Texas — Homecoming Saturday at Texas Tech was less than three quarters old when home the fans went.

No sense sticking around for the anti-climax of a 48-17 beatdown. Not when college football’s most lethal passing attack was generating all the enthusiasm of a C-Span lecture. As West Virginia emptied its full blitz package on Patrick Mahomes, the stadium emptied too — fans equal parts convinced the Red Raiders were as woeful as the Mountaineers were legit.

“You love coming into someone else’s home and making it yours for a couple of hours,” said West Virginia linebacker Al-Rasheed Benton.

He especially delighted in disproving the notion that basketball scores are inevitable for defenses facing the Red Raiders.

“All week we were hearing West Virginia has to outscore these guys to win,” Benton said. “We took that as disrespect.”

So they took it to Mahomes, using every pressure scheme on Tony Gibson’s play-chart. Four sacks didn’t begin to cover how much the Mountaineers rattled and pestered Tech’s quarterback, though unique stories were contained therein.

Cornerback Rasul Douglas showed press coverage and then ran clear from Amarillo for a blind-side takedown of Mahomes. Texas Tech settled for a field goal.

On the next drive, Sean Walters, a fifth-year senior, earned career sack No. 1 with a delayed blitz off the left side. Not even a field goal this time as Texas Tech was shoved out of range.

“Shoot, we blitz from anywhere,” Walters said. “Corners, safeties — it don’t matter. We’re going at you and we’re going to hit you.”

Walters played drive-killer earlier in the game on a bizarre-looking interception at the West Virginia 11 — wrestling a pass away from running back Justin Stockton, though no one really realized what happened until the replays flashed across the stadium board.

“He made a great play,” beamed Douglas. “I don’t know how he made the play but he made it.”

Walters’ turnover preserved a 10-7 lead and proved that a midseason demotion didn’t dampen his readiness. Two weeks after yielding his Will linebacker job to freshman David Long, there was Walters delivering the kind of depth few suspected WVU possessed.

“He could’ve pouted and went into the tank, but he didn’t,” said Gibson.

If anyone felt like pouting it was Kliff Kingsbury.

His offense supposedly was pumped to make amends after being tamped down in Morgantown last season. They gained 378 then; they gained 379 Saturday. Nor did Mahomes & Co. seize on the motivation of Shelton Gibson predicting that his defensive teammates could hold Texas Tech to 10 points. (A prediction, in hindsight, that was pretty spot-on.)

“We seemed intimidated,” Kingsbury said. “They talked all week about what they would do, and they came in here and they did it.”

Two months ago, few believed West Virginia’s rebuilt defense capable of intimidating anyone, much less a dynamic outfit like Kingsbury’s. Five wins into the season, folks are reassessing whether Tony Gibson’s unit is really West Virginia’s weak link.

“We’ve got a mature group of kids and they find a way to win,” he said. “We could very easily be sitting here at 3-2 or 4-1, but they find a way.”

Enough reminiscing over those BYU and Kansas State close calls. Saturday was one for dominance, and West Virginia backed up everything it promised.





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