For the first time this season, the West Virginia Mountaineers (6-3) enter a game ranked outside of the top 25. Losing two out of their past three games has the Mountaineers on the outside looking in for the Big East championship. Meanwhile, after a big win on the road last week in Pittsburgh, the Cincinnati Bearcats (7-1) leapfrogged to the top of the conference and broke into the top 25 at number 23. Needless to say this week’s game is going to be a big one for both teams.
West Virginia went back and forth with Louisville last week and ended up on the wrong side of a 38-35 ball game. Despite going into the half tied with the Cardinals, the Mountaineers showed a lack of emotion during the game.
“We talked about it all week, but we didn’t have any energy – our sidelines were dead, and there wasn’t a whole lot of excitement when things did happen for us. So it’s a problem that’s being addressed, and we’re going to try hard to fix it,” Mountaineer coach Dana Holgorsen said. “We were tied at halftime, and it looked to me in the locker room like we were losing – that’s being addressed this week.”
Meanwhile, Cincinnati is in first in the conference after winning three straight games coming into this week. Opposite of the Mountaineers, the Bearcats have been better performers in the second half of games this year outscoring Louisville and South Florida 45-24 after halftime to open league play.
“There’s not a whole lot of quit in them. The Louisville game, they were down 10 at halftime, and they came out with a tremendous amount of effort,” Holgorsen said of their opponents. “There’s a reason they’re first in the league right now, they’re playing with tremendous effort, confidence, energy and things tend to go your way when you play with that kind of stuff.”
Leading the charge for the Bearcats is quarterback Zach Collaros. Collaros, a 2007 graduate of Steubenville, has thrown for 1,784 yards and 14 touchdowns on the year. All eyes in the Ohio Valley will be on this game as one of their own will look to continue his stellar senior season against the Mountaineers. Collaros led Steubenville to a 41-1 record during his time starting including a 30-0 record with two state titles over his final two seasons. Collaros was named as a EA Sports Third-Team All-American in 2007 after passing for 2,550 yards and 30 touchdowns compared to only 4 interceptions. Collaros also rushed for 720 yards and 15 touchdowns.
Opposing Collaros is the only quarterback better in the Big East in my eyes and that’s Geno Smith. Smith continued to put up big numbers last week against Louisville by passing for 410 yards and 3 touchdowns on his way to being named the Big East Player of the Week. The junior quarterback has been sacked 9 times in the past three games however and could use some better protection up front. Smith has passed for 3,125 yards on the year and 23 touchdowns.
In the receiving game, I have to give the edge to the Mountaineers. But this game could be decided by the running game and special teams play. Leading the way for the Mountaineers is freshman running back Dustin Garrison who has accumulated 581 yards this year, but has been quite since going for 293 against Bowling Green. Shawne Alston also has multi-touchdown games in each of the past two games. Cincinnati gets the nod in the running department however, as they are led by senior Isaiah Pead. Pead averages 6.0 yards per carry so far this season, which is good for second in the Big East behind Garrison. Pead has rushed for 821 yards so far on the year.
The main downfall for the Mountaineers this season has been their special teams play. Last week, Mike Molinari had a horrible game punting and if they had to punt again, it would have been Corey Smith, not Molinari to take the snap.
“We would have went with Corey (Smith) on the next one. I’ve told those guys all year long that they’re going to be held accountable for what they do, so we would have went with Corey the next time. We didn’t punt again, so at this point we’ll see how practice goes this week,” Holgorsen said about the issue.
Also, kicker Tyler Bitancurt missed one short field goal attempt and had another blocked in the fourth quarter that was returned 82 yards for a score.
“Not a very hard one to figure out,” Holgorsen said. “You lose the turnover battle, you go 0-for-2 on field goals, that gets you beat.”
With a virtual must-win game to keep their BCS Bowl game hopes alive, the Mountaineers are going to have to give it their all against this Cincinnati team. But with how well the Bearcats have rushed the ball and how poorly the special teams and second-half play has been for the Mountaineers, I’m going to have to go with the Bearcats on this one. Look for Cincinnati to continue their journey for the Big East title by winning this one 38-31.
Photo Credit: All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks Photo
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