Three Thoughts on West Virginia’s 65-7 Win Over Towson
The West Virginia Mountaineers have had a rough start to the season after losing their first two games against Pittsburgh and Kansas. But WVU welcomed in an inferior opponent in Towson on Saturday and took plenty of their frustrations out on the Tigers at home in a dominant 65-7 win. The two teams were tied early in the first quarter, but then the Mountaineers pulled away, going on a 38-0 run to end the first half and lead 45-7. WVU was able to work in new faces in the second half and rest up for Virginia Tech on Thursday night.
Here are three thoughts on the game.
Neal Brown Needed This… For Now
Neal Brown losing the first two games of the season took his seat from warm to warmer, if not hot, depending on who you ask in Morgantown. And while a big win over Towson does nothing to necessarily cure that, it’s the best he could have done given the situation. Had WVU not done exactly what they did on Saturday, it just would’ve been more ammunition for those who believe things aren’t working out with Brown at the helm in Morgantown.
That being said, the Mountaineers have one of the hardest schedules with 11 Power 5 games and now they turn around to a short week with Virginia Tech on the road. It doesn’t get any easier for Brown from here on out, as his October Big 12 schedule features the four teams from Texas. But for those wondering, the buyout is not small.
The Rushing Game
Yes, it’s inferior competition, but West Virginia needed this kind of a performance to build some confidence in its offensive line and rushing attack. After averaging a solid 5.8 yards per carry against Pitt, WVU averaged just 3.8 yards per carry against Kansas in Week 2. On Saturday, the Mountaineers rushed for 316 yards on 45 carries, along with six rushing touchdowns, good for over 7.0 yards per carry.
Tony Mathis and C.J. Donaldson combined for 205 rushing yards and five of those six rushing scores. This has the opportunity to be one of the better 1-2 punches in the Big 12, if the offensive line can provide the necessary holes for them to hit.
The Broadcast
For most of the first half, the broadcast audio on ESPN+ was skipping. The video feed was clean and a fine watch, but the audio was terrible. I posed the question on Twitter, and it appears everyone was having the same issue with the broadcast.
All we could get was this response from ESPN Plus on Twitter.
Come on. I understand the move to streaming for sporting events. It’s the way of the future. But as the price goes up ($9.99/month for ESPN Plus) the broadcasts needs to be more stable and of a higher quality. Too often the broadcast is subpar, and West Virginia’s game on Saturday was a prime example of just that.
