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Game Recap & Stats



The story

     West Virginia had to work much harder than expected to beat Navy on Saturday. Marc Bulger threw for 354 yards and two touchdowns to lead the 16th-ranked Mountaineers to a 45-24 victory over the Midshipmen.

     West Virginia (3-1) trailed 17-3 in the second quarter before rallying to hand Navy (1-3) its 22nd straight loss against a ranked team.

     "We knew we could score if we got the ball, but we had to get the ball," said Mountaineers coach Don Nehlen. "As the game progressed, we got a lot better at stopping them."

   

     Amos Zereoue carried 23 times for 95 yards and a pair of second-half touchdowns for West Virginia.

     "Its not going to be like it used to be, when I got the ball 35 times a game, but we'll take what they give us," Zereoue said.

     Antwan Lake recovered Navy quarterback Steve Holley's fumble in the end zone early in the fourth quarter to give West Virginia its first lead of the game, and the Mountaineers dominated the final period.

     Navy stunned the Mountaineers by recovering a game-opening onside kick, and opened a 17-3 lead with 9:06 remaining in the first half. But Bulger brought WVU back, throwing TD passes of 8 yards to Anthony Becht and 43 yards to Khori Ivy to tie it 17-17 at halftime.

     "Going into the game we wouldn't have been happy, but the way it went we were overwhelmed to be tied at the half," Bulger said. "We knew if we went in at the half down 17-3 we'd be in trouble."

     Navy got touchdown runs from Holley and Irv Dingle in the first half, and Dingle's 46-yard burst on the opening series of the second half set up a 7-yard scoring run by Holley that put Navy back in front.

     "I thought the last team to have the ball would win, but then our defense came through," Zereoue said.

     After Lake's go-ahead touchdown, Navy twice turned the ball over on downs in its own territory, setting up short drives that resulted in West Virginia touchdowns by Zereoue and Alvin Swoope. One of the series ended when the Middies came up a yard short on their second fake punt of the game.

     "We had a chance to win," said Navy coach Charlie Weatherbie. "In those situations, we've got to find a way to put it away. Instead we found a way to give it away."



What we liked

     Once again, this was a game that the offense won in spite of the defense. We'll cover the defense later, but a tip of the hat goes to Marc Bulger and company for another outstanding performance. Marc has really developed into an outstanding quarterback for WVU. He is as cool as a cucumber under fire and a very "heady" player. We wouldn't call him "exceptional" but given the tools he has to work with at the receiver positions a quarterback in this system doesn't have to be.

     The receivers get a tip of the hat as well. Their blocking needs some work but today showed just how much of a physical advantage these kids can be. The Mountaineers receivers were truly no match for the shorter and slower Mids. Of course, this won't happen often but you can point to this area and say that here was where the game was won. We had the better passing game.

     Defensively, there weren't many stars, although Barrett Green continues to shine at linebacker. Green was named the BIG EAST defensive player of the week for his defensive play consisting 20 tackles (11 solo). And second on the tackling list was a name that hasn't appeared in some time, Damon Cogdell. More than his effort (10 tackles) Damon's presence in the starting lineup is encouraging. He led the team in tackles last year before the injury in the Syracuse game and he will be needed in a few weeks when we hit the meat of the BIG EAST heavyweight schedule of Miami, Tech and Syracuse.

     And finally, we liked the play of the Mountaineer Special Teams. Jay Taylor is injured (hip-flexor) and missed a field goal but his PAT's were right on the money. His single punt went for 50 yards and his overall effort won him BIG EAST special teams player of the week. We're guessing though, that you may have seen the end of Taylor doing all the kicking.


What we didn't like

     We don't know that even with a loss we could have walked away more disappointed. We'll give the Mountaineers credit for not folding their tents, but they shouldn't have even had to work up a sweat in this one. OK, that's not exactly true as the Navy option is going to give most any team fits until they get it figured out. But it took almost three quarters for the Mountaineers to get that job done and in the meantime Navy had racked up over 300 yards rushing and 24 points. WVU is just lucky it has a potent offense.

     On the offensive side, we're not liking what we see from Amos or rather "with" Amos. Hey, the guy can only take so much beating and running him again and again headlong into 7 and 8 defenders is not the way to insure he's going to be there when you need him down the road. We'd like to see the Mountaineers make defenses REALLY pay for putting 7 and 8 in the box to defend the run. Get the ball to Amos on the perimeters.

     But the big problem we see from this team is that they aren't coming out and playing 60 minutes of football. They appear to start cold, play hot and cold for a while, and then finally catch on. If you told us that they were "over confident" about their games with Maryland, Tulsa and Navy we'd buy into it as that's exactly the way they appeared. In spite of the offensive challenges from these three teams, our defense took far too long to react and our offense took too long to put the game away. When you're playing a Navy or Tulsa and you want to defend the option, we can't think of a better way than to put tons of points on the board and force them out of their running game.

     This later problem is something that hopefully the Mountaineers can address both in the Temple game but more so in the off week in preparation for the Miami game. We'll be getting back players like Gary Stills and hopefully Charlton Forbes. Damon Cogdell should be healthier as well. We need some players with intensity out there that will put it on the line each and every snap. We know Stills will do that if he's even able to walk. We think that Damon is just a game or two away from being a force again.


General Comments

     We've been down this road close to 40 times. We're talking about trying to figure out the Mountaineers once they've played a few games. It started back in the 50's when we first started to follow them and we must admit we're no better now than we were then! Well, maybe it's a little easier as back then we were getting beaten by teams like William & Mary and YOU KNEW you weren't any good!

     But this team has been disappointing so far in the season, yet you must remember they are 3-1 and ranked in the top 20. What more could you ask for? Play Ohio State 10 times and we'll probably lose 8 or 9 times. Play Tulsa, Maryland and Navy 10 times each and we'll win 28 or 29 of those games. The "final results" are what we expected and you have to be satisfied with that. It's just that we expected to see more consistance and dominance over the likes of these three teams.

     But a couple things have happened that we weren't counting on back in the summer. First, these three teams were playing much better than expected and second, we've had far too many crucial injuries. The injuries are going to happen. They're part of the game but they have hampered the development of this team. The only blessing is that they came at a time when we could afford to play without all our key players. That will soon change.

     Finally, our player of the game goes to the entire WVU receiving corps. This no longer is a Foreman or a Saunders. The days of super individual games is gone due to the number of great receivers we have. But collectively, this group hauled in 24 receptions for 354 yards and 2 TDs. Good Job!



What's Next

     League play starts next week for the Mountaineers as they open up against Temple. Temple is a pitiful 0-5 going into the game, including a loss last week to division 1-AA William & Mary. The game is going to be another tough game to get up for, both in terms of the opponent and now throw in a horrible place to play. The last time we played at Veterans Stadium there were about 3000 fans there, and it was their Homecoming!


The Stats



                   1ST 2ND 3RD 4TH  FINAL
                   --- --- --- ---  -----
West Virginia       0  17   7  21    45
Navy               10   7   7   0    24


Scoring

First Quarter
      Navy- 8:58 left in quarter
         FG Vanderhorst 41 yards
      Navy- 3:20 left in quarter
         Holley 5 run (Vanderhorst Kick)

Second Quarter
      WVU- 14:56 left in quarter
         FG- Taylor 43 yards
      Navy- 9:06 left in quarter
         TD- Dingle 8 run (Vanderhorst Kick)
      WVU- 5:24 left in quarter
         TD- Becht 8 pass from Bulger (Taylor Kick)
      WVU- 3:31 left in quarter
         TD- Ivy 43 pass from Bulger (Taylor Kick)

Third Quarter
      Navy- 13:33 left in quarter
         TD- Holley 7 run (Vanderhorst Kick)
      WVU- 10:43 left in quarter
         TD- Zereoue 7 run (Taylor Kick)

Fourth Quarter
      WVU- 14:12 left in quarter
         TD- Lake fumble recovery in end zone (Taylor Kick)
      WVU- 9:58 left in quarter
         TD- Zereoue 7 run (Taylor Kick)
      WVU- 2:42 left in quarter
         TD- -Swoope 6 run (Taylor Kick)


                          WVU       NAVY
                          ---       ---
First downs               23         26
Rushes-yards             33-84     62-332
Passing                   354       146
Comp-Att-Int            24-36-0   11-18-1
Return Yards               19        5
Punts-Avg.                1-50     2-29.5
Fumbles-Lost              2-0        1-1
Penalties-Yards           7-87       8-62
Time of Possession        26:14      33:46


Individual Statistics

***RUSHING ***
 Navy-  Dingle 18-103, Holley 22-98, Vereen 4-36,
     Wolf 6-33, Metcalf 5-20, Brittingham 1-14, 
     Harden 4-13,, Calisch 1-5, Limbert 1-10

 West Virginia- Zereoue  23-95, Greene 1-12, Swoope 3-6,
      Ours 1-(minus 1), Lewis 1-(minus 1), Bulger 4-(minus 27)


***PASSING***
   Navy- Holley 11-18-1-146.

   West Virginia- Bulger 24-36-0-354


***RECEIVING***
   Navy- Wolf 3-95, Metcalf 3-20, Mill 2-12,
      Vereen 1-10, Limbert 1-6, Dingle 1-3

   West Virginia- Saunders 7-89, Foireman 5-46, Greene 3-58,
      Becht 3-37, Ivy 2-63, Zereoue 2-35, A. Brown 2-26


A-36,009


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