Between The Eers: The Morning After UAlbany

[Music] [Applause] how we doing everybody scall count here another episode of between years it is the morning after we do this every week kind of putting our final thoughts uh at least I shouldn't say final thoughts we do that kind of on Tuesday on our next episode but this is more of a a an episode where we just kind of take a deep breath we think about it for a littleit bit and then kind of bring come back to this usually we'll have Chris on here but due to scheduling stuff we had to just roll solo today so West Virginia 49 U Albany 14 wasn't pretty um score May May show that differently but if you watched the game you knew that it was not the the most impressive performance by any means by the defense offensively uh pretty much did what you wanted outside of the Jem white fumble he had the big run had the ball stripped out of his hands couple of other kind of bad plays but outside of that the offense did what they were supposed to do they moved the ball at will they were able to run the ball when they wanted to they were able to throw the ball when they wanted to they made plays in the passing game not as many drops this week as they had a week ago against Penn State where seemingly everybody that played in the game at receiver or tight end had a drop so seeing that get cleaned up albe it against Albany is a positive sign defensively however um there's some issues there but I'm I'm hesitant to to start sounding the alarm just yet and I know it sounds crazy when you give up over 300 yards passing to an FCS team but I feel like this secondary is going to get better as the season moves along there was some really good stuff that they put on tape against Penn State last week the numbers may not show that but if you go back and you look at the Deep touchdown or the Deep the touchdown at the end of the first half against Penn State I mean Hollis covered that play very very well still don't even know if it ended up actually being a touchdown if you go back and watch it looks like he kind of juggled it along the side or along the out of bounds line before hitting the ground don't know if he actually got in or not they called a touchdown there was also another play towards the sideline towards about the 50 yard line where Aller just threaded the needle put it in a really good spot just a really good play by Aller Hollis terrific terrific coverage last night Hollis was just down right bad there's no other way to put it I'm not going to be shy about you know necessarily calling guys out but I mean he just didn't play well that's the truth of it and there's better football in there in that kid we've seen it over his career at northwester we saw it at times last week against Penn State so I'm not ready to sound the alarm on him either because history shows us he's going to be a good Corner he's not going to be a liability that's what the data shows last night was not a night for him or for anybody in that secondary the other part of it is the pass rush or lack thereof there wasn't hardly any of that they had two sacks but against a team like this they're just wasn't enough pressure generated to allow the secondary to be able to do their end of deal the secondary can only hold on to their coverage for so long before things just kind of turn into heal or Skelter and before you know it miles Brett's making a play so there were several plays last night I don't know how many you know exactly but I'd have to go back and watch but I can count at least a handful where the corners the safeties the linebackers they they did their job in coverage but because they were having to hold on to that coverage for so long plays ended up happening that that cannot happen the defensive line has to get more push up front they have to get more pressure in the pocket they need to collapse the pocket flush the quarterback out and make him throw you know different types of throws off schedule didn't happen last night for just hung around and if there wasn't a play right away he just chucked it deep downfield and their guys made the plays West Virginia did they have to play the ball better in the air Neil Brown talked about that last night in his postgame press conference it's no secret but I I think that this this defense is going to be better than what they've shown not just this week but in the first two weeks combined I don't think it's a top five unit in the Big 12 at least they haven't shown that yet but it's also not going to be the worst defense in the league there are a lot of reasons to I wouldn't say be excited about this defense I think that's a bit of a stretch but there are reasons to feel okay about them moving forward we haven't seen it necessarily on the field yet so I understand the criticism I understand that the frustration towards Jordan Lesley in in this defense but it's not the worst I've seen there have been teams like or games like this all throughout College in these first two weeks where FBS teams and F FCS game in those FCS games don't look sharp and there's been games where they've lost there's games where it was much closer than 49 to4 so just be thankful that you were able to pull away eventually you only gave up 14 points I think the problem was just how you got to that 49 to4 score you would have liked to got the starters out much earlier in the game to give Nico maral in that second string you know 30 or 35 odd some odd reps on offense but you just weren't able to do that because of how the game went so here's what I'll say if you look at this game and you look at how Penn State played Bowling Green and you just look at those two alone and say oh West Virginia's in trouble I'm sorry relax Penn State if you're looking at that game and think that West Virginia's in trouble just think of it like this you go and play a big game on the road a massive week one game you could argue and I don't even think it's an argument that that was a much much bigger game for Penn State last week than it was for West Virginia why well because Penn State doesn't have a whole lot of wiggle room if they lose that game last week to West Virginia they pretty much have to run the table or damn near close to it to get to the college football playoff without a big 10 Championship so if they don't win the Big 10 I don't know that they get in with a loss to West Virginia because obviously that would mean theyd probably have a second maybe even a third loss even in the Big 10 that makes it tough sleding West Virginia however was never expected to win this game against Penn or that game against Penn State you go and take care of business these next two games they've already done one half of that you can lose two games in the Big 12 and win the league and you're in you could lose two games all year in the Big 12 go go 10 and two on the schedule that is and still make the college football playoff depending on how your your win set up that game was much bigger for Penn State than it was West Virginia in so many different ways you take care of that game of week one you come back home you play Bowling Green you think it's just going to be a walk in the park it was a complete flat spot for the nitty Lions don't look at that game and say oh my gosh West Virginia is in such trouble with if Bowling Green hung around with State those types of games happen all the time worry about yourself don't look at you can't compare apples and oranges you can't say oh West Virginia looked bad against Penn State and now that Bowling Green look good against Penn State that means West Virginia's bad no not it at all doesn't look good but it's not a reason to be concerned the reason to be concerned is that you gave up over 300 yards passing to an FCS quarterback that you had two sacks on an FCS offense that's what you need to be concerned about so while I'm not ready to sound the alarm on Jordan Leslie or on this defense fans have every right to be concerned frightened scared frustrated whatever you want to throw in there about this defense heading into the Backyard Brawl this is a game West Virginia has to win for outside of the obvious reason of it being your biggest rival you lose this game you're one and two and you enter Big 12 play in what is an absolute Gauntlet to start five games that are very very challenging Kansas Iowa State Kansas State Arizona Oklahoma State's in there as well I mean there is very little wiggle you have to win this game and I hate to admit it but pit has found a quarterback Eli Holstein is no joke he was a highly recruited kid out of high school he transfers into pen into pit and completely changes their offense now they're not a team that's going to necessarily light up the scoreboard but when you compare it to what they had a year ago it's much much better than what it was so I I don't know what the answer is going to be obviously losing Eddie Vester in and that's a big loss Neil said it in his pressure last night that he's going to be out for look what looks to be at least a few weeks with a leg injury you're going to have to find some answers up front Shawn Martin has got to get to the quarterback asson Redwood has got to push the pocket TJ Jackson he's been the bright spot up front in the first two weeks he needs to continue to do what he's been doing and and and build off of that linebackers have been great if they can generate pressure next week again that's going to be the number one thing for this defense if they can generate pressure on Eli Holstein I think West Virginia secondary will come to play they'll be much better than what they were today or yesterday and they may not give up 300 yards I think Albany kind of thought at the beginning of this game that for them to have a shot they're going to have to shrink this game they're have to run the ball they're going to have to play clock control keep it out of West Virginia's hands and that's kind of how the game started out then they realized oh yeah we can't do this because we need more possessions and the more we air it out the more success we're having so let's try and transition into this style of game and when you only run the ball 35 times I mean they they kind of figured out early on they weren't going to be be able to run it very successfully they started to air it out they started to have some success and when you become a team that can take shots downfield and complete them all of a sudden you're you're you're posing some uh some issues on West Virginia's defense so I don't know what to make of it you can be mad you can be upset or you can just take it for what it is and that's kind of what I am they didn't play well it's not time to panic but it's not time to be jumping for joy either they need a lot figured out in the next five to six days that's the reality of it if they go and play like they did this week next week in Pittsburgh we're not going to have a very fun conversation come this time next Sunday that's the reality but if they show up and play more so to what they did in week one outside of those handful of explo of plays I think things are going to be okay but again don't start diving into the rabbit hole of oh Bing green played like this against Penn State this team played like this just take a deep breath and relax focus on what happened in the U albony game and I know it's from the fan perspective but I mean this is from the team side of it too if you're a player on this team you can't be worried about what happened against or what Penn State did against Bowling Green I know that they're not so I don't know I'm I'm honestly kind of at a loss words because I don't really know how to explain this one because I'm really not on either side of everything's going to be okay or everything's on fire and everyone's running around uh like they don't have answers I don't know let me know your thoughts in the comment section um what you think about this one your thoughts mov moving forward is there a reason to be concerned do you think everything's going to be all right let me know I want to hear your thoughts we'll interact with you in the comments section make sure you hit that subscribe button on our YouTube page at West Virginia on SI follow us on X siore WVU and be sure to check back in with us on Tuesday as we kick off Backyard Brawl week and while you're at it you got a question hit up my mailbag on Twitter you can find me Calahan I have a tweet there I'll Pin It To The Top my page where you can drop your question for this week's mailbag thank you guys for watching for another week of mountaine coverage we'll be back here on Tuesday take care