College Football Week 7: #5 West Virginia At Texas Tech

#5 West Virginia

Texas Tech

Dana Holgorsen was so pleased with his team’s win at Texas on Saturday night that he credited a lack of turnovers before realizing West Virginia had in fact turned it over twice. After two straight wild victories, and a game with No. 6 Kansas State next week, West Virginia is in a prime spot for a letdown if Holgorsen can’t energize his team.	Coaching	Last week’s “Tale of the Tape” noted that we’d find out a lot more about Texas Tech once it played Oklahoma. Well, it doesn’t look great for Tommy Tuberville’s Red Raiders, who lost 41-20 at home. It won’t get any easier as West Virginia comes to town, followed by road games at TCU and Kansas State.
The Mountaineers are in the top-5 in scoring and total offense. Geno Smith has thrown 24 touchdowns and zero interceptions. Ever since last year’s Orange Bowl he and the WVU offense have been unstoppable.	Offense	Texas Tech is 15th in the country in total offense, but was well below its season average against the Sooners. The offense didn’t hit enough big plays and Seth Doege was picked off three times.
How do you judge this defense? It certainly hasn’t been good, but it has gotten enough stops to let its offense outscore the opponent. It has also faced some pretty good offenses (Baylor, Texas, Marshall), which may skew the numbers a bit.	Defense	Texas Tech did hold Oklahoma under 400 yards (partly because turnovers gave the Sooners a short field) but couldn’t get many stops. And there is no worse team for a defense to try to rebound against than West Virginia.
The Moutaineers tried their third punter of the season against Texas, placekicker Tyler Bitancurt. His only attempt was blocked. He also had a field goal blocked.	Special Teams	Kicker Ryan Bustin has been very good, even from long distances. Texas Tech did give up a kickoff return for a score earlier in the season.

We'll just call it a tie

The real Texas Tech is probably somewhere between how it played last week and how it looked in previous weeks. That won’t be good enough to keep up with the Mountaineers, whose offensive edge is likely too great to overcome.

-Andrew Kahn, College Football Contributor

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