The West Virginia Mountaineers are back home for the first time in a month and are hoping to put a much better product on the field than the last two times when the offense looked flat, leading to two losses to Iowa State and Kansas State.
Luckily for Neal Brown and Co. the Baylor Bears have struggled mightily on the defensive side of the ball in the league, even during their current three-game winning streak. When you couple that with West Virginia’s pass coverage issues, you get the feeling of the very first game between these two in 2012, when WVU won a 70-63 shootout.
Okay, maybe I’m going a bit exaggerated, but my point is that there are points scored in this game, and a lot of them.
As we do every Friday morning on the In the Gun Podcast, we asked college football expert Phil Steele for his thoughts on this game. You can watch the full episode at the top of this page.
“This Baylor team has looked great since Sawyer Robertson took over at QB. They have Bryson Washington and Dawson Pendergrass playing well. Robertson contributes to the run game, very dangerous on the ground. And I think Robertson, if you look in passing, a nice ratio of 17-4, is quite dangerous.
“I think West Virginia is going to take advantage of last week’s win, give them a little momentum and now you’re back home. They have to play well at home. The Kansas State loss, the Iowa State loss, I know. Fans were not too happy about that.
“But when I look at the defense of the two teams, I am surprised because Dave Aranda is a defensive genius but may just not have the players this year. Over the last four weeks they have allowed 469 yards per game and a percentage of 68%.” completion rate.
“I like the matchup. West Virginia’s run defense has been solid all year. The weakness was the pass defense, the secondary. And while Baylor has a capable quarterback, I think West Virginia can slow Baylor down.”
“I think these two teams are pretty close. I would have favored West Virginia by three. I’m surprised they’re three-point hounds. I like West Virginia pulling off the upset and getting the win at home. I’m going here along with West Virginia.”
Phil has been a huge supporter of the Mountaineers all year, even despite their struggles earlier. Before the Arizona game, he told us that West Virginia is “very capable” of finishing the season strong. Since then they have won both matches.
West Virginia and Baylor are set for a 4:00 PM EST kickoff, with the action airing on ESPN2.
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