I guess I’m contratian, but I didn’t hate and immediately assail WVU’s doomed double pass Saturday. I kind of liked it — at least the intent.

I was not a fan of the blocking, where normally reliable Ryan Clarke whiffed … out on the perimeter, where’s not as effective, and I didn’t like the decision to pass by normally reliable Jock Sanders, who was probably a little too proud and should have instead allowed himself to be tackled. In that regard, sure, it was a bad play because those two were put in positions where they made critical errors. I get that.  

But other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, the play was good. Honest.

For two-plus years now WVU has been talking about finishing. What the Mountaineers were doing in the first two quarters was not working in the third — Eu was 2-for-8 — so the idea of letting the pass attack pick the Terrapins apart isn’t as obvious an option. Go deep with Smith, you say, instead of a trick play? Well, when has that worked for WVU?

Nah, there’s a time and a place for the element of surprise and, to me, that seemed like it. If Clarke gets the block and Sanders gets set, Noel Devine is all alone on the left sideline and WVU is up 35-14. A stomach punch stops the Maryland rally and does who-knows-what to the opponent’s spirit. That thing could have been 42-14 by the time it was over. Gole-and blue lenses, maybe, but that was the goal when the play was called. End the game. And aren’t people complaining about a conservative offense?

The play’s falilure is where things really get interesting. The Terrapins had done some things to stop the WVU pass and hit two passes of their own to get back into the game and, ok, encourage a little panic from WVU. The Mountaineers, with their Plan A slowed and their Plan B a disaster, went to Plan C and hit Maryland with an I-formation on a decisive drive. And it worked.

Too often you’ve seen WVU stick to the same thing and show no/limited adjustments. WVU flexed a little flexibility and, after a lot of discussion about such a thing, showed it can do different stuff. That was almost forgotten in the aftermath, when, as you’d imagine, the featured topic was the double pass.

Overlooked for the moment was that the Mountaineers, despite that turnover, finished with 469 yards of offense – 268 through the air and 201 on the ground.

Not breathtaking, but WVU last topped that with 509 yards in a loss at Auburn last season, a total that matched the work from the week before against East Carolina. The 468 yards was the fifth-highest yardage total in the 29 games Stewart and Mullen have been together and just the second time the Mountaineers have had at least 200 yards passing and rushing.

“No question I feel very good about our identity as an offense and where we’re going,” Mullen said.