The texts, as you’ll eventually see, say it all, but Bill Stewart had his regular day-after conference call Sunday and it was … well, it was pretty revealing. He said it all, too.

A day after almost no one spoke in the press game press conference, the queries were flying Sunday and Stewart, who, it must be said, addressed everything in an appropriate manner Saturday, was more of the same Sunday. There were tough questions — is the offense spread too thin, is it actually good at anything, were in-game adjustments present and/or effectice, so on an so forth — that  had to be asked and, of course, answered.

Among admissions and admonishments:

– The referees were right to take away Keith Tandy’s interception for pass interference, but wrong to single out J.T. Thomas. “They gave the wrong number. The call was a good call on Keith Tandy.” (Stewart wasn’t clear on this after the game — a blur, I’m sure, with all that was going through his head — and said he wasn’t sure what J.T. had done and that he’d have to see the play to agree or disagree.) In the next breath Sunday, Stewart, without prompting said, “On our first interception, the exact same thing happened to Jock Sanders and it was a no-call.”

– “I think we were beaten between the ears, from the shoulders up. That’s as factual as I can be.”

– “I know (the Mountaineers) were not nearly as impressed with Syracuse before the game as they were after the game.”

– “We may run a little more in the offense.” 

– “I’m not in any kind of panic mode whatsoever.”

– Stewart twice turned back questions about Syracuse’s success running the ball and eventually said, “They’re big, strong guys. Like I tried to tell people, they have two good running backs and that was kind of evident yesterday.”

Other things were evident, too.

– Syracuse completed five passes and had twice as many incomplete passes.

– Syracuse lost its starting running back in the first half.

– Syracuse had 12 first downs and was behind in total yards and time of possession.

– Syracuse had no touchdowns in four red zone possessions.

– The one touchdown — a 29-yard job against Keith Tandy — accounted for nearly half of the 62 passing yards.

In short, Syracuse didn’t have to do a whole lot to end an eight-game losing streak in the series and win on the road against a ranked team that hadn’t lost at home in almost two years. Kudos to the Orange, who played a very smart game, but that says more about WVU than the Orange.

This is perhaps insignificant in the broad view, but I think it matters a whole lot. There were concrete statements by Stewart and the Mountaineers they were not prepared and/or didn’t take the challenge as seriously as they needed. After the game, a Syracuse staffer waited outside the locker room and  said, “I’m not going back in there until I get the trophy.” Several minutes later, we were allwoed into WVU’s postgame interview area and the wait for Stewart was interrupted by a roar from the Syracuse locker room. The Schwartzwalder Trophy was in their presence.

A lot of people thought WVU could win out, or lose just once in conference, and, frankly, I could understand the optimism, but not the basis.

The offense cannot yet be trusted to get out of its way and it would appear defenses can throw up a road block for which WVU has no detour.