Disclaimer: This is not intended to stir up anything or pit one third of the locker room against another third. I just find the point in question interesting to consider.

Who has more pressure right now at WVU? Is it the otherworldly offense or the otherwordly defense? You think about that.

Certainly the defense has its stress right now because that performance Saturday was not a winning performance. It can’t continue and the players know and admit that, surprised as they were to see it happen.

That said, and perhaps you’ve heard this, but the offenses in the Big 12 Conference are going to test the defenses and the defenses are going to have bad nights. WVU has one of those offenses, in addition to one of those defenses, and there has to be a desperate need to perform at a consistently high level in case the defense just doesn’t have it.

With 10 touchdowns on the scoreboard and the game remarkably still in question Saturday, the reality began to arrive for the Mountaineers.

“That’s definitely a lot of stress on us,” said receiver Tavon Austin, who caught a school-record 14 passes for 215 yards and two touchdowns. “Seventy points is a lot of points to put up every game. Any little thing can go wrong and you can lose a game. A fumble, a turnover can change things. It definitely puts a lot of pressure on you.”

Obviously, WVU is well-armed for this particular competition because of its cache of weapons on offense, but those players really don’t hurt themselves. Apart from the one McCartney drop, the one Jeff Braun penalty and one, maybe two, iffy throws by Geno where, who knows, the ball might bounce high in the air on another day and get  intercepted, the offense made no errors and was actually very able to overcome some tricky situations.

On that day, with that many plays and that much action, it’s really quite an accomplishment for a team that just two years ago placed an alarmingly low value on possession.

If this stays the same, or intimately close to the same, WVU is in a very favorable position. Here’s a valid truth the Mountaineer hope to extend:

Smith hasn’t thrown an interception in his past 222 attempts – still a long way away from Russell Wilson’s NCAA record of 379 – and the offense with the regulars in the game hasn’t turned the ball over in the last 389 snaps, or since late in the South Florida win in December.

Baylor had forced at least one turnover in 16 consecutive games and two or more in eight straight games. That ended against WVU, but nearly did not with one close call on the decisive final series. On second-and-10 at his own 25-yard line, Smith was pressured and threw to the right to J.D. Woods.