Texts From TCU Game Day
November 5, 2012 by Mike CasazzaSo you turned back your clocks this weekend, gaining an extra hour of sleep Sunday morning that you may have wasted after watching your team give away a game Saturday evening. And that loss brought us back to the halcyon days of 2004, which was the last time WVU lost three straight games. That was a team that was also (prematurely) positioned toward the top and in no way prepared to handle the highs and the lows.
This team? Let’s just say some of you previously voiced concerns that this might be that. Now, that being said, I thought WVU at least showed something by rising up on defense and, by the sounds of it, using all the criticism and ridicule it had been made to study to really change the conversation. Who saw that coming?
Truth be told, the defense, for perhaps the first time all season, submitted a winning performance for 58 minutes. And that botch in the final two minutes ought not have mattered because the offense owed it to the defense to make good on some of the many good situations the defense provided in the second half.
Yet there they are, 5-3 after a 5-0 start and one bad road trip to Oklahoma State away from a losing streak not seen since the faraway days of 2001 — or six Todd Graham jobs ago. And at 5-4, with Oklahoma coming to town, you start to entertain silly thoughts, like bowl eligibility and the number of bowl tie-ins the Big 12 possesses. This is really weird stuff to be thinking about, am I wrong?
The postgame Saturday night was a weird one. It is harder now than before to deny some things, like opposing defenses borrowing ideas from one another to stop WVU’s offense. A unit that was buoyed by confidence is now bothered because it realizes it’s bothered. The players are admitting this now, maybe because it helps to say it, never mind hear it. Some players didn’t, or weren’t allowed to, meet with the media. Many who did the meet did so quickly without showering or washing the eye black off their faces. That can be a bad sign, because locker rooms are supposed to be fun, or at least bearable, places to be.
Before you think people don’t care, understand a lot of guys were said to have just sat at their lockers, not wanting to take off their uniforms or get a shower or do anything that took them closer to stepping outside those doors and into a three-game losing streak after two pretty good weeks of practices.
There are positives and the momentum the defense supplied and can inspire shouldn’t be overlooked. Dana Holgorsen apparently had a lot to do with that and involved himself in ways people have not witnessed before. My guess is he gives the offense the same treatment this week, because it looks like a lot of the trouble, be it the lack of a run game or the fact teams rush three or four and get to the quarterback, has to do with the offensive line, which had a third different starting lineup in as many games.
I’m all about my cake. I’m trying to marry Betty Crocker. A package on the way, you know my text game proper. My edits are in [backets].
Ok. Just took my Dramamine so I can watch this defense. READY TO ROCK
2:39
Grey gold grey is horrendous.
3:03
I’ve never seen a team run to the endzone and pray when they came out of the tunnel. Hmmm
3:06
I hate this uni combo
3:06
What in the hell are we wearing???
3:11
Did Pat Miller just make a stop? No. Can’t be. Must be an illusion!
3:13
My whole section just did an excited standing ovation because our defense got a three-and-out….yeah, just about describes our season there…
3:18
Am I going to need lots of alcohol to get through this…again?
3:25
Omg…wide open! Do we have zero defense IQ???
3:29
I think I saw this game at least twice already….
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