West Virginia Football: Ford Childress Shines but Offense Needs to Develop

West Virginia finally had something resembling an offense in Saturday's 41-7 win over Georgia State.

Granted, the Panthers are bad. Not bad. Bad. 

But after scoring just seven points in a loss to Oklahoma in Week 2, prompting head coach Dana Holgorsen to shake up some things offensively, the Mountaineers came out and ultimately did what they were supposed to against an inferior opponent (and what they should have done in Week 1 against William & Mary). 

The score and the 604 yards WVU put up are a bit deceiving. This was a 20-7 game heading into the fourth quarter, and there were a few drives where the Mountaineers moved the ball well enough but failed to come away with points. Twenty one fourth-quarter points is what put this game away for good. 

Young receivers, namely Kevin White, had some unfortunate drops and offensive line concerns still linger. Those are areas WVU simply has to sharpen up if it's going to avoid the lulls it's been prone to having this season.  

But it certainly wasn't all discouraging. Redshirt freshman Ford Childress threw for 359 yards and three touchdowns in his first career start. How he'll look against Maryland next week remains to be seen, but he should have plenty of confidence against the Terps after a solid debut. 

Holgorsen opted to go with Childress over Paul Millard and Clint Trickett this week because of how he practiced. Of the three, Childress undoubtedly has the most upside. If the passing game can continue to develop, there's hope for this WVU team yet. 

The running backs, who had 260 yards on the ground before a pair of Childress sacks, also allowed Holgorsen to call a balanced game and were able to run the ball when needed in the fourth quarter. 

It was certainly the best offensive effort WVU has put together all year. Now, it just has to go out and do it again against a team with a check mark in the win column.