West Virginia vs. Maryland: Game Grades, Analysis for Mountaineers and Terrapins
In a tale of two halves, each team dominated 30 minutes of the game, but it was West Virginia that was able to come up with that one important play needed to secure the 40-37, last-second win in College Park over the Maryland Terrapins.
Quarterback Clint Trickett had a career day, with 511 passing yards and four touchdowns for the Mountaineers. The Terps' C.J. Brown did all he could to keep his team in the game, but it was an anemic offensive performance in the first half that eventually doomed Maryland.
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| Pass Offense | B- | B |
| Run Offense | C | B- |
| Pass Defense | C- | C |
| Run Defense | B- | B |
| Special Teams | A | A |
| Coaching | A | A |
Maryland Pass Offense
C.J. Brown did all he could to keep his team in the game, but despite having one of the Big Ten's most dynamic receivers in Stefon Diggs at his disposal, Brown could only find Diggs five times. All in all, the Maryland passing game had 284 passing yards with two touchdowns (one thrown by backup Caleb Rowe late in the second quarter) and one interception.
The first-half grade for the Terps is understandably poorer than the overall grade, given the lack of production before halftime. Still, Brown and his receivers improved enough in the second half to earn an overall "B."
Maryland Run Offense
In the first half, Maryland totaled just 48 rushing yards. We think a "C" is being generous here.
The second half, however, was headlined by a number of big runs—but all of them came from C.J. Brown, who finished with 161 of Maryland's 163 net rushing yards on the day. We'll go ahead an give Maryland's running offense a "B-" final grade, but we're not too happy about it.
Maryland Pass Defense
There's really no other way to put this: Maryland's pass defense was picked apart all afternoon by Clint Trickett. In the first half alone, Trickett threw for 307 yards. Only a few nice breaks on the ball to swat down potential touchdowns earned the Terps a "C-" in the first half.
By the time the day was over, Trickett had 511 yards and four touchdowns. The Terps did improve slightly in the second half, thanks in large part to the play of William Likely, but we can't do any better than an overall "C" given the total number of yards and points surrendered by the secondary.
Maryland Run Defense
We're not entirely sure if Maryland's run-defense stats look halfway decent because the front seven played that well or because WVU doesn't really need to run the football. Either way, no Mountaineer had over 100 yards on the ground (although Rushel Shell was close with 98), and only one runner had more than 28 total yards on the day.
We're content with an overall "B" after some improvements and big stops in the second half.
Maryland Special Teams
If there was one shining facet to Maryland's game against West Virginia, it had to be the special teams.
Field goals, perfect. Punt returns, perfect (although one of the two touchdowns was called back due to an odd rule that prohibits advancing a punt that was called for a fair catch even if the punting team blows up the receiver before he can field the ball). Kick returns, not half-bad. Punt coverage, great (including a muffed punt recovery deep in WVU territory). A blocked field goal in the second half? No problem.
How can we not give the special teams an "A" for that kind of performance?
Maryland Coaching
Randy Edsall will probably take a little heat from Maryland fans for this loss, but he shouldn't. Despite falling behind 28-6 early in this game, Edsall kept his guys in it and battled back to tie things up in the fourth quarter.
We're happy with the way Edsall and his staff seemed to make adjustments at halftime, and the staff was able to recognize what was and wasn't working with the offense.
It's not often we'll award an "A" in a loss, but we will today.
| Pass Offense | A- | A |
| Run Offense | B+ | B+ |
| Pass Defense | B | B+ |
| Run Defense | A- | A- |
| Special Teams | B | C- |
| Coaching | A | B |
West Virginia Pass Offense
Is there any reason we wouldn't give Clint Trickett and the rest of the West Virginia pass offense an "A+" for the show they put on today?
Sure. There was that ill-advised interception Trickett threw, and a couple of sloppy drops in the second half that led directly to punts.
But 511 yards and four touchdowns is still 511 yards and four touchdowns. So anything less than an "A" would be just plain silly.
West Virginia Run Offense
As we mentioned before, we're not sure if WVU doesn't run the ball because the Mountaineers can't or because they don't need to, but either way, it wasn't about the running backs today.
Still, Rushel Shell had a fine day, with 98 yards and a score. No one else, however, had more than 28 yards on the day.
No bad, but not spectacular, either. Above average, and that means a "B+."
West Virginia Pass Defense
In the first half, the WVU secondary did a good job of covering up the Maryland receivers just long enough to allow the defensive line to get some pressure on C.J. Brown. Nearing halftime, the secondary looked as if it was taking a few plays off, which led to some points for the Terps, but at the time, it didn't seem like too big of an issue.
In the second half, Brown was forced to scramble for his yardage, as the West Virginia coaching staff clearly instilled a "win every play" mentality into the Mountaineers defense.
Holding a receiver like Stefon Diggs to "just" 127 yards and one touchdown is an accomplishment in itself, so we're content to reward the WVU secondary with a "B+" on the day.
West Virginia Run Defense
There's only one reason we're not giving West Virginia's run defense a solid straight "A" in this game: C.J. Brown.
Call it solid pass defense or weakened run defense, but Brown was able to scramble around a lot, and even call his own number enough times to rack up 161 rushing yards. But the rest of the Terps added just a net of two more yards for a team game total of 163.
This "A-" is about as close to an "A" as you can get.
West Virginia Special Teams
As great as Maryland was on special teams, that's about as bad as West Virginia was.
Josh Lambert had one of his two field-goal attempts blocked, a punt was muffed and turned over, punt coverage was horrible...take your pick.
What about the good? Blocking a punt for a safety will bring a smile to a coach's face. Going 5-of-5 on extra points is always good (but expected). A last-second field goal to win the game is also pretty important. Because the good outweighed the bad, we won't flunk the special teams.
But a "C" is still something that should worry WVU fans moving forward.
West Virginia Coaching
It's hard to criticize a head coach for game management down the stretch when his team pulls out the victory. Still, we can't help but scratch our heads at Dana Holgorsen's play-calling and clock management during WVU's last drive of the game.
With under two minutes to go, Holgorsen was calling run plays on the negative side of the field. The clock kept ticking down, and with two timeouts in his pocket, Holgorsen was more interested is making play signals than calling timeout. With only four seconds left, Holgorsen was forced to try a long field goal to win the game instead of conserving time earlier in the drive and getting closer.
Luckily, it worked out, so we'll give the coaching staff a "B."
Unless otherwise noted, quotes or references to quotes were obtained firsthand by the writer.
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