WVU Football: Mountaineers Defense Is the Key to Upset over LSU
This weekend will be the most exciting yet in the world of college football this season. Four of the featured games will be matchups between Top 25 teams.
This Saturday, at 8:00 p.m. EST on ABC, the No. 2 ranked LSU Tigers travel to Morgantown, West Virginia to take on the No.16 ranked West Virginia Mountaineers.
The game will feature one of the best passing offenses in the nation led by Geno Smith of West Virginia.
Through just three weeks, Smith has already thrown for 1,008 yards and seven touchdowns.
Much of the new passing success is due to the addition of head coach Dana Holgorsen this season. Holgorsen was the offensive coordinator at Oklahoma State for the record breaking season last year.
Much of the talk all week has been about the matchup between this high flying offense against the stout LSU defense.
Defensive coordinator John Chavis of LSU is one of the best coaches in the nation on the defensive side of the ball.
So far this year, the Tigers have faced two top 25 opponents. One of those opponents was the No. 1 offense from a year ago in Oregon.
Through three weeks, the Tigers have allowed only 12.0 points per game.
Obviously, this has been the focus of everybody's attention heading into the Week 4 game.
However, it won't be the deciding factor come Saturday evening.
Typically, when one team is really good on offense and the other team is really good on defense, it results in a stalemate of sorts.
The real matchup that everybody should be looking at is LSU's offense against West Virginia's defense. It will likely be the deciding factor in the game.
LSU has not had amazing offensive success so far this season. They are averaging 36.0 points per game, but much of that has come off turnovers and great defensive play.
The Tigers are currently ranked 92nd in passing and 58th in rushing offense. This is a team that relies heavily on their defense. This week, they won't be able to do that. LSU will need to establish an offensive attack.
West Virginia is obviously known for their explosive offense, but the defense hasn't been terrible this year. They are allowing just 18.7 points per game so far this year.
That's not fantastic, but it's not bad either. It should surely be enough to hold Jarrett Lee and the LSU offense in check.
Geno Smith facing off against the LSU defense is definitely the more intriguing story. It will probably be more fun to watch.
However, it's not going to be the deciding factor. If the Mountaineers can pull off an upset this Saturday, it's going to come thanks to the play of the defense.
