West Virginia vs LSU Football Recap

LSU 47, West Virginia 21

West Virginia showed flashes of brilliance Saturday night, but mere bursts of excellence aren’t enough to take down the LSU Tigers. Not even close. Sustained greatness is what’s needed to derail a team that appears to have the resilience, depth, and the uncanny sense of timing that all feed into a national championship season.

In the biggest showcase of West Virginia football and the Morgantown experience in decades, the Mountaineers played mostly toe to toe with the favored LSU Tigers before their mistakes took their toll and allowed LSU to run away to a 47-21 win. The score doesn't reflect just how close this game was for much of the contest. West Virginia sputtered and turned the ball over multiple times but began to get its rhythm in the third quarter. Quarterback Geno Smith hit receiver Tavon Austin for a 72 yard pass that put the Mountaineers in scoring position, and they promptly hit paydirt just moments later. The score cut what had once been a 27-7 LSU lead to just 27-21, and Milan Puskar Stadium was as loud as it has ever been. The euphoria lasted but a moment, though, because LSU has quickly developed a knack for making the right plays at the right times in 2011. Tiger speed merchant Morris Claiborne returned the ensuing kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown and the game was effectively over even though the third quarter hadn’t even ended. The Tigers tacked on two more touchdowns against the clearly deflated Mountaineers to extend the lead and win in a blowout fashion. West Virginia had done a lot of hard climbing to trim that 27-7 deficit to just six points; when Claiborne galloped into the end zone on that defining kickoff return, even a group of sturdy Mountaineers found it hard to do any more climbing on Saturday night.

West Virginia will look back on this game see that for the first time in years, its defense and special teams hurt it down the stretch. After fielding one of the nation's best defenses on an annual basis, the Mountaineers’ poor tackling and poor angles allowed for the kickoff return touchdown that broke the game open, and allowed a physical LSU offensive line to keep the ball on the ground and continually grind out first downs on the ground to seal the victory. New coach Dana Holgorsen's offense put up 533 yards of total offense, the most LSU has allowed since 2005. However, special teams miscues and four turnovers put the offense in catch-up mode early on, and it was never able to recover. LSU got another competent game from Jarrett Lee, who threw for three touchdowns and again did not turn the ball over. As long as the Tigers get airtight performances from their quarterback, they have the athletes at every other position on the field to impose their will on opponents.

Such was the case on Saturday night.

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By: Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer