Alas, it's something of a Pitch-and-Catch 22 situation. The Mountaineers wanted to get off the ground and take to the air better. But, offensive coordinator Jeff Mullen said, working on the pass more meant working on the run less.
Ergo, because of less practice time, the once-vaunted rushing attack doesn't go as well.
Maybe that helps to explain how the second-best running quarterback in major-college football history, a Patrick White still 197 yards behind the all-time leader, has a career-high number of passing touchdowns already (15) but a career-low number of rushing touchdowns (4) at the season's three-quarter pole.
Maybe that helps to explain how an offense that ranked no lower than second nationally the previous two seasons now rates 97th of 119 major-college teams in rushing touchdowns with 10 -- a figure that 31 individual rushers have equaled or surpassed.
Maybe that helps to explain how a program aimed for 12-0 and instead hit 6-3.
"We had a plan coming into this year to win them all,"
Mullen said earlier this week, with West Virginia preparing through an off week for Louisville on Saturday in Papa Johns Cardinal Stadium. "To do that, we had to throw the ball. If you're going to put time into the throw game, you're going to lose time in the run game. That's where we've not been as consistent as people are used to here."
That admittedly inconsistent running game failed the Mountaineers on four plays inside the Cincinnati 6-yard line last weekend. Then again, the entire offense failed, as the Mountaineers attempted passes on two more snaps from that close to the end zone, one of which was intercepted and the other perhaps should have been before falling incomplete.
In the end of that heartbreaking, 26-23 loss to Cincinnati on Mountaineer Field, in a game when the home side scored both of its touchdowns by passing over a line-crowding defense, West Virginia didn't even attempt an overtime pass. It went: run, run, run, run for a total of 18 yards, White sack for minus-3, field goal. Cincinnati threw for a touchdown on its possession and won.
Even though White and Noel Devine topped the 100-yard mark in the three previous games, even though the rushing game topped the 200-yard mark in five of the previous six games, these Mountaineers still aren't running as wild as in the previous two falls, when 300-yard games were the average. Instead, they will enter Louisville averaging 214 yards per game on the ground, the program's lowest since the 2003 team finished averaging two yards fewer.
"That's the part that hasn't stayed as consistent as people are used to, and that's probably the biggest difference in what you're seeing: Just a predetermined, premeditated thought to try to have a complete offense,"
Mullen said of the lagging rushing game, which contributes greatly to their bugaboo second-and-long and third-and-short failings. "I'm with [fans, media and observers,] there's not patience for that. We're a 6-3 football team. ... The inconsistency running the ball has hurt us in a couple of games."
"We're going to continue to try to be a balanced offense, give ourselves a chance versus those teams that want to go to [eight men in] the box, and still have an ability to run the ball. That's what we're battling right now. It takes a lot of work."
White stands front and center of something unseen around West Virginia since Marc Bulger's senior year 10 falls ago: The Mountaineers score more by the pass than the run.
Cincinnati players remarked after their victory how an in-pocket White benefits defenses.
"They're doing the same things [offensively], but it's less run than it used to be,"
Bearcats cornerback Mike Mickens said. "And he's most dangerous when he's running. We were glad to see them trying to pass more. It kind of played into our hands a bit."
"It helps the defense when he's in the pocket or rolling out,"
defensive lineman Terrill Byrd added. "Our game plan was to try to keep him in the pocket and attack him. He gets moving [forward], it makes a big difference."
Asked for specifics about failings against Cincinnati, when White and Devine combined for 99 yards on 39 rushes, Mullen said: "Really until [last] weekend, since Colorado, we'd been very consistent and getting better. For a number of reasons, [last] Saturday night, we didn't [play as well]. I'm not here to throw anybody under the bus. Throw me head first. I'll continue to take the blame for it."
