West Virginia allows 49 and DOESN'T win

West Virginia allows 49 and DOESN'T win

Texas Tech scored 49 against a #5 team. That would be a story about some brilliant offensive production if the #5 team in question were anyone but West Virginia. Everyone scores 49 against them. The last two teams they played averaged 54, but WVU won both games.

No, today's story was about the Red Raiders' defense. Texas Tech made mincemeat out of WVU's vaunted passing attack, holding Heisman candidate Geno Smith to a meager five yards per attempt, and only a single passing TD. He came into the game with a passing percentage above 80%, but barely completed 50% today (29 out of 55).

Sorry, WVU fans, but you can't win a national title with no defense at all. You can't expect the offense to keep scoring on every possession. Eventually the day will come when your offense is a bit off, or the other team's defense is too well prepared, or both. Today was that day.

The only silver lining in WVU's 49-14 cloud was that Geno threw 55 more passes without an interception. That makes 259 pick-free attempts this year.