Halftime Update

Syracuse 21, West Virginia 9

Syracuse continued to engineer long drives and dominate West Virginia in time of possession. The WVU defense had no answer for the Orange in the first half, as Syracuse picked up three or more yards on nearly every play. But if Syracuse's offense is a poisonous molasses, then West Virginia's is a quick striking dagger. With a blitz coming in quickly, Geno connected with Stedman Bailey on a 64 catch and run that led to the first Mountaineer touchdown of the night.

However, WVU's special teams problems resurfaced in horrific fashion.  Bitancurt missed his first extra point of the season, banking it off the left upright. Then, deja vu: WVU gave up another huge kickoff return for a touchdown, putting the Mountaineers in an 12-point hole. Special teams has had problems on kickoffs and punt returns all year, and it looks like that trend will continue after a promising performance against Connecticut.

The Mountaineer defense finally came up with a three-and-out with about three minutes left in the half. The offense was able to come up with another big pass play to get within striking distance. However, Geno Smith was picked off along the goal line on third down.

One word to describe West Virginia tonight is "frustrated". Every aspect of the team has played off-kilter. It looks like the Mountaineers will have to rely on another big second half, but the pressure is really on the defense to get the Orange off the field. That starts with slowing down the run game, which is chewing up big chunks on every play.  On offense, look for some counter-plays and screen passes against the blitz happy defense to take some pressure off of Smith. But with the poor play all around for West Virginia, the difference on the scoreboard is the breakdown on special teams.