Not ‘Neerly enough

MORGANTOWN—By halftime, the Moutaineer's gun was still loaded, the "Let's Go Mountaineers" chant was faint and the West Virginia student section was "Gold Rush-ing" to the exits.

Marshall had delivered the first blow — knocking WVU quarterback Jarrett Brown out of the game with a concussion — the first score — a Brian Anderson 12-yard touchdown run — and the first realistic scare into its Friends of Coal Bowl rivals since 2007.

But then the Herd came thundering down — slowly but surely.

Marshall saw a 7-3 halftime lead evaporate into the Morgantown sky, falling 24-7 to WVU on Saturday before 54,432 rain-soaked fans at Milan Puskar Stadium.

"We knew it was going to be a challenge of second half teams," Marshall head coach Mark Snyder said. "The two teams in this state have come out in the second half in almost all of our games and played really well.

"The third quarter was all about field position. They dominated the field position. We were punting to the 50 each time."

"Kase" in point came on the Herd's first second half possession. After a Darius Marshall run and two Anderson incompletion produced just one yard, Marshall trotted out Kase Whitehead to punt the ball and momentum back to the Mountaineers.

The ball only sailed 29 yards to the MU 46-yard line, where WVU's Jock Sanders made a fair catch.

Seven plays later, the Mountaineers were back to being kings of the Mountain State.

Junior running back Noel Devine, who was held in check in the first half, raced around the left side for a 14-yard touchdown run to put WVU up 10-7 less than five minutes into the third quarter.

But Marshall had a chance to never allow Devine that opportunity.

One play before the nation's third leading rusher found the end zone for the first of his two scores, he and his offense went with a risky call that changed the game.

On a 4th-and-10 from the MU 27, WVU coach Bill Stewart called for his team to go for it.

Even with a freshman quarterback.

Even against a Marshall defense that had stymied the Mountaineers all day.

Good call.

Geno Smith, playing his first extended collegiate action, patiently sat in the pocket until he found Sanders for 13 yards.

"That was huge," Snyder said. "(Smith) took all his reads to the fifth guy out there and made a good throw under duress."

Up until that point, it wasn't just Smith who was being outplayed by the Herd — it was the entire Mountaineer team.

In the game's opening 30 minutes, Marshall had the ball for 19:21, forced two turnovers and held Devine to just 26 yards.

On the flip side, WVU had made only two first downs, was 0-for-6 on third downs and had committed three penalties for 30 yards.

Yet, the scoreboard read: Marshall 7, West Virginia 3.

"We had chances that we had to capitalize on and we didn't," senior tight end Cody Slate said.

Already leading 7-0, thanks in large part to a WVU 15-yard facemask penalty extending a 16-play, 64-yard scoring drive, Marshall got a grand opportunity to extend it early in the second quarter after Sanders fumbled on a punt return at his own 43.

Senior longsnapper Sean McClellan forced the ball loose and John Jacobs recovered it and took it 18 yards down the near sideline before Sanders tripped him up.

Three plays later, Marshall gave it right back.

D. Marshall, who struggled to find open space all day, took a hand-off and tried to pound the interior of the Mountaineer defense. His push for extra yardage resulted in WVU defensive tackle Julian Miller ripping the ball out of his hands and into the cradle of the Mounties' Brandon Hogan.

D. Marshall was seven yards short of giving his team a 14-0 lead.

"They're backs would have been against the wall," Herd junior tight end Lee Smith said of the impact a Marshall touchdown on that drive would have had on WVU. "And then they would have had to try to do things outside their comfort zone. And our defense was playing so well.

"If we would have go up 14-0, I think our defense would have been able to beat up on them pretty bad."

Major missed chance No. 2 came on the Herd's next possession. After a 25-yard pitch and catch from Anderson to Antavious Wilson turned a 3th-and-27 from deep in its own territory into a 4th-and-2 from around midfield, Marshall tried to get clever.

Lined up in the punt formation, Whitehead took the long snap and gradually rolled to his right until he tried to cut upfield for the first down marker.

He came up half-a-ball short.

"If the punter stays outside he's still running," Snyder said. "He tried to cut it up in the teeth of their defense and we got stopped."

Getting stuffed was the theme of the day for Marshall when it had the ball.

For the first time all season, D. Marshall met his match defensively. All-Big East linebacker Reed Williams routinely beat the Herd's star tailback to the line of scrimmage, totaling eight tackles and playing a major role in D. Marshall gaining just 82 yards on 25 carries.

Williams' stop of D. Marshall for a one-yard loss late in the second quarter jumpstarted a Marshall drive that ended with another Herd mishap. This time it was a Hogan interception, which was returned to the Marshall 35.

A couple of runs, a pass and a field goal later and the Mountaineers were finally on the board with 44 seconds remaining in the first half.

"It was a good football game, two good teams going at it," Snyder said about his feelings going into the locker room. "The key was which team was going to come out in the second half and play better and it was them."

Well, a little them — and some Marshall.

Ten minutes after Devine's go-ahead touchdown, the Herd come roaring back with, what seemed like, a go-ahead drive.