WVU Out To Prevent Shootout Against Baylor - WVU Football, WVU Basketball, News - Mountaineer Sports

Many people around the country expect West Virginia's Big 12 opener against Baylor to be a shootout between two very high scoring offenses. Las Vegas agrees putting the over/under on this game at roughly 81 points.

WVU defenders take a little offense at the notion their defense will give up that many points.

"As a defense, we always do best being overlooked," Linebacker Doug Rigg said. "In the past, Clemson and West Virginia was supposed to be a shootout and it was supposed to be the offenses dominating and in the end it was us maintaining. We are trying to come out and show these Big 12 offenses that we can play with them and we're not going to try and give up 40 points per game."

"That is how a lot of Big 12 games go, that it is a shootout," Defensive Back Pat Miller said. "But we talked as a defense today that we want to be the team that does not allow the shootout. We want to force turnovers and get our offense back on the field."

How does Baylor go about scoring so many points per game, 51 points on average to be exact? Baylor runs a fast-paced offense similar to what WVU does with tempo. Baylor also stretches the field and tries to take advantage of holes in the defense.

"Baylor spreads the field out wide," Miller stated. "They have receivers lining up outside the numbers and they have slot receivers lining up outside the hash marks. They try to use the whole field and get matchups in their favor."

The WVU defense faced just 68 plays a week ago against Maryland. That number pales in comparison to the 101 it faced against Marshall in the season opener. Baylor has averaged nearly 80 plays per game, but will likely run at least 90 on Saturday against West Virginia given its up-tempo style of play as well.

"You can tell practice kicked up to a higher intensity," Rigg stated. "I think playing 101 plays against Marshall in that humidity really helped us a lot. If we only played 65 plays a game so far, I would have been really concerned.  But playing 101 plays in the first game really helped.."

"It helped," Safety Terence Garvin said. "We got to run around and see what it was like to be out there longer. We have been out there for 100 plays and we have been out there for 50 to 60 plays."

Regardless of the exact number of plays the WVU defense faces on Saturday, the team will not go down without a fight. It anticipates a struggle, but don't call it a shootout.