(Football News - Photo Illustration/MetroCreative)

For the second straight game Mountaineer fans were just beginning to relax when suddenly momentum turned and West Virginia had to hang on for a 31-24 win at Cincinnati Saturday. It seems our team can never make things easy for us.

Leading 24-7 late in the third quarter WVU was heading for another score which would have put the game away, but an interception in the end zone thwarted the drive. The Bearcats then quickly struck for an 80 yard touchdown pass and suddenly what looked like an impending blowout became another nailbiting finish.

From the point of the interception through the remainder of the game Cincinnati gained 223 yards while the Mountaineers ran just 7 plays for 5 yards. The final game statistics were similarly striking: 24 first downs for the Bearcats to 10 for West Virginia; 79 Cincinnati plays run for 436 yards to 43 and 248 yards for West Virginia.

But stats don’t always tell the whole story. The Mountaineers stole this one with three turnovers and two defensive scores, aided by two good punt returns on special teams. The 17 offensive points scored by WVU were set up by short fields, with scoring drives beginning at the Cincinnati 37 and 41 and the West Virginia 49.

The Mountaineer offense sputtered for most of the afternoon. Quarterback Nicco Marchiol did make two good long pass completions, but just three plays accounted for nearly half of the WVU offense total yardage. Five times WVU went three and out.

The first effort for new defensive coordinator Jeff Koonz was an overall success.

While surrendering a lot of yardage and giving up the one long score on what appeared to be broken coverage, otherwise the defense made enough plays to enable the Mountaineers to garner the win. In addition to the three turnovers and two defensive TDs, West Virginia had 3 sacks and seven tackles for loss. While one could argue Cincinnati quarterback cost his team the game with two poor decisions that led to the defensive scores, those occurred in part due to pressure brought by the defense.

The Mountaineers now stand 4-2 in the Big 12 Conference, winning all three road games.

They now have an opportunity to finish strong if they can protect their home field.

THIS SATURDAY: Baylor comes to Morgantown off a bye week having won three in a row after a poor start to the season.

The WVU offense will need to get untracked as the Bears have averaged 45 points scored in their last three games. We have found the magic here of picking games consistently wrong, so let’s see if we can keep that jinx going.

BAYLOR 34 WEST VIRGINIA 28.