I usually am over a WVU football loss by the next evening after it happens.

Most times, I'm over it within a few hours, sometimes even after a couple of hours. There have been times, Notably the waning Don Nehlen years, when losses barely affected me at all due to focibly lowered expectations.



There have been definite exceptions to this. The most glaring was on Dec. 1, 2007, when our beloved Rich Rodriguez became the first man in history to get outcoached by Dave Wannstedt in a 13-9 loss to 28-point underdog Pitt, thereby denying WVU a chance to play in the BCS title game. I don't think I'll ever get over that one.

Although it doesn't rival the 2007 Pitt tank job, Saturday night's 41-30 road loss to Auburn is an exception, too. Here it is Monday morning and I'm still mad about it. I would use a more colorful term, but this is a family Web site.

In fact, I'm madder now than I was at the end of the game on Saturday. The more I think about it, the madder I get.





Why is that, you ask? I'll tell you why.

For one thing, a check of the new football polls shows that WVU is not among the teams even receiving votes. I know the cliche is that we shouldn't be preoccupied with rankings early in the season, but it bothers me when I look and see Auburn sitting there just outside the Top 25.

If WVU doesn't (literally) throw the Auburn game away, the Mountaineers would be sitting in the Top 25 right now in both polls, with four very winnable games coming up (Colorado, Syracuse, Marshall, UConn).

That would make it very likely that WVU would be close to the Top 15 if things went according to Hoyle heading into the road trip to South Florida, which has lost star quarterback Matt Grothe for the season.

Frivolous as it may sound, WVU's ranking means something to me.

When I see what could be this year ranking-wise and see Auburn -- a team that the 'Eers were at least two touchdowns better than if they didn't give the Tigers 24 points off turnovers -- ranked way ahead of WVU because WVU handed them the game, well, it makes me mad.

Auburn will not end up in the Top 25 because they likely will lose at least four games this season, maybe more. That should do wonders for WVU's perception among the voters as the season progresses.

Let's take a look at the Auburn game for a moment, shall we.

OFFENSE: WVU lit up the Auburn defense for 509 yards and if you take away just a couple of the turnovers, WVU probably racks up close to 600 yards on offense and easily wins.

The 509 yards is a little misleading. WVU had 209 yards of offense by late in the first quarter, meaning that it got 300 yards the rest of the game.

I didn't see the halftime stats, but I think it's safe to say that the Mountaineers had more than 300 yards total offense by halftime, meaning that it had less than 200 during the second half.

Considering that WVU had a scoring drive early in the third quarter and ran up some other yards before Jarrett Brown started throwing interceptions left and right, it's safe to say that WVU had more than 400 yards of total offense going into the fourth quarter.

Taking away the 30-40 yards WVU got at the end of the game when the outcome was no longer in doubt and freshman Geno Smith was in at quarterback, it becomes apparent that WVU's offense was not that effective at crunch time.

Yes, it can be attributed to the spate of interceptions, but it must be noted that the Auburn defensive line at the end of the game seemed to be dominating the WVU offensive line. Not to make excuses for a couple of Brown's terrible and ill-conceived throws in the fourth quarter, but he was under pressure from the Auburn rush.

Before you say that the Auburn defense knew WVU had to throw and pinned its ear back and threw everything it had at getting to Brown, note this: Brown was being harried by the Auburn rush when WVU was ahead 30-27 in the fourth quarter and he threw the first of his critical interceptions to a Tiger defensive lineman deep in Mountaineer territory. That led to Auburn talking a 34-30 lead.

The same thing happened when Brown threw the second interception to a D lineman, one that got run back for a touchdown and a 41-30 Auburn lead.

The point is that in both of those instances, WVU still had time to run the ball, which should have kept the Auburn defense a little honest with their pass rush. However, the 'Eers were beginning to have trouble running the ball as well, or at least seemed to believe that they were having trouble running the ball because they had stopped handing it off to Noel Devine.

JARRETT BROWN: What can you say? Brown played a great game if it wasn't for his five turnovers, which is a little like asking Mary Todd Lincoln how the play was the night Abe got shot.

Brown is a marveously talented athlete with NFL-caliber ability. However, we must call attention to the fact that he has seven turnovers in the past two games. This puts him on pace for 28 turnovers on the season.

I don't think Brown will accomplish that dubious distinction. I do think that if he doesn't curb his propensity for big mistakes based on bad decisions, WVU will underachive this year.

Without a steady Brown at the helm, WVU will not beat beat Cincinnati or Pitt and might lose another game or two along the way.

NOEL DEVINE: Why did this guy get the ball only six times in the second half? I know Brown tried two other times to get him the ball when he threw the two devastating interceptions, but why not hand him the ball more?

A case in point is when WVU held Auburn on fourth down and got the ball back at its own 36 with less than 8 minutes to go in the fourth quarter and ahead 30-27. I don't claim to be an offensive coordinator, but isn't that a time to at least try to run the ball? Devine was having a pretty good night and he can break a big run at any given time. If you think you need tough yards, maybe you can give the ball to Ryan Clarke, who has shown the ability to move the pile. Just asking.

WES LYONS: Sorry to say this, but I'm beginning to lose faith that he ever will distinguish himself as a WVU receiver. To this point -- his senior year -- Lyons has been a disappointment.

He has garnered attention mainly for things such as running a wrong route, like it appears he did during Brown's second interception Saturday -- which killed a WVU scoring chance after it got its only turnover of the game on a Ovid Goulbourne interception deep in Auburn territory and WVU ahead 21-10.

Then there was last year's Pitt loss, when Lyons ran for a few extra yards instead of out of bounds and got tackled in bounds in the final seconds of the game. It kept the clock running and hurt a potential game-winning drive for WVU, which had no timeouts left. There have been other annoyances, but you get the drift.

For at least a couple of spring and fall practices, we have heard about how Lyons is ready to step up into a pivotal role. So far, he has not come through.

DEFENSE: The rush defense played well overall -- give it an A. The pass defense did not play so well overall -- give it a C.

Rush defense: It pretty much shut down the vaunted Auburn running game. Ben Tate is a load and got some yards, but he was held in check for the most part. Onterrio McCalleb was a non-factor.

Pass defense: Auburn threw for 300 yards against WVU, which kept them in the game until WVU's miscues put them over the top. The Mountaineer cornerbacks did not have great games, especially Brandon Hogan, who Auburn seemed to pick on.

It was Hogan who gave up the go-ahead touchdown at 3rd and 8, face-guarding the receiver who caught the ball over him in the back corner of the end zone. A stop there would have forced Auburn to attempt a game-tying field goal.

Don't even get me started on the 82-yard touchdown swing pass that tied the game up at 27-27. Mario Fannin ran by four guys who barely laid a hand on him.

OVERALL VIEW: This game ranks right up there with other memorable games in which WVU has snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Whatever happens during the rest of the season, good or bad, WVU fans will shake their heads over this game and wonder, what if?

WVU did what it had to do to win, then did more than it had to do to lose. It's probably a good thing that everyone has 12 days to get over it.

Maybe WVU can right things and start a run with the Colorado game. Colorado is struggling and WVU should take this game at home.

One thing is for sure: WVU cannot lose the Colorado game and hope to have the type of year that coaches, players and fans anticipated before the season began. By then, I may be over this -- maybe.