MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- The tease that is this 2004 West Virginia football season continued in character Thursday night.
The Mountaineers are given to alternating between impressive and not-so-impressive play within the same game, the same quarter, even the same series.
It began last night with West Virginia's first possession, a snappy advance of 60 yards to a first down at the Syracuse 15-yard line. From there, a Kay-Jay Harris run gained zip, then two Rasheed Marshall keepers netted a total of three.
Brad Cooper salvaged a 29-yard field goal from the situation. It was a lead, but somehow not a wholly satisfying one.
That lead had swelled to a more satisfying 17 points by halftime, based both on Syracuse ineptitude and flashes of WVU brilliance.
The final score read West Virginia 27, Syracuse 6.
The Mountaineers are 6-1. They lead the Big East at 2-0. Also true is that they have yet to play an entire game at a high level.
"There was a stretch," said WVU coach Rich Rodriguez of this win, "that I saw signs of the 'A' game."
But, he added, "I just still have seen better play in practice, it's crazy, than I've seen in the games. I'm optimistic that we can still play better, for sure."
The question becomes whether that should be discouraging or encouraging.
Certainly, it's discouraging that a subpar effort at Virginia Tech cost the Mountaineers their unbeaten record and top-10 ranking. It's discouraging that the big goal of contending for a national title is gone.
It is encouraging that West Virginia has the potential to be better, much better.
The extremes of West Virginia's performance were evident on back-to-back plays in the second quarter last night.
On the first, wide receiver Chris Henry was tagged with a holding call that negated an apparent 24-yard touchdown run by Marshall.
On the next, Marshall found Henry for a 25-yard touchdown pass that the two talents made look ridiculously easy.
Marshall and Henry had nearly hooked up on a 42-yard touchdown pass on the previous possession. They got this second chance so quickly because Syracuse return man Marcus Clayton had muffed a punt, and West Virginia recovered at the Syracuse 20.
The Orange players were nothing if not accommodating, especially in the first half when they fumbled four times and lost one, had a field goal and punt blocked, and missed two other field-goal attempts.
West Virginia, the Big East leader in penalty yardage, helped keep it close by getting tagged for 45 yards on six first-half penalties, including a sprinkling of false-start calls.
Syracuse had come to Mountaineer Field looking for undisputed possession of the Big East lead. The Orange left at 3-4 overall, 1-1 in the conference, and looking more like the team that had begun the season losing 51-0 to Purdue, than the one that had lost 17-13 to Florida State in its most recent game.
By way of partial explanation, Syracuse played without star running back Walter Reyes, who was ill. In view of that, and the sloppy play of the Orange, this one arguably should have been even easier for West Virginia.
The mantra of a win is a win is a win could be invoked, and not for the first time this season regarding a WVU victory.
Rutgers, Temple, Boston College and Pitt remain on the Mountaineers' schedule, and WVU probably could win all of them playing exactly as it has.
That would give West Virginia the conference championship and land the Mountaineers in a BCS bowl game. There, more of this inconsistent play likely would prove to be a losing proposition.
