Will Baylor Get Their First Win in Morgantown? Phil Steele Shares His Prediction

College football expert Phil Steele breaks down the matchup between West Virginia and Baylor.

West Virginia University linebacker Trey Lathan / Christopher Hall - West Virginia on SI

The West Virginia Mountaineers are back at home for the first time in a month and are hoping to put a much better product on the field than they did the last two times when the offense looked flat, leading to a pair of losses to Iowa State and Kansas State.

Fortunately for Neal Brown and Co., the Baylor Bears have struggled mightily on the defensive side of the ball in league play, even throughout their current three-game winning streak. When you couple that with the pass coverage difficulties West Virginia has, it gives you the feel of the first-ever matchup between these two in 2012 when WVU won a 70-63 shootout.

Okay, maybe I'm going a little over the top there, but my point is points will be scored in this game, and a bunch of them.

As we do every Friday morning on the In the Gun Podcast, we asked college football expert Phil Steele for his thoughts on this matchup. You can watch the full episode at the top of this page.

The skinny on Baylor

“This Baylor team has looked great since Sawyer Robertson took over at QB. They’ve got Bryson Washington, Dawson Pendergrass running well. Robertson adds to the run game, very dangerous on the ground. And I think Robertson when you look passing-wise, a nice 17-4 ratio, that’s pretty dangerous.

WVU building momentum

"I think West Virginia is going to benefit from last week’s win, give them a little bit of momentum and now you’re back at home. They need to play well at home. The Kansas State loss, the Iowa State loss, I know fans weren’t too happy about that.

Breakdown of the game + prediction

"But I look at the two team’s defenses and I’m surprised because Dave Aranda is a defensive genius, but maybe just doesn’t have the players this year. Last four weeks, they’re allowing 469 yards per game and a 68% completion percentage.

“I like the matchup. West Virginia’s run defense has been solid all year. The weakness has been the pass defense, the secondary. And while Baylor has got a capable quarterback, I think West Virginia can slow down Baylor.”

"I think these two teams are pretty close. I would have had West Virginia favored by three. I’m surprised they’re three-point home dogs. I like West Virginia to pull the upset and get the win at home. I’m going to go with West Virginia here.”

Phil has been a big believer in the Mountaineers all year, even through their struggles earlier on. Prior to the Arizona game, he told us that West Virginia is "very capable" of finishing the season strong. They've won both games since.

West Virginia and Baylor is set for a 4 p.m. EST kickoff with the action being televised on ESPN2.

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