--West Virginia for the second time this season had an opportunity to make some noise with a game at home and for the second time in as many tries simply didn't get it done and fell on their face. The Mountaineers have now lost six straight to ranked teams and for the most part really haven't been able to make them interesting. The team now sits at 3-3 overall, which is convenient because that's essentially what West Virginia has been for the last six years is right around .500. Things started off great with a beautiful 75-yard drive that ate up a lot of clock but managed only three points the rest of the way until a late drive with the Cyclones up 18-points. For whatever reason, this team has found ways to make it hard on themselves and never was that more apparent than when Rodney Gallagher had the ball knocked loose after it was initial ruled a catch on third down but the Mountaineers took forever at the line. From there, it was reviewed and declared incomplete and Michael Hayes missed a 36-yard field goal to keep it 7-0 instead of potentially being 14-0 or at worst 10-0. The Cyclones would score a touchdown just three plays later and all that momentum was gone. It's sequences exactly in that mold that have continued to happen to this team and you just can't expect to be at good teams like that.
--West Virginia is now 3-16 against AP Top 25 teams. That isn't going to cut it, but it's even worse that many of them haven't even been competitive of late.
--Both teams were at 5.5 yards per play, 71-64 total plays. 148 to 129 rushing yards in favor of West Virginia, 265, 206 passing yards in favor of Iowa State. 394-354 total yards edge to Iowa State but the Cyclones had 28 points and it was because they capitalized on mistakes and finished drives. The Mountaineers didn't.
--The defense allowed 28 points and 394 yards, but outside of that bust where nobody switched off on the wide receiver and he went untouched for 60-yards in the second quarter, I thought it was a pretty solid effort overall out of this group. The turnovers in the second half by the offense were back breaking and they did struggle to get off the field on third down with the Cyclones going 9-13 but they for the most part limited big plays and they tackled well. It was far from perfect but I thought they gave them a chance to win. The holding call that was thrown late after the ball was thrown out of the back of the end zone was really bad in my opinion but this group did enough to give the offense a chance.
--Josiah Trotter has continued to play well with 12 tackles. But the defensive backs struggled at times with only one breakup. Although the unit did record a pair of sacks.
--The offense looked out of sync for most of the night and it started with the simple exchanges with the center. Brandon Yates had what seemed like eight or nine high snaps that completely threw the entire rhythm off the play and while a few ended up good for the Mountaineers, it often led to negative plays. Senior quarterback Garrett Greene was just 18-3 with one touchdown and 2 picks, although some of that yardage was racked up at the end of the game. It just seemed that almost everything was a struggle against this defense and when they'd move the ball something bad would offset it with a turnover or a loss of yardage. This just wasn't a good performance on the offensive side of the ball but they did win on third down going 9-13 there.
--West Virginia had 148 rushing yards and averaged 4.6 per carry, but Iowa State did a good job tackling to limit those big splash runs. There were several instances where West Virginia could have ripped off a big chunk of yards if they forced one more missed tackle but they couldn't do it. Greene led the rushers with 87 yards including a 28-yard run on one of those bad snaps. The running backs had only 21 carries 63 yards so that isn't going to cut it.
--Turnovers were always going to be big in this game and Iowa State turned both of the West Virginia mistakes into 14-points. The one looked to be a miscue between senior quarterback Garrett Greene and Kole Taylor, but the second one was just inexcusable in that situation. That second pick basically sucked the life out of this game.
--The missed field goal looms but West Virginia played well other than that on special teams not allowing any punt return yardage and pinning them inside top on both punts. The Mountaineers also had a 33-yard kick return and allowed just one 22-yard return.
--Kole Taylor led the receivers with 5 catches for 55 yards and had some nice plays in this game. But overall, the passing game was just very inconsistent.
--The Mountaineers are now 3-3 with Kansas State, another ranked team coming to town. Can the Mountaineers get over the hump and win one of these games at home? It hasn't happened in almost three years when the Mountaineers beat Iowa State at home, but here we sit in year six with a team that was expected to be one of the best under Brown and it's still right at .500 with some nice moments but a lack of quality wins.
