-- Brown admits that it was a bad weather day, but he gives credit to the fans who stayed and were invested in the game, they were loud and the crowd made a difference. Brown feels bad for the Texas Tech quarterback Tyler Shough and Tech was picked high in the Big 12 polls. Had a three-gane home stretch and they won. They knew they needed to win home games to have a good season. He thinks Nicco Marchiol did good things, the first interception was on him but the second one was a dart that bounced off the receivers chest. The defense played well and they need to be better on offense around Nicco. they know what good defense looks like and he knew they could. Brown was proud of their defensive group and how they played. WVU is a tough football team and a win is a win, no matter if it's pretty. It should have been 20-3, or 27-3 at halftime but there were some missed opportunities. Punt return for Preston Fox was big tonight and they were blocked well.
-- The defense didn't want to give up shot plays and Texas Tech noticed the light defense in the tackle box on some plays. Tahj Brooks is a great player in this league and doesn't get talked about enough. Wanted to make them work for every yard.
-- The defensive performance. was a complete reversal of what happened last year in Lubbock. Prideful in the defensive group and the coaching staff. They're playing schematically better and they bounced back. The offensive line gave them a chance to run the ball some.
-- Brown says he believes in the coaching staff because of who they are and what they've been through together. they feel like they corrected stuff on defense from last year that helped them improve. The front and coverage structure needed to be started from scratch and they have gotten better. They covered well and covered people today better. Some frustration on offense came on missed opportunities, like the miss on a wide open Hudson Clement down the field that should have been a touchdown. There were a lot of missed opportunities in the second quarter and Brown was frustrated that the game wasn't further away at halftime and that the offense gave Texas Tech opportunities.
-- Last year's game was different because they weren't having any success compared to a lot of success today on offense. WVU on defense in the second changed from a "match" coverage that they were running which was a zone-man mix to some true man coverage or zone coverage. Going away from that match coverage took less communication and put more eyes on the quarterback according to Brown so that's what was different on defense in the second half.
-- They need to sure up blocking on screens and they need to be better in the pass game. They threw for a 100 yards but there was much more yardage available there. The blame wasn't on Nicco in the pass game today. Nicco was really confident but he made a really bad play on that interception and the guy wasn't open, but Brown told him he needed to move on. Brown thought Marchiol did a good job. Garrett Greene worked hard to play this week, but he would have only played in emergency if Nicco Marchiol was hurt and if was needed he would have been ready. His mobility and his ability would have been different if he played. Brown thinks Marchiol did some really good things running the ball as well. He had two big runs in the game and Brown thought if he could have picked up his knees and really just took off on some of those QB draw plays he could have got more yardage.
-- Brown was concerned for tight end Kole Taylor after his awkward catch and Taylor came back and made up for his drop and the injury with a touchdown.
-- Oliver Straw played a really good game tonight and the coverage team did a good job on covering punts tonight.
westvirginia.rivals.com
