--First of all, nothing is more important than the health of freshman running back CJ Donaldson. That was a very scary situation and it’s the ones that don’t look scary at first that cause the most concern. Just an awful thing all around and my thoughts are with him and hope everything ends up fine.
--There are no excuses for what unfolded on the field tonight. West Virginia simply didn’t show up for this game and that has been a recurring theme this season in two of the three losses. The Mountaineers didn’t seem to be mentally in the game with dropped passes, penalties, missed tackles, missed assignments, mistakes and everything else that could possibly happen and that falls squarely at the feet of the coaching staff. Listen, Texas is one of the two most talented teams in this league on paper and they’re difficult to beat when they play motivated as they did tonight, but the Mountaineers never even gave themselves a chance and was down 28-0 before they could really even settle into this one. Nothing went right in this one as the defense showed no resistance at all with players running free in the secondary and even when they did have things covered it still didn’t go right with catches on tipped passes and the lot. As I mentioned above, this was a game of two teams that needed to find a win in this league and one of them played like it and it certainly wasn’t West Virginia. Nobody should have walked away from the Virginia Tech game believing that they had arrived by beating the Hokies, but this type of follow up on the road is about the worst thing that could have happened. The Mountaineers have had too many of these type of performances of late and that is troubling to say the least in year four. You’re not always going to have the best team, but when you can’t even provide some fight to start and dig yourself that deep of a hole it’s almost impossible to dig your way out of it.
--No, bounces didn’t go this team’s way in some areas like the tipped pass for a touchdown and the onside kick but you have to make plays and this team simply hasn’t done it more often than not. The onside kick situation on near perfect execution on the kick basically sums up this game.
--After West Virginia controlled the game up front against Virginia Tech, the Longhorns dominated the Mountaineers using only four guys. This was the worst performance of the season for the offensive line and Texas was all over the field swarming and creating issues. The Mountaineers had touchdown drives of 65 and 75 yards when the game was already decided but managed just 199 yards on the other seven drives combined. That just isn’t going to cut it and the inability to establish a run game played a significant role in that as the Longhorns could get the Mountaineers in predictable situations. The Mountaineers averaged 3.9 yards on first down compared to 8.9 for Texas. The Mountaineers gave up three sacks and seven tackles for loss and really just struggled to get anything going consistently.
--West Virginia had one run over 10+ yards in the entire game. One! It was a 14-yarder by Justin Johnson, who was by far the best back on the field tonight. But that just isn’t going to cut it. For the game, the offense finished with 61 yards total rushing and only 2 yards per carry. At one time in the second quarter, they had 6 rushing yards and 4 punts.
--The 61 yards rushing is the 14th time under Neal Brown that West Virginia has rushed for 61 yards or fewer. They did that 11 times from 2000-2018.
--When West Virginia could make it manageable they had success going 5-8 on third and shorts. But anything outside of that was essentially a drive killer.
--This wasn’t the best game for JT Daniels but he didn’t get a lot of help either. He was 29-48 for 253 yards and a touchdown, but the Mountaineers couldn’t establish a run game and he had at least six dropped passes that I counted, perhaps more. I think he made a bad decision by not running the football on the fourth down stop, but he continued to stand in the pocket with a lot of action around him. He’s certainly a massive upgrade at the position over the past couple years, but he’s got to have help.
--Call me crazy, but it felt like momentum of this game completely flipped once West Virginia was stopped on fourth down in the first quarter. No, I'm not suggesting they win the game or anything but it just felt that it gave Texas the spark they needed to throttle them. After that play, Texas seemed to get energized and had all of it while the Mountaineers were just deflated. It was the exact opposite of what happened last week in Blacksburg and while we’d never know what would have happened had JT Daniels took off for the first down instead of throwing it, we certainly know what unfolded when it did.
--Texas had 10 passing plays of over 15+ yards for 264 yards and had Hudson Card been more accurate it could have been a lot more. This secondary just let guys run wide open at times and there was complete confusion in others. I had received a lot of positive intel on the secondary in the off-season from those within the program and I understand they are playing without their best cover corner but that was just flat out wrong. This group has a long way to go, but it was nice to see the young players get some burn. I think Texas could have scored a lot more points in this one if they really wanted to, which is alarming.
--It’s not that West Virginia was penalized a lot in this game but all four were oof. A false start to open the game, a pass interference to set the Longhorns up at the 2, a facemask to give a first down on what would have been 3rd and 18 and a late hit on another long situation.
--It was encouraging to see Brown go to Preston Fox as a returner. He looked sure handed on the limited times that Texas did have to punt. On the flip side, why was Jeremiah Aaron trying to return some of those kicks and didn’t even clear the 20? The kick return continues to be perplexing.
--Facemask aside, I thought Jordan Jefferson, Dante Stills and the rest of the defensive line played hard.
--Now, we get a full week to stew over this one as the Mountaineers will head on bye. This team has some real soul searching to do with a golden opportunity at home against a good Baylor team. West Virginia responded the last time it was in this situation, albeit against a much worse Virginia Tech team, but it was on the road. Now, it’s at home under the lights and if this team has any fight they will show up and play a much better football game than the one we saw tonight. We’ll see.
--There are no excuses for what unfolded on the field tonight. West Virginia simply didn’t show up for this game and that has been a recurring theme this season in two of the three losses. The Mountaineers didn’t seem to be mentally in the game with dropped passes, penalties, missed tackles, missed assignments, mistakes and everything else that could possibly happen and that falls squarely at the feet of the coaching staff. Listen, Texas is one of the two most talented teams in this league on paper and they’re difficult to beat when they play motivated as they did tonight, but the Mountaineers never even gave themselves a chance and was down 28-0 before they could really even settle into this one. Nothing went right in this one as the defense showed no resistance at all with players running free in the secondary and even when they did have things covered it still didn’t go right with catches on tipped passes and the lot. As I mentioned above, this was a game of two teams that needed to find a win in this league and one of them played like it and it certainly wasn’t West Virginia. Nobody should have walked away from the Virginia Tech game believing that they had arrived by beating the Hokies, but this type of follow up on the road is about the worst thing that could have happened. The Mountaineers have had too many of these type of performances of late and that is troubling to say the least in year four. You’re not always going to have the best team, but when you can’t even provide some fight to start and dig yourself that deep of a hole it’s almost impossible to dig your way out of it.
--No, bounces didn’t go this team’s way in some areas like the tipped pass for a touchdown and the onside kick but you have to make plays and this team simply hasn’t done it more often than not. The onside kick situation on near perfect execution on the kick basically sums up this game.
--After West Virginia controlled the game up front against Virginia Tech, the Longhorns dominated the Mountaineers using only four guys. This was the worst performance of the season for the offensive line and Texas was all over the field swarming and creating issues. The Mountaineers had touchdown drives of 65 and 75 yards when the game was already decided but managed just 199 yards on the other seven drives combined. That just isn’t going to cut it and the inability to establish a run game played a significant role in that as the Longhorns could get the Mountaineers in predictable situations. The Mountaineers averaged 3.9 yards on first down compared to 8.9 for Texas. The Mountaineers gave up three sacks and seven tackles for loss and really just struggled to get anything going consistently.
--West Virginia had one run over 10+ yards in the entire game. One! It was a 14-yarder by Justin Johnson, who was by far the best back on the field tonight. But that just isn’t going to cut it. For the game, the offense finished with 61 yards total rushing and only 2 yards per carry. At one time in the second quarter, they had 6 rushing yards and 4 punts.
--The 61 yards rushing is the 14th time under Neal Brown that West Virginia has rushed for 61 yards or fewer. They did that 11 times from 2000-2018.
--When West Virginia could make it manageable they had success going 5-8 on third and shorts. But anything outside of that was essentially a drive killer.
--This wasn’t the best game for JT Daniels but he didn’t get a lot of help either. He was 29-48 for 253 yards and a touchdown, but the Mountaineers couldn’t establish a run game and he had at least six dropped passes that I counted, perhaps more. I think he made a bad decision by not running the football on the fourth down stop, but he continued to stand in the pocket with a lot of action around him. He’s certainly a massive upgrade at the position over the past couple years, but he’s got to have help.
--Call me crazy, but it felt like momentum of this game completely flipped once West Virginia was stopped on fourth down in the first quarter. No, I'm not suggesting they win the game or anything but it just felt that it gave Texas the spark they needed to throttle them. After that play, Texas seemed to get energized and had all of it while the Mountaineers were just deflated. It was the exact opposite of what happened last week in Blacksburg and while we’d never know what would have happened had JT Daniels took off for the first down instead of throwing it, we certainly know what unfolded when it did.
--Texas had 10 passing plays of over 15+ yards for 264 yards and had Hudson Card been more accurate it could have been a lot more. This secondary just let guys run wide open at times and there was complete confusion in others. I had received a lot of positive intel on the secondary in the off-season from those within the program and I understand they are playing without their best cover corner but that was just flat out wrong. This group has a long way to go, but it was nice to see the young players get some burn. I think Texas could have scored a lot more points in this one if they really wanted to, which is alarming.
--It’s not that West Virginia was penalized a lot in this game but all four were oof. A false start to open the game, a pass interference to set the Longhorns up at the 2, a facemask to give a first down on what would have been 3rd and 18 and a late hit on another long situation.
--It was encouraging to see Brown go to Preston Fox as a returner. He looked sure handed on the limited times that Texas did have to punt. On the flip side, why was Jeremiah Aaron trying to return some of those kicks and didn’t even clear the 20? The kick return continues to be perplexing.
--Facemask aside, I thought Jordan Jefferson, Dante Stills and the rest of the defensive line played hard.
--Now, we get a full week to stew over this one as the Mountaineers will head on bye. This team has some real soul searching to do with a golden opportunity at home against a good Baylor team. West Virginia responded the last time it was in this situation, albeit against a much worse Virginia Tech team, but it was on the road. Now, it’s at home under the lights and if this team has any fight they will show up and play a much better football game than the one we saw tonight. We’ll see.
