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Final Thoughts on West Virginia, Oklahoma State

West Virginia battled but was overmatched by a talented Oklahoma State team

West Virginia had a disappointing performance in the 27-13 loss to No. 15 Oklahoma State over the weekend. I fully expected the Mountaineers to lose ahead of the game despite the questionable status of starting quarterback Spencer Sanders.

It was hard to pick against OSU head coach Mike Gundy with several upperclassmen and a program that seems to have West Virginia’s number much like Virginia Tech did over the Mountaineers in the ’90s.

Overall, the Mountaineers performance was underwhelming, but here are some of my thoughts on all three sides of the ball.

Oklahoma State linebacker Amen Ogbongbemiba sacking West Virginia QB Jarret Doege.

Offense

The most notable positive on the offensive side of the ball is undoubtedly the rushing game. Although I did expect an improvement, I did not expect Leddie Brown to rush for over 100 yards against an Oklahoma State team that returned 10 of their 11 starters. Brown has shown he is an every-down back and he can carry the offense down the field behind an offensive line that has improved in its run blocking.

However, it’s the passing game that continues to suffer. The offensive line has improved its running blocking, but the pass protection was not much to be desired on Saturday. Doege took a beating in the game and was sacked six times.

The receivers on the outside were bullied throughout most of the game and struggled to get open downfield. Of course, a lot of credit has to go to the Cowboy secondary that came up on press coverage and knocked them around.

Yet, the receivers on the inside had success with TJ Simmons and Winston Wright Jr. I know it’s easy to question play calling when a play doesn’t work or after a loss, but TJ Simmons has been hard to contain, and he was more than a handful over the weekend.

Coaches today say that football has become more like basketball on turf and a game of matchups.

If that is the case, then why not continue to feed your workhorses on the outside like a big physical receiver in TJ Simmons, much like men’s basketball coach Bob Huggins does with his two big men Oscar Tshiebwe and Derek Culver.

I don’t think the play calling was too conservative by any means because they took their shots downfield when they felt they had the opportunity to connect, but the receivers have to attack the ball and bring it down, but again, I think it was more the product of Oklahoma State than West Virginia.

Defense

Despite a few missed assignments, the defense played well, albeit very costly miscues, most notably the 66-yard touchdown run by LD Brown.

Neal Brown said during fall camp that the run defense needs to improve, and it still does. They did make some negative plays in the backfield but not enough in the early downs to force a throw on third down. That’s something that was an issue last year that, for now, has carried over to the season.

Ideally, on Oklahoma State's final scoring drive to seal the game, you would like the defense to make that stop to give the offense one more shot to tie the game or maybe even win it with a two-point conversion but let’s not get too ahead of ourselves here. Understandably the offense needed to score more points to put the pressure on a freshman quarterback to make plays, but no matter the score, that situation will present itself in the future, and they need to find a way to get off the field.

Again, credit Oklahoma State for putting the game away behind their strength, running the football.

Special Teams

Special teams have not been a game-changer for the Mountaineers since Tavon Austin was running circles around defenders. You can throw Mario Alford on kickoff returns if you want, but as a whole, it’s been an underwhelming unit for quite some time, and it was the same story on Saturday.

Oklahoma State muffed a kickoff that the kickoff coverage had an opportunity to jump on and missed, and Graeson Malashevich mishandled the snap on a field goal.

The field goal hurts but special teams did not do anything to lose the game, but they sure did not do anything to win the game either. 

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