Major Problem or One-Game Fluke? Rich Rod Dives Into WVU’s Defensive Issues

A bunch of people were blamed for West Virginia's abysmal defensive performance against Oklahoma State last week.

The front seven for not getting any pressure whatsoever and allowing Drew Mestemaker to make a sandwich and eat dessert before having to throw the ball, the back end for a lack of communication, all three levels for poor tackling, and defensive coordinator Zac Alley for sitting in a dime look for the majority of the night.

It was one of those 2012-13-esque performances where the defense just couldn't stop anything. It didn't matter if it was an inside zone, a stretch play, a quick game, deep ball — you name it, Oklahoma State was executing it. It was by far one of the worst defensive games West Virginia fans have seen in a while, which is saying something because there have been some ugly ones...just not THAT ugly.

A game like that can create a sense of panic throughout the fan base, and until they get back on the field again and prove that's not who they are, there will be some anxiousness every time that unit trots out.

Rich Rodriguez didn't want to get into the root of the Mountaineers' issues, but he does seem optimistic rather than this being a doomsday moment for the defense.

"The first game, I was upset because we gave up some big plays because we lost containment and let the quarterback scramble around and make big plays. And then this game, we gave up a lot of big plays because, one, we didn't get any pressure on the quarterback, but two, our eyes were bad on some of the coverages that we had. We gave him all kinds of time to run around and let guys get that far deep. When you're throwing a deep ball as much as they did and you have that much time to throw it, it's hard for anybody to cover it. You could look at it as personnel, or you could look at it as, geez, schematically, we've got to help them out a little bit better. I think it's a combination of a lot of stuff. After watching the film, it wasn't like, 'Oh, these guys can't play in the secondary.' I didn't sense that at all. We got to put these guys in a better position to be able to play or defend those plays."

That's a lot of what I came away with after rewatching that mess on Monday night. As Rodriguez said, it's not like they were just getting blown by constantly; more often than not, it was because of having bad eyes or not understanding where to be in the 3-2-6 scheme they deployed for the first time all year. I chalk it up to the game plan more than anything.

Now, all that being said, there are still a lot of things this defense MUST improve. We saw some signs of those issues against the pass in the first two games against inferior competition, but again, part of that is on Alley. He needs to simplify things for a unit that is mostly new to the program. Information overload is a real thing, and it's stung the Mountaineers a few times throughout the first month of the season.

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