Mountaineer Mistakes Lead to Hearbreaking Loss in Norman

The West Virginia Mountaineers dropped their Big 12 Conference opener at No. 4 Oklahoma Saturday night 16-13 in front of a sold-out crowd on primetime television after the Sooners drove 92 yards in the final 3:39 of the game to knock in a 30-yard walk-off field goal.

"Great college football game. Great atmosphere. Credit Oklahoma for pulling it out in the end," said West Virginia head coach Neal Brown. "I love our guys. I love our staff. I love our players. I thought they fought their ass off for four quarters. It was a tough physical football game, and I thought we went toe to toe with Oklahoma here in their backyard."

West Virginia grabbed the early 7-0 advantage after methodically driving down the field on 17 play 75-yard drive that consumed over nine minutes of the game clock while mixing in quarterback Garrett Greene, who capped the drive off on a quarterback keeper for the touchdown.

Oklahoma was set up near midfield on the following kickoff after a personal foul call along the sidelines. However, West Virginia held the offense to a fourth and four. Not to be outdone by West Virginia's fourth down conversion inside Sooner territory, Oklahoma head coach Lincoln Riley rolled the dice, and it paid off on a swing pass to Eric Gray for a 38-yard gain, setting the Sooners up first and goal at the eight-yard line. Three plays later, Spencer Rattler found tight end Austin Stogner, for the five-yard toss and catch for the touchdown.

In the second quarter, the West Virginia defense locked down Oklahoma, holding them to just 39 yards of total offense and just two first downs.

I thought our defensive staff and our defensive players played their tails off, said Brown. "We felt good about it coming in… I thought we had a good plan to keep them off the field, and I thought our staff on defense did a nice job limiting explosive plays. I thought we got some pressure up front."

The Mountaineers won the field position battle in the first half, and it paid off after taking over at midfield with 2:16 left before the break. West Virginia had to convert a fourth and one to keep the drive alive before Jarrett Doege hit Winston Wright Jr down the right side for the 28-yard reception and giving the Mountaineers a first and goal from the ten. However, the Sooners only relinquished two yards, and West Virginia was forced to settle for a field goal as time expired to take a 10-7 lead into halftime.

The Sooners were able to take the opening drive of the second half down the field before the Mountaineer defense bowed up and Oklahoma to a 28-yard field goal.

West Virginia responded on its first possession of the second half. Greene went back into the game once the Mountaineers were solidly into Sooners territory. Leddie Brown took the handoff 20 yards on the first play to put the Mountaineers at the 16. Then, read the pass option to the left to Wright Jr., followed by the same play to the right, had West Virginia second and goal at the one before being pushed back five yards on a false start. Green got two yards back on a keeper before Doege came back onto the field.

The Mountaineers lined up with three receivers to the left, and out of the pack, Bryce Ford-Wheaton broke free over the middle, and the ball sailed high and off the fingers of Wheaton to set up a fourth and goal from the four and, again, settled for a field goal.

The West Virginia defense gave the offense another opportunity at midfield after holding the Sooners on fourth and one and took over at the 50. However, an intentional grounding on the first play of the series led to a three-and-out. The punt resulted in a touchback, and Oklahoma began its drive at their 20.

They orchestrated a 16-play drive, and they too would settle for a field goal tying the game at 13 with 8:52 remaining in the drive.

West Virginia came out poised and moved the sticks on a quick slant to Ford-Wheaton before a roughing the passer penalty placed the ball at the Oklahoma 45-yard line. The Mountaineers went back to the slant, again, hitting Ford-Wheaton for 11 yards.

"We had some good plays. We never broke a tackle, and that's what you hope on some of these slants," said Brown.

After a Doege scramble, Green came back in the game. Facing a second and seven, a snap infraction from Zach Frazier moved the ball back five yards. Then, on the next play and with Doege coming back into the game, the snap was early and went by Doege as he raced back to fall on it. West Virginia played it safe on third and 33, handing the ball off to Brown before punting to the Sooners.

"We don't have a better kid or person in our program than Zach Frazier. So, I'll take him every day, regardless of if we're playing Oklahoma or wherever we're going," said Neal Brown. "We got some hurt kids in the locker room, and nobody is more hurt in him, and you hurt because you invest, and there's nobody that has a personal investment than Zach Frazier. I'm not sure what happened. He hadn't had a bad snap up until that point. I'm sure the noise was a factor."

Oklahoma began the drive from its eight-yard line with 3:39 left to play in the game. Spencer Rattler dinked and dunked their way down the field, mixing in the run down with Kennedy Brooks to the WVU 16-yard line. A meaningless facemask on third and 10 moved the ball up to the eight before Rattler ran the ball into the center of the field for kicker Gabe Brkic. He chipped in the 30-yard field goal as time expired as the Mountaineers lost a heartbreaker 16-13.

"If you look at it, we had chances. I think, absolutely, we had some chances," said Brown. "Game played out in a good way for us, and we just ran out of time - credit to them. They did a nice job but a tough loss. We're proud of our guys."

"Let's call it what it is, they're pretty good, later added Brown. "There's some matchups that aren't always favorable on our end. I thought offensively, too, we battled. I think when we go back and look at it, there's going to be three or four opportunities to go and win the game, and you never know when those plays are going to be, and we didn't get it done. I thought we were able to control the clock. We were able to get first downs. When we got into the red zone, we were effective. The one thing that where we got into it and which we knew would be an issue if we got in third and long, and we got into too many of those in the second and third quarters. That's tough versus that level of a defensive line to get into those situations."

"I hurt in the pit of my stomach for our players. I hurt because we had a plan, we came in here, we fought against a team that year in year out that's at the top of the recruiting rankings," said Brown. "Year in year out, they're top five or ten in the country. They've been dominant in our league, and they've been dominant at home for the most part, and especially since Lincoln's been the head coach and we had an opportunity to win, and we just didn't. And you know, that's hard when you invest like we have, and we had a great week, had a great prep, guys were ready to go, I thought we handled everything that has to do with it, and we just didn't get it done. The hope is you learn from this," Brown concluded.

West Virginia is back in action on Saturday, October 2, to host the Texas Tech Red Raiders at 3:30 and televised on ESPN2.

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