Sunday Morning Thoughts: No Moral Victories from Norman

Final takeaways from the Mountaineers' loss to Oklahoma.

West Virginia played with tremendous effort on Saturday night in Norman. Unfortunately, effort alone won't get the job done. Lack of execution and miscommunication ruined WVU's chance of pulling off the upset over No. 4 Oklahoma.

The main takeaway everyone has from this game is the same as it was last week - Jarret Doege needs to be benched for Garrett Greene. I understand the frustration with Doege and by no means have I ever stated that he was the answer but there's a reason why Neal Brown doesn't really trust Greene to throw the ball down the field. He's said it time and time again that Greene did not come from a high school offense where he was asked to read a defense. He's still learning. 

Folks will point the blame on Doege on the high pass to Bryce Ford-Wheaton in the back of the end zone that should have gone for a touchdown. Was it high? Yes. Should it still have been caught? Probably. Should that play ever have happened? No. You can't have a false start on 2nd & goal from the 1-yard line. When you're one yard from the end zone, there's no need to get a head start. To me, that penalty is what killed the drive, not the throw. Doege did not play well at all but there were several things that amounted to the loss. He didn't lose the game himself. I like the idea of using both Doege and Greene as long as it doesn't take the offense completely out of rhythm. 

The offensive line did a pretty good job in pass protection but really struggled to open up any running lanes for Leddie Brown who finished with just 56 yards on 15 carries. It's surprising that this group of offensive linemen has had so much trouble run blocking considering they have three starters back and Doug Nester who was a starter at Virginia Tech. Some of the issue with the run game also lies on Neal Brown. I feel like he gets away from the run game at inopportune times and doesn't continue to use it when it does work. The other part of the play calling that I wasn't a fan of was motioning Leddie Brown out wide, leaving an empty backfield on 3rd down at least three times, maybe four. Knowing how much the offensive line has struggled this year, Brown needs to be in the backfield to pick up blitzes in those situations. I understand wanting to use him as a receiving option but he can help keep pressure off of Doege for another half a second or so longer.

Coming into this game, I said that if West Virginia is competitive from start to finish that it would prove to me that Neal Brown is the right guy. Although I do believe he is the right man for the job, I'm not coming away from this game thinking that WVU is going to all of a sudden be considered a contender in the Big 12 Conference. Self-inflicted wounds lost WVU this game, just like it did in the season opener at Maryland. If West Virginia can just stay out of its own way, they'd be 4-0. But for whatever reason, there is a tremendous lack of execution in the 2nd half of games and bad penalties continue to occur. 

I could say that this is a moral victory for WVU, but I don't see it that way. This is a game that they should have won. If they competed their tails off for four quarters but just got beat by a better Oklahoma team, there's no problem with that. The problem is that WVU was the better team for nearly the entire game but handed the game away in the fourth quarter. 

In year three under Neal Brown, we are still seeing the same issues that are costing the team wins. As I just mentioned, the lack of discipline and execution are one thing but the inability to score in the 2nd half of games is eye-opening. 

West Virginia has played three Power Five opponents so far this year. In those three games, WVU has scored three points in the 2nd half in each of those games and has three scoreless quarters. There are many things that contribute to this to point the blame in any one direction but I will say this: Neal Brown needs to hire a full-time offensive coordinator in the offseason. Dana Holgorsen made the same mistake when he first arrived in Morgantown and eventually learned from it. I'm not saying this will completely solve the 2nd half woes but it should help to some degree. This allows Neal Brown to have a CEO type of role as the head coach instead of focusing on one side of the ball. 

If anything, this game proved that Oklahoma is not as good as we all thought they were. If the Mountaineers had any resemblance of an offense, Oklahoma would have lost this game by at least two or three scores. They allowed West Virginia to hang around in this game. Now, is WVU's defense legit? Yes, 100%. I'm not going to take anything away from Jordan Lesley's guys. But this is not the same Oklahoma offense we have grown accustomed to seeing. I think this game told more about Oklahoma than it did WVU. 

That said, I do think this team is much better than their record (2-2) indicates. If they can figure things out offensively, West Virginia will be a contender in the Big 12 for years to come. I just don't see it happening this year. This offseason is going to be extremely important for Garrett Greene's development. You know the defense is going to be good pretty much every year, at least it looks that way. If the offense can catch up, special things could happen in Morgantown.

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