West Virginia Hangs Tough in Win Over Baylor

The West Virginia Mountaineers persevered in a 27-21 double-overtime win over the Baylor Bears Saturday after committing 12 penalties for 102 yards and had four turnovers on the afternoon.

“On a day where we had a ton of things go wrong, we found a way to win, said Brown. “It sounds simple, but teams find ways to lose, and we found a way to win today, which, at the end of the day, is all that matters. I’m never going to apologize for (that). Some people may say it’s ugly, but I say it’s gritty. I thought our kids fought, and we found a way.”

The Mountaineers were their own worst enemy last week in Stillwater, OK, in a 27-13 loss to Oklahoma State and again, against the Bears.

West Virginia’s first mistake came on the opening drive just after crossing over into Baylor territory. A false start had the offense facing a second and 15 but picked up the first down three plays later on a fourth and six as Doege hit Sam James short of the sticks, and he fought his way for a first down sitting at the Baylor 32.

The offense had rhythm and was methodically moving the ball down the field. A couple of handoffs to Leddie Brown then on a third and three a dump off to Brown picked up another 10 yards to get down to the 15, and he capped off the drive bouncing into the endzone from four yards out to give the Mountaineers the early 7-0 lead.

The Mountaineer defense started their day with a three and out and got the offense back on the field. Then, West Virginia’s first turnover came after out linebacker William Bradley-King sacked, forced the fumble, and recovered it at the Mountaineer 19-yard line. However, the defense came up with a big stand, pushing the Bears back and forcing a 46-yard field that drifted wide right.

The ugliness ensued into the second quarter. Doege threw two interceptions, although the first one was just a spectacular by middle linebacker Terrell Bernard jumping up and tipping the ball to himself and corralling it as he fell to the ground on his back. The second one was a complete overthrow with three Baylor defenders in the area and was returned down to the West Virginia 30 as Doege again was taking out beating in the backfield.

The third time was the charm for the Bears as five plays later; they were able to tie the game at seven.

“First drive of the game, we took it however many yards down the field and scored,” said Neal Brown. Then after that, we struggled. They’re good on defense, so I’m not trying to say (it’s all on us). We just” got in our own way.”

Baylor had an opportunity to take the lead late on a 51-yard field goal to end the half, but defensive lineman Dante Stills came up with the block to keep the game tied at seven.

West Virginia started their two-offensive series of the second half with drive-killing false starts, while the defense continued to keep the Mountaineers in the game pounding on quarterback Charlie Brewer and the Baylor offense.

The Mountaineer offense went back to the ground game mixing in Leddie Brown with Alec Sinkfield, who ripped off a 25-yard run. Tight end Mike O’Laughlin got in on the act with an eight-yard reception, and a hefty dose of Brown got West Virginia back into the endzone to take back the touchdown lead.

“We figured out a way, in the first half and in the first two drives of the second half, to get in our own way about as well as you can possibly do it,” said Brown. “It could be procedure penalties, it could be dropped passes, it could be poor passes, it could be falling off our blocks or bad play calls. It could be all of the above. It went about as bad as it could go. We started off with a good drive. We really felt good coming in. We had a good week of practice. People don’t always hear that, but we had a good week at practice.

“Now, the positive on that was that a year ago, we would’ve never overcome that. We’ve talked a lot about stopping complaining and stopping the blame game, stop defending, and stop excusing. Where the growth offensively is that we figured it out really from the third drive on. Not only in our scoring drives, but we figured out where we got some movement, and we figured out ways and had some guys get really unselfish, and we were able to move the ball. We had a big scoring drive, then we were able to put it in the end zone twice. We have to get it cleaned up, but we’ll worry about that another day.”

Baylor was looking to respond as they were marching into Mountaineer territory but cornerback Dreshun Miller, watching Brewer the whole way, jumped in front of the pass for the interception returning it to the West Virginia 32.

The field position battle continued until Sinkfield was back to field a punt, and Bryce Ford-Wheaton ran into Sinkfield as the ball hit Ford Wheaton and Baylor recovered at the Mountaineer 28-yard line.

A pass interference call set the Bears at the 15 and converted a fourth and one to keep the drive alive to set up a first and goal from the three. But the Mountaineer defense stood tall and held Baylor on a fourth down from the one with just 4:06 remaining in the game.

West Virginia was able to get some breathing room and move the ball out to the 18. Nonetheless, Baylor used all three timeouts and was able to get the ball back with just under two minutes remaining. Following an unsportsmanlike penalty on Tony Fields II, Brewer connected with Josh Fleeks for the 34-yard touchdown pass to tie the game with just over a minute remaining.

The Mountaineers chose to run out the clock once facing a third and 12, and the game headed to overtime.

In the first overtime period, West Virginia opted to go for a fourth and one at the 16 and connected as Doege hit O’laughlin out in the flat for 10 yards.

The next play, Doege went to Ford-Wheaton on a fade. He rose above the defender and came down with the ball for the touchdown. Doege finished the day going 30-42 for 211 yards, one touchdown, and two interceptions.

Baylor answered on the first play, slipping the tight end out on the backside for the score.

The Bears had the ball to start the second overtime, and on the first play, Tykee Smith picked it off in the back of the endzone.

On the Mountaineers first play, Doege went back to O’laughlin out in the flat for eight yards, then three straight runs from Leddie Brown into the endzone for the walk-off win.

“That team in Baylor won 11 games. They were in a conference championship game a year ago. They have several NFL players, and we helped them quite a bit in the first half, but our kids fought, and we found a way to win.,” said Brown. “My hope is that we continue to get better. We have to get way better offensively, but my hope is that we can point back at this game and this second half and us finding a way to win and not lose, which is what I was talking about after the game at Oklahoma State. We found a way to lose that game. Here at home, we found a way to win, and I hope what we can do is point back to this, get this thing rolling and say that this is the game that we kind of figured it out. In a contest where a lot of things went wrong, against a really well-coached team with a lot of returning players and a quarterback who has figured out how to win close games, West Virginia found a way to win today. I hope that’s the storyline because I’m proud.”

West Virginia has a bye next week before welcoming Kansas on Oct 17.

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