West Virginia Overcomes a Self-Inflicted First Half to Pull Away from Kansas
The West Virginia Mountaineers improved to 3-1 overall and 2-1 in Big 12 Conference play after beating the Kansas Jayhawks Saturday afternoon 38-17.
West Virginia opened the game with a dropped pass from the nearly sure-handed TJ Simmons, who took his eye off the ball looking upfield to make a big play and undoubtedly would have if only he could have brought in the pass.
Then, Leddie Brown was dropped for five yards, and on third and 15, TJ Simmons did reel in his first reception, but Kansas linebacker Denzel Feaster delivered a shot and jarred the ball loose, and the Jayhawks jumped on it just inside WVU territory.
Kansas started sloppy, committing a false start to begin their first offensive series, but it didn't kill the drive. Quarterback Miles Kendrick scampered for a nine-yard gain followed by receiver Stephon Robinson Jr juking and shaking off BANDIT-safety Tykee Smith to pick up 12 yards and the first down at the WVU 25-yard line.
The defense clamped down and protected the outside after three consecutive quick passes and held the Jayhawks to a field goal.
The Mountaineers were held to a three and out, Kansas got the ball just inside WVU territory, again, and on the second play, Kendrick went deep over the middle of the field as Mountaineer defensive back Nicktroy Fortune appeared he had the interception as the ball went through his hands and into the lap of Andrew Parchment for the 43-yard pitch and putting Kansas up 10-0 early.
“Anything that could have gone bad went bad in the first quarter, especially the first couple of series and showed some fortitude for us to bounce back and take control of the game right there at the end of the half and then, really kind of run away with it in the second half,” said West Virginia head coach Neal Brown.
The Mountaineers responded two drives later after Jarret Doege hit Bryce Ford-Wheaton on a post pattern for a 33-yard touchdown.
West Virginia took the lead late in the first half as Kansas was on the receiving end of a hefty dose of Leddie Brown banging his way down the field for 45 yards on four carries and two receptions for 20 yards that included a six-yard touchdown reception for the lead with 3:25 to play in the first half.
Evan Staley tacked on an additional three points right before the half on a 33-yard field goal to give West Virginia a 17-10 lead going into the break.
The Mountaineers began their first offensive series of the second half like they started the game, with a turnover, but again credit goes to the Kansas defense. Defensive end Malcolm Lee read the play and jumped in front of a screen for the interception. Meanwhile, the defense continued to make their case as the best in the conference keeping the Jayhawks off the board.
Ben Queen - WVU Football
“Defensively, we’re playing with a lot of confidence right now,” said Brown. “Guys are flying around. Really, it’s about effort and physicality. I think we’re flying around; we’re getting multiple hats to the ball—a lot of confidence. I think guys that are our best are playing at a high level. The Darius Stills, Tony Fields, Tykee Smith, those guys are playing at a high level. In this game, we have two turnovers, five sacks, 11 tackles for loss – they average a little over two yards per play, and we’re stopping the run. Those are what we want to be about. So, it was a good defensive outing. The staff is doing a nice job there.”
Leddie Brown gave the Mountaineers some cushion after ripping off an 87-yard touchdown run, marking WVU’s longest touchdown run since Noel Devine on Nov. 27, 2009, against Pitt (88 yards).
“Big day for Leddie. Leddie has 195 yards over 10.8 per carry, and that’s special,” said Brown.
The Mountaineer defense set up the offense at midfield with another three and out. Doege and his receivers made quick work of the short field capped off with Sam James taking a quick pass out on the edge and racing down the sidelines after a nice block from tight end Mike O’Laughin on two Jayhawks defenders cleared the way.
“I think overall, offensively, we’re getting closer,” said Brown. “If you look at our numbers, they’re pretty impressive, 82 (snaps) for 544 (yards), but watching it, I know as a coach maybe as a fan it probably didn’t always feel that way. We’re still getting in our way, a little bit, whether it’s a few penalties, dropped passes, whatever it is, but we averaged over eight yards a play. I thought our guys competed. They didn’t allow mistakes early in the game to overwhelm them, and that’s a credit to our offensive coaches. I thought they did a good job keeping positivity with our guys. I’m proud of our offensive line. Basically, played the same five up there for most of the game. I was proud of how they finished it.
“I thought Doege played much better. I think he had 318. The interception was on the screen pass; that’s the one he’d like to have back. But we go for 318. We tried to throw the ball downfield; some of them were successful; some of them weren’t, but we probably had 75 or more yards maybe in dropped passes. So, we got to continue to get better in that aspect.”
West Virginia will travel to Lubbock, TX to take on the Texas Tech Red Raiders next Saturday at 5:30 EST on ESPN2.
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