On Saturday night, the West Virginia Mountaineers fell to Texas by the score of 38-20.
It was an all-around rough night for the Mountaineers, as an early no-show allowed Texas to dominate and control the game from the gun.
Texas’s Hudson Card came to play, as the sophomore threw for 303 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions while continuously picking apart the WVU secondary.
On the flip side, WVU’s JT Daniels threw for 253 yards and a touchdown for the Mountaineers.
On the third possession of the game, the Longhorns were able to pick up momentum by stopping the Mountaineers on third and fourth down.
After the defensive stop, Texas got on the board first when Hudson Card found wide receiver Xavier Worthy for a wide-open, 15-yard touchdown.
On the ensuing possession, WVU was forced to punt, and Texas started to roll.
The Longhorns drew up a perfect double-pass trick play and Worthy, the wide receiver, found Ja’Tavion Sanders for a 33-yard touchdown pass. After the score, Texas took a 14-0 lead into the second quarter.
Needing a strong response on offense, the Mountaineers were forced to punt again after a costly dropped pass.
Texas kept its foot on the gas on the next possession, as running back Bijan Robinson ran in a two-yard touchdown to make it a 21-0 game with 11:54 left in the half.
WVU moved the ball near midfield on its next possession, but the Texas secondary came up big with a pass break-up on third down, forcing another Mountaineer punt.
WVU had the Longhorns pinned to their own two-yard line after a bad snap, but the Mountaineers gave up 30 free yards with a face mask and late hit penalty.
Texas took advantage of WVU’s lack of discipline when Card found Sanders for his second touchdown of the night, this time from 13-yards out to make it a 28-0 game.
Before halftime, WVU got on the board with a 13-play, 83-yard drive that was capped off by an eight-yard touchdown pass from JT Daniels to sophomore Kaden Prather.
After the touchdown, the Mountaineers went into halftime trailing 28-7.
Out of halftime, Texas’s offense kept putting it on the Mountaineers, this time on the backs of a little luck and a lot of concentration from Xavier Worthy.
Card aired the ball out to the end zone from 44-yards out, and WVU’s Aubrey Burks nearly intercepted the pass, but instead tipped it right into the hands of Worthy who made the diving catch for the touchdown.
On WVU’s next possession, the Mountaineers would take another blow, this time with a scary moment.
Star freshman running back CJ Donaldson went down with an injury and had to be carted off the field after remaining on the ground for an extended period of time.
After the injury, Tony Mathis stepped up, and capped off an 18-play, 65-yard drive with a touchdown from a yard out to make it a 35-14 game with 14:56 left in the game.
On Texas’s next drive, the Longhorns added three more points when kicker Bert Auburn connected on a 45-yard field goal to extend the lead to 38-14 with 10:22 left.
After the field goal, WVU drove down the field with another long drive, and redshirt freshman Justin Johnson Jr. ran in a four-yard touchdown to cap off the drive and cut the Texas lead to 38-20 with 4:31 left.
WVU went for a two-point conversion, but it failed, so the game remained 38-20.
Desperate for a miracle, WVU kicked onside, and kicker Casey Legg executed the play to perfection. However, Kaden Prather could not hang onto the ball, and Texas recovered.
It was too little too late for the Mountaineers, as there was no making up for the sluggish start, regardless of the result of the onside kick.
Texas won by the score of 38-20 and improves to 3-2, while WVU drops to 2-3 on the season.
West Virginia will be back in action for a Thursday night game against No. 16 Baylor on October 13th. The game will kick off at 7:00 from Milan Puskar Stadium.
Photo by Dale Sparks, WVU Football
