West Virginia’s defense arguably played their best half of football in the second half against TCU Saturday. Yes, the Mountaineers lost the game, but for a defense who had been getting torched on a weekly basis, there are certainly some positives to be taken from their performance over the final 30 minutes.
West Virginia’s defense was on the field for five drives in the second half and allowed TCU to score 13 total points. Seven of those points came on the last play of the game basically on fourth and one, where the Mountaineers left were trying to stop the run and TCU hit a touchdown on a 29-yard pass.
If you take away that one play, West Virginia’s defense gave up six points and 133 yards to an offense which came into the game averaging 44.7 points per game and on the season has averaged 19.7 points in the second half of games against FBS schools.
In the first half, the Mountaineers allowed TCU to have six first downs, average 12.3 yards per carry, have 234 passing yards, 13.3 yards per play, and the Horned Frogs converted three of their four attempts on third down.
In the second half though, West Virginia held TCU to six first downs, 2.9 yards per carry, only 5.4 yards per play, and the Horned Frogs went 2-for-8 on third down, while the Mountaineers sacked TCU quarterback Max Duggan three times. TCU had a first and goal on the West Virginia one yard line, and the Mountaineers were able to hold TCU to just a field goal on that drive, as West Virginia forced two plays to go backwards.
The biggest areas where West Virginia’s defense stood out in the second half were yards per play, and third-down conversion rate.
This season, against FBS schools, West Virginia ranks 121st out of 131 teams in yards per play allowed with 6.6. The Mountaineers held TCU to just 5.4 yards per play in the second half. The Mountaineers also rank 118th in the country in third-down conversation rate, with teams converting 46.1% of the time against the West Virginia defense. TCU also ranked 34th in the country as an offense, converting 44% of their third-down attempts. In the second half, West Virginia limited TCU to just a 25% conversion rate on eight attempts.
Coming into the game West Virginia knew TCU was going to score. TCU was averaging 44.7 points per game, and if that last touchdown does not happen, the Mountaineers would have held the Horned Frogs to their lowest scoring total of the season.
Moving forward, West Virginia’s defense should continue to try and pressure the quarterback. A blitz forced a jump ball late in the fourth quarter from Duggan, who threw just his second interception of the season.
Where the Mountaineers still have a lot of room to improve is limiting the big plays. West Virginia allowed TCU to have six ‘big plays’ through the air (passes of 15 arm or more yards). These six plays accounted for 267 of TCU’s 341 pass yards. On the ground game, TCU had three rushes of 10 or more yards, which accounted for 102 of their 153 rush yards. The Mountaineers seem to be able to stop the short game on the ground and through the air, but if they continue to allow a team to have almost 75% of their yards come on big plays, their defense will continue to struggle.
Another area of improvement is getting stops on third down and long. There were three instances where TCU had a third down and at least 10 yards to go and twice they picked up the first with a gain of more than 10 yards and the third time, the Horned Frogs picked up 10 yards to help them convert on fourth down. West Virginia has to be able to get off the field on third down and long.
It is never pretty giving up almost 500 total yards, but the Mountaineers were able to force an interception from a quarterback who rarely turns the ball over, and in the second half they gave their offense a chance to win the game — something that cannot be said to be true for the majority of this season for West Virginia.
Photo by Dale Sparks, All Pro Photography
