West Virginia will look to overcome their recent road struggles when they travel to Ames, Iowa, to face Iowa State on Saturday.
West Virginia’s last two road games have been nothing short of a nightmare. On Oct. 1 against Texas, the Longhorns handled the Mountaineers, before West Virginia faced Texas Tech on the road on Oct. 22 and got rolled by the Red Raiders.
“For us it’s about going on the road,” West Virginia head coach Neal Brown said. “We won on the road against Virginia Tech, but our last two outings haven’t been good enough. We’ve got to go on the road and compete and give us a chance to compete on the road versus one of the best defenses in the country and a team that’s got a lot to play for.”
The Mountaineers will be looking to start fast against the Cyclones, hoping to not have a repeat offensive performance of the first quarters against Texas and Texas Tech, which the Mountaineers were out-scored a combined 28-3.
“That’s the goal, to start fast,” Brown said. “Anytime you’re on the road you want to start fast, try to keep the crowd out of it.”
This season, West Virginia is averaging 4.9 points scored in the first quarter, which ranked 75th in the country. On the flip side, Iowa State’s defense is allowing opponents to score just 3.9 points in the first quarter, which is 19th-best in the country.
The Cyclone defense has been one of the best in the Big 12, ranking first in the conference in passing defense and second in rushing defense. The Mountaineers hope to get good injury news regarding running backs Tony Mathis and Justin Johnson who have both been banged up for the past couple of weeks.
Brown said Mathis and Johnson’s status are both up in the air, and the Mountaineers will also be without running back Tony Mathis for the remainder of the season.
Last week, Iowa State gave up 182 rushing yards in their loss to Oklahoma, which seems like the recipe to beating the Cyclones.
On the flip side of the ball for West Virginia, they will look to build upon a strong second half against TCU a week ago. The Mountaineers held the Horned Frogs to 13 points and will look to carry that over using a more aggressive defense.
“I think confidence will help,” Brown said of his defense. “Our confidence levels should grow and I think it’s just about with the pieces we’ve got how to make them the most successful. We were more aggressive in the second half and I would argue that’s a better formula for us at this stage where we’re at, just to be more aggressive.”
West Virginia’s history under Brown travelling to Iowa State is not pretty. In Brown’s lone trip to Ames in 2020, the Mountaineers lost 42-6. This season, West Virginia is 1-3 on the road and hopes to turn that around this week.
“The only game that I really have an issue with how we played is at Texas Tech. Texas we didn’t play well, but we just didn’t make plays,” Brown said. “We’ve got to make our guys understand that you have to play up to the standard regardless if we play on the moon or we play in Ames, Iowa, or we play here in Morgantown, West Virginia.”
The Mountaineers hope to be able to break a two-game losing streak, while Iowa State will look to end their five-game skid. No matter the record of either team, Brown expects a physical game come 3:30 p.m. from Jack Trice Stadium.
“This is going to be a four-quarter game that’s going to be extremely physical, that’s going to go into the fourth quarter,” Brown said. “And then when it comes to winning time, we’ve got to be able to make those winning type plays that we didn’t make a week ago.”
Photo by Aaron Parker, Blue Gold Sports
