Neal Brown gave his thoughts on WVU’s 20-13 win over Texas Tech on Saturday.
Brown secured his first win over the Red Raiders and helped give his team a three-game winning streak for their first time since he took over as head coach.
All wins are created equal
A win is a win and for West Virginia it’s the second week in a row where it hasn’t been the prettiest, but they got the job done.
“People will say it wasn’t pretty and last week wasn’t pretty. Win, win,” Brown said.
“That’s a team that was the darling pick of the Big 12 early in the year. They were picked two and three in a lot of these polls, and so it was a really good win. This was an important home stretch. We knew it. We felt like if we could win our home games, it gives us a chance to win in the league. If you look at who performs well in the league, you win home games. We had a three-game home stretch, and we swept it. We went 3-0, beat our rival, and today, we beat a team that’s had our number.”
Defense Steps Up… Again
Texas Tech’s offense came into Saturday as one of the best in the Big 12, if not the country. They had at least 400 yards of total offense as well as scoring at least 30 points in each of their first three games this season.
“Man, our defense played well. I trust those guys. They took a lot of heat in the offseason. They did, we did, but I knew we had a plan. We had a plan, and we’ve played good defense. Whether it was at Troy or here, we played good defense. We know what it looks like. We know how to get guys prepared,” Brown said.
Texas Tech went 2 for 18 on third down and 5 for 8 on fourth down, something Brown said was crucial to the victory.
“I think it’s a complete reversal from a year ago. They’ve seen the stats. We put them in front of them every single day. Texas Tech was 15/20 on third and fourth downs in Lubbock last year. We didn’t get off the field, and we reversed that. Like I said, it’s a prideful group. Prideful defensive staff, and prideful defensive players.”
Marchiol’s first start
Nicco Marchiol made his first-career start, and while the numbers didn’t look the best, he got the job done.
“It wasn’t pretty. I was disappointed with how we played offensively. I thought Nicco (Marchiol) did some good things,” Brown said. “Nicco did some really good things.”
Marchiol passed for 78 yards on 12 for 21 passing and a touchdown, but his legs got the job done as he went for 72 yards on the ground.
“I thought he made a big-time throw in the last series of the game when he went for the shot. I thought that was a great throw. For a guy making his first start in really poor weather and wet, I thought he did a pretty good job. We have to be better around him.”
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