It was there for the taking.
Down three in the fourth quarter, in a game which they did not play well across the board, West Virginia seemed to have just pulled the ultimate rabbit out of their hat. They seemed to have gotten the type of win that teams who play into December get. A win that they don’t deserve to get, a win that seemed impossible given the circumstances.
As Hudson Clement ran a 50-yard fourth-down catch into the end zone, it seemed like the Mountaineers were going to win their fifth game in a row, improve to 3-0 in the Big 12, and be set to get into the top 25 for the first time under head coach Neal Brown.
And then it all came crashing down.
Houston had the ball at their own 43 with seven seconds left on the clock. If not for quarterback Garrett Greene’s unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for taking his helmet off after the touchdown, the Cougars are probably not in that spot.
The Cougars ran one play to pick up eight yards and get out of bounds to set up a shot at reaching the end zone.
They did just that as Donovan Smith rolled left, throwing the ball down to the goal line. In a cluster of Mountaineer defenders and Houston wide receivers, it was Houston’s Stephon Johnson that came up with the ball, giving Houston the 41-39 win.
“Everyone’s going to want to talk about the last play of the game. We didn’t lose the game on the last play of the game. We had multiple chances to win the game and we didn’t do it. I’m not very pleased with how we played in two out of three phases. Defensively and on special teams, we did not play good enough,” West Virginia head coach Neal Brown said.
Now is his assessment of his team fair, yes. Is it accurate, also yes.
For West Virginia, their identity of being good on defense, controlling the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, and then having a strong run game got them to where they were entering Thursday.
Against the Cougars, that defense which had been lauded through five games looked out of sorts, and the new addition to the Big 12 seemed to have their way with a Mountaineer defensive line which had been quite good through the first month of the season.
Early on, West Virginia looked clearly like the better team. Houston’s offense was stuck and the Mountaineer offense scored 10 early points. However, a 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown after WVU’s opening drive in which they went in front 3-0.
The return would be the first of many miscues as Houston’s offense found life late in the second quarter.
West Virginia went three and out on back-to-back drives, taking a combined 2:44 of game clock to run their six plays. On the latter of the two, West Virginia started at their own 14 and punted from inside their own 10.
This allowed Houston a chance at good field position. Originally, they returned the punt for a touchdown — what would have been the second special teams touchdown of the night — until a holding penalty brought them back.
They got the ball at their own 44 and Smith made quick work of WVU’s defense. He completed all five passes on the drive, finishing it with a 2-yard touchdown rush, giving Houston the lead and life before halftime.
Out of the break, West Virginia’s offense answered, hoping their defense could live up to the standard they had set throughout the beginning of the season.
West Virginia scored a 35-yard flea flicker touchdown from Greene to Traylon Ray, giving WVU a 17-14 lead, and bringing the Mountaineer defense back onto the field. West Virginia forced a three and out of their own, but that would be the last true stop West Virginia’s defense would get.
Houston found the end zone on three consecutive drives. Smith completing all of his pass attempts in the second half as he picked apart a WVU defense, and as Houston found second-half success for the first time against a Big 12 opponent this season.
“We did not tackle well. Anytime you don’t tackle well, it’s going to be a struggle and we did not tackle well and they made us miss and they broke tackles. Like I said, very disappointing,” Brown said.
West Virginia got the ball back trailing 35-24 with 7:28 left in regulation. Needing a somewhat heroic effort from Greene, they got the score they needed. Greene scampered in on an 8-yard rush, and then even after a false start penalty, Greene found Ray in the back of the end zone for a two-point conversion.
West Virginia’s defense had one last opportunity to get the ball back to their offense with the chance to tie or win the game. Houston converted on a 3rd and 5 as Marcis Floyd was flagged for pass interference. Three plays later, West Virginia had the ball at their own 12 with 1:17 to play and no timeouts.
Greene could have been the eraser of all mistakes from both the special teams and defense, until he made the crucial one of his own. On the play that seemingly won the game in the 50-yard touchdown to Clement, it also lost West Virginia the game on the same play.
Greene’s penalty moved WVU back to their own 20 on the kickoff, and the rest as they say, is history.
While Greene passed for 391 yards and two touchdowns, adding two more on the ground, it was the mistakes on all three phases which were the difference.
Right before Houston scored their first of three second half touchdowns, West Virginia was on the verge of closing the door shut. Greene looked on a wheel route to Jaylen Anderson up the right sideline, dodging two defenders on the throw and fitting it perfectly into a spot where Anderson could catch it.
Anderson was unable to come up with it, the ball hitting off his chest and into the arms of Houston’s Isaiah Hamilton — the first of two costly tipped balls. On the first play of the ensuing drive, Houston’s Stacy Sneed ran for a 58-yard gain. Three plays after that it was a 14-point swing as Smith found Joseph Manjack for a touchdown.
Instead of leading 24-14, WVU trailed 21-17. And while the comeback effort from the offense came through time and time again, the drop by Anderson was one of many second-half miscues.
On the night, West Virginia was penalized eight times for 84 yards, with none being bigger than Greene’s penalty. Houston had five kickoff returns for 184 combined yards, while WVU averaged 2.5 yards per carry in the second half after they averaged 4.1 in the first half.
That defense, which had held opponents to scores in only four of the 10 quarters in the second half of games this year, allowed the Cougars to average 11.8 yards per play. As of Friday morning, the worst team in that category this season in defensive yards per play is Nevada, allowing 8.3 yards per play. West Virginia’s average is 5.3.
Any way you slice it if you’re West Virginia the loss is a punch to the gut. You had every chance to lose this game and just when you thought the offense did just enough, it proved they didn’t.
“We didn’t play well in two of the three phases. We flat did not play well. We win as a team and lose as a team and we didn’t play well,” Brown said.
And while the lasting memory will be the 49-yard throw from Smith to Johnson as time expired, the Mountaineers had more than enough opportunities to prove they were the better team Thursday and they continually came up short.
Photo by Aaron Parker, Blue Gold Sports
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