For West Virginia, the Hail Mary Pass to give Houston a 41-39 win will not be a memory that goes away anytime soon. For Neal Brown, that play is not the reason why the Mountaineers lost the game.
“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,” Brown said.
“Where we lost the game is discipline. That’s what’s gotten us to this point. We were not a disciplined team tonight. We had eight penalties. I don’t know how the game was officiated, I’m not into criticizing them because we didn’t play very well.”
West Virginia scored with 12 seconds left to take a 39-35 lead on a 50-yard pass from Garrett Greene to Hudson Clement. Greene would take his helmet off celebrating, moving the kickoff backwards 50 yards. That would set up a shorter field, giving Houston a shot at the end zone.
“The celebration penalty after the last touchdown is kind of a microcosm of the game. We don’t get that celebration penalty which is completely asinine for us to take our helmets off,” Brown said. “They don’t really want to call that, but if you take your helmet off it’s pretty clear and I don’t understand that. That gave them the opportunity to get into scoring position. We would’ve squibbed it regardless.”
West Virginia’s offense had 546 yards of total offense, but it was the defense which was the bigger story. The unit which had led WVU through five games struggled in the second half, allowing three touchdowns on three consecutive drives at one point.
“If you look at the stat sheet it doesn’t make sense, but that’s why you play the game,” Brown said. We just absolutely did not play well enough on defense and special teams tonight to win the game. And congrats to them.”
“They didn’t do anything tonight that we didn’t expect them to do,” Brown said of Houston’s offense. “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.”
The last play was a scramble in the end zone where Stephon Johnson found a bouncing ball for the game-winning touchdown.
“Everybody’s going to talk about the Hail Mary play. We did not play that well. I don’t think our guy timed up his jump. I’ve got to see it, I saw it live. I saw the ball in the air, I saw we lost. As soon as I saw the ball go in the air, I knew it,” Brown said.
“We practice that and he just didn’t time his jump up. Instead of getting it up, hitting the high point in knocking it down, he mistimed his jump, hit the end of the ball, and it floated and their guy caught it.”
Brown added that his team did not play well as a whole and that lost the Mountaineers the game, not the miscue on defense at the end.
“That’s why to me, this isn’t a deal where I’m heartbroken we lost the game on the last play, that’s not it. 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. We had a touchdown that turned into a fumble.”
As far as Greene goes, he was quite good outside of the penalty. Green passed for 391 yards and two touchdowns, while throwing an interception. He rushed for 47 yards and two touchdowns as well. Greene’s interception eventually led to a 14-point swing on a drop from Jaylen Anderson near the goal line which again fell in the hands of a Cougar, this time it being a Houston defender. Four plays later, Houston had gone 80 yards for a touchdown.
“He was special tonight. I told you I thought he was going to have a breakout performance, he did. You just can’t get the penalty. He’s got to grow up. He’s got to mature. He was special, who was better on the field tonight, who was better. I felt like he was really close to a breakout performance and he did.”
Brown said in the end though the penalty cannot happen.
“The rule is clear, don’t take your helmet off. It’s not hard, keep your helmet off, we can celebrate all we want to on the sideline,” Brown said. “That’s ridiculous. It’s ridiculous and there’s probably nothing I’m more upset about than that.”
Photo by Dale Sparks, All Pro Photography
