West Virginia and head coach Neal Brown were dealt their second consecutive loss this past Saturday, falling 48-34 to Oklahoma State.
On Monday, Brown held his weekly press conference and reflected on the loss and what caused it. He also previewed WVU’s trip to Orlando this week to face UCF, while also explaining what the remedy will be for the Mountaineers to end their two-game slide this upcoming Saturday.
Oklahoma State Rundown
West Virginia led the Cowboys 24-20 in the fourth quarter and were going to get the ball back. From that point on things went downhill in a hurry. A miscue on a punt, then the Ollie Gordon show as the Mountaineers ultimately lost by two touchdowns.
“Small margin for error in the Big 12; fine line. We could be 6-1 but we’re sitting here at 4-3 and the reason behind that is we had leads in the fourth quarter the last two weeks and we haven’t finished. We haven’t finished very well particularly on defense, haven’t played well at all in the fourth quarter. I think the biggest stat to me was 17-0, and that’s points off turnovers,” Brown said.
Brown went into detail about all three phases and how he judged the performances of each group.
Special Teams
Special teams had a good day outside of the poor punt team execution.
“Our field goal block team continues to be really a strong point. We got a push and affected that kick there near the end of the half. We blocked a punt, I think we’re one of the leading teams in the country in blocked kicks so far,” Brown said.
“I thought Ollie Straw bounced back. Probably had his worst game of his career against Houston, bounced back… Missing too many tackles on kickoff and it’s really a lot of the same culprits that are missing tackles on defense.”
Defense
“Defensively, quite simply, just wasn’t good enough. On the positive side, I thought our d-line played better. We played poorly at outside linebacker, inside linebacker, and safety and those are all your leverage points on defense,” Brown said. “We had 16 missed tackles and I may be being kind, we may have had more. Our run defense was not anywhere close to what it needs to be.”
A big part of the change in the success on defense for Brown the last two weeks compared to the three games prior is getting away from fundamentals.
“Overall, I think the takeaway from defense is we have to be better fundamentally. If you look at it, when we played good defense in the stretch we had Pitt, Texas Tech, and TCU, all three of those games we played quality defense,” Brown said.
“We played [with] really good fundamentals and that’s where it’s really fallen apart against Houston particularly in the fourth quarter and last week in the fourth quarter. We’re not leveraging the football, and we’re not keeping our edges and then we’re not using our hands and that’s why we’re getting some yardage on perimeter screens we shouldn’t. And the last thing is we got to run our feet through contact. It’s pretty elementary stuff, it’s things that we’ve done well and that’s why it’s really frustrating and it’s disappointing because we’ve done it well on tape and we didn’t do it well in the last two fourth quarters and it’s cost us.”
Offense
Offensively, there is not as much to be displeased about if you are Brown. The last two weeks the Mountaineers have had two of their better offensive performances of the season, including strong showings from quarterback Garrett Greene.
Brown said Greene had three poor decisions this week — two of which were instrumental in deciding the game. The first was an interception which led to an Oklahoma State touchdown on the ensuing drive and the second was on a fourth down late in the game when Greene made the wrong decision on a zone read.
“Offensively, I thought Garrett continues to play at a high level. He’s getting better, you can see his confidence. He had three really costly plays. The interception, he threw the double move into cover two… that was a bad decision, he knows it. Missed a touchdown when we had to kick a field goal there. When we tied it at 27, we really had a touchdown play, he just came off of it too early. Then he had the pull when he should’ve handed the ball off on 4th and 2. Other than that he played really well.”
Despite the good there was still some bad for the Mountaineers. Brown said there were a lot of points left for the taking and challenged multiple guys on his offense to continue to play better.
“I thought we left 17 points out on the field. Kole’s fumble is inexcusable, should never happen. He’s got to play better, Devin (Carter) can play better. I think both of those players are really good players and we need them to play. And then we got to start faster. Really disappointed in that, and then we got zero points off two turnovers.”
Heading South
Brown and the Mountaineers are heading to Orlando to face UCF. The Knights are coming off a two-point loss on the road to Oklahoma, and are still winless in Big 12 play.
“Both teams need a win. They’re coming off one of their better performances. I thought they played really well in Norman last week against a team that’s probably one of the best four-five teams in the country right now,” Brown said.
“Offensively, they’re a spread team, they’re going to tempo. They’re a run-first but they’re hitting some explosive passes… This is one of the best rushing teams in the country.”
“Defensively, they played their best game in my opinion versus an Oklahoma team that’s really good on offense. That’s the best they played the run. Their defensive front, they’re long, they’re big in the middle,” Brown said. “This is probably the best corner tandem we’ve played since Penn State. Two long guys… they’re going to lock them up and play man coverage the whole game.”
Playing Team Football
In order to get back to their winning ways which they experienced earlier this year, Brown said they are going to have to play together in all three phases. Brown said during the two losses, there have been things to like from each phase, but they have not put it all together like they did earlier in the year.
“I believe in this group. We’ve played quality football in all three phases. We got to get back to where we play all three at the same time,” Brown said.
“We played really well on special teams minus that play. At times the last two weeks on offense, we’ve been really, really, good and I think there’s still room for growth there. And then defensively, we showed it during a three-game stretch. Now we just got to get it to show at the same time. And if we do that, then we’ve got a chance to win every single game.”
