It was a disappointing showing for West Virginia in their 34-12 loss to No. 8 Penn State on Saturday.
As the coaching staff and players look to move on and look toward UAlbany, WVU head coach Neal Brown gave his final thoughts on the game and had a message to fans.
“We’re an 0-and-one football team till we do something about it and we’ve got a great opportunity on Saturday night (against UAlbany),” Brown said. “My message to our fans is I wouldn’t lose faith on one game. You know we didn’t perform well. Penn State’s got a good team but we’ll bounce back. And we’ll get back on track. And we’ve got a good football team and we just got to go out and show it. And so it starts this week with our next opportunity, so I hope fans turn out. It should be a nice night. We’re going to get to see the lights for the first time, and so looking forward to that.”
The Nittany Lions outplayed the Mountaineers in almost every aspect. However, West Virginia played what could be considered ‘sloppy football.’
“Offensively just below our standards. You know, like the turnovers we had, ball issues, repeatedly, and you’re not going to beat quality [opponents] (playing like that), and that’s something we didn’t do last year. And we had three turnovers and we put the ball on the ground a couple more times. That’s bad football and we struggled with just basic functioning football,” Brown said.
Brown also noted how red zone struggles played a role in the outcome.
“As bad as we played, if we just score in the red zone, then we have a ball game. We had it in the red zone the exact same amount of times they (Penn State) did and we were one for four there. We don’t convert a fourth and one, we kick two field goals, and we get a touchdown, and that’s the game right there.”
With the proliferated buildup and expectation for West Virginia heading into week one, the loss to Penn State may feel that much more significant to fans. Brown emphasized, even before, and after the game, that a loss doesn’t make or break the Mountaineers’ season.
“To wrap it up, just to close out that game, it’s not going to make or break us. I think I told you all that a week ago, this game wasn’t going to make or break us. The frustrating thing is, you work to get to a point where you play a game that’s on a national stage, and then we just didn’t produce, and there’s no reason being (in) denial about it.” Brown said. “You got to own it you got to learn from it, you got to grow and that’s kind of where we’re at. We got to grow from it and our season’s still in front of us.”
West Virginia will look to work out the kinks this week and move on from the loss while preparing for UAlbany. While the coaches and players alike aren’t thrilled with the outcome, as Brown stated, all they can do is learn and grow from it.
