Learning Experience
September 20, 2009 02:53 AM | General
September 20, 2009
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia’s 41-30 loss at Auburn on Saturday night looked a lot like a rerun of the Mountaineers’ 21-13 loss at South Florida two years ago.
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| Quarterback Jarrett Brown had 287 yards of total offense, but threw four interceptions Saturday against Auburn.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
If you recall, West Virginia turned the football over six times against an aggressive Bulls defense. The Mountaineers had trouble that night blocking South Florida’s front four despite beating USF up and down the stat sheet.
On Saturday, West Virginia ran 80 plays, produced 509 yards of offense, scored 30 points, got 128 yards rushing from Noel Devine, and held the nation’s second-best rushing offense 245 yards below its average.
The Mountaineers also lost.
Six turnovers that directly led to 24 Auburn points are to blame.
“The deal in football isn’t total yards,” said West Virginia offensive coordinator Jeff Mullen. “I know we all get caught up on it. Shoot, people get tabbed guru on it. People get jobs based upon it. But the bottom line is winning ballgames - and winning ballgames is not turning the ball over and giving up points.”
Naturally, the first place to start is Jarrett Brown’s four interceptions and one fumble. But Mullen pointed out that it’s not quite that simple. Some of the turnovers were the result of poor protection, some were because of poor route running, and some were because of poor decision making.
“There was one specifically where we felt like it was a route. There was one where we felt like it was a tipped ball. There was one where we felt like Jarrett forced it into coverage. There was one where I think there was a pressure out of the front,” Mullen said. “It sure felt like at the time that there was a breakdown in one of the three areas, whether it was the protection, the throwing or the catching.”
The offensive plan going into Saturday’s game was to try and possess the football and keep Jeff Casteel’s defense, minus key starters Reed Williams and Scooter Berry, off the field as much as possible.
“We knew how important it was to keep Coach (Gus) Malzahn and his offense off the field,” Mullen said. “They run a lot of plays and really limit your possessions on offense. We were trying to make the most out of every position and do our best to keep Coach Casteel’s defense off the field as much as possible.”
For a good portion of the game that happened. Then in the fourth quarter when the game was on the line, four straight West Virginia drives ended with interceptions – three thrown by Brown and one by true freshman Gino Smith, who was making his first collegiate appearance when Brown landed awkwardly on his shoulder and was helped off the field (afterward West Virginia coach Bill Stewart said Brown was fine).
That made a manageable deficit unmanageable.
Brown’s terrific passing performance last week against East Carolina may have caused some to lose sight of the fact that he was making his first career road start in an environment not really conducive to providing on-the-job training to inexperienced quarterbacks.
The only other time Brown has seen significant action playing on the road? That's right, that eight-point loss at USF in 2007 when Pat White went down with a thigh injury.
In that game, USF pressured Brown into throwing a pair of interceptions that either killed a drive or cost the Mountaineers an opportunity to score points.
Mullen prefers to use what happened to Brown on Saturday night as a teaching tool.
“This was a wonderful opportunity for us to evaluate the film, make sure we’re calling ball plays that we can be successful at, and then certainly coach him better off of it,” Mullen said.
Against Auburn, Brown completed 18 of 32 passes for 221 yards and ran 19 times for 66 yards, many times avoiding pressure to get positive yardage or extending plays to search for open receivers down the field. Sometimes Brown’s scrambling worked. Other times it didn’t.
The trick before the next game against Colorado on Thursday, Oct. 1, will be for Mullen to try and help Brown find a happy medium - harnessing the good and limiting the bad.
“I’ve got to do a much better job with him in helping him understand the importance of taking care of the football,” Mullen said. “That is something we are going to work very hard on over these next 12 days.
“It is certainly something that we’re going to have to clean up if we’re going to win any more ballgames,” Mullen added.
