Bear Down!
October 18, 2014 02:14 PM | Football
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - West Virginia turned the ball over three times on its side of the field, lost both its starting cornerbacks during the game, and then went on to defeat the nation’s fourth-ranked team going away on Saturday.
Dana Holgorsen Press Conference
Check out Saturday's photo gallery from the 47-21 victory.
Go figure.
Clint Trickett tossed touchdown passes of 36, 12 and 39 yards, and the Mountaineer ground game did just enough to remove another team from the ranks of the unbeaten, upsetting No. 4 Baylor, 41-27.
"Obviously I'm proud of the guys for the way they finished to get the win here at home," said West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen.
It was the third time West Virginia has defeated the nation’s No. 4 team in Morgantown, and like the other two this one was all on the D.
Tony Gibson’s crew was magnificent throughout the game, holding the nation’s No. 1-ranked offense to only 318 yards of offense with 10 of Baylor’s 27 points coming as a direct result of West Virginia turnovers deep in its own territory.
In fact, the last two times these two teams played, Baylor had that many yards after the first quarter of play.
But that didn’t happen today, not against this defense.
Dana Holgorsen Press Conference
"Holding Baylor to 318 yards on (79) plays is not something I thought we would be able to do," said Holgorsen. "We made the decision on Sunday of last week and I thought Coach Gibson did a great job of executing the decision of we were just not going to let them sit back in the pocket and just it to an open space like they did last year. We didn't affect Petty one bit last year and they did a great job of affecting him. We got four sacks (three by senior Shaq Riddick) and we got to him early."
The Mountaineers (5-2, 3-1) spotted Baylor seven points just 59 seconds into the game after Trickett was sacked and fumbled the ball at his own 7, and later in the first half Trickett threw a pick that was returned to the WVU 37, leading to three more Bear points.
Still, the West Virginia defense, without starting corners Daryl Worley and Terrell Chestnut who were both injured this afternoon, forced Baylor to punt nine times, held twice on fourth down deep in its own territory and limited Bryce Petty to just 16-of-36 passing for 223 yards and two touchdowns.
The Bear rushing attack, which came into today’s game averaging 251.5 yards and 5.0 yards per carry, managed just 95 yards on 42 carries.
On the other side of the ball, Baylor’s 25th-ranked defense couldn’t stop outside receiver Kevin White so they grabbed, held, and interfered with him all afternoon. Baylor's DBs drew five penalties trying to defend White, six if you count the one that was declined when White one-handed the go-ahead score with 11:36 left in the game.
In all, the Bears (6-1, 3-1) were flagged a Big 12-record 18 times for 215 yards - something Holgorsen said he noticed when analyzing the game tape this week.
The tide turned midway through the second quarter when Baylor was leading 13-7 and chose to go for it on fourth and 7 at the WVU 26 instead of kicking a field goal. Petty was pressured while attempting to throw to Antwan Goodley and the ball fell incomplete, giving the crowd a surge of energy.
West Virginia (5-2, 3-1) responded with a six-play, 74-yard drive that ended up in the end zone when Andrew Buie dove in from the 1.
After Petty hit Goodley for a 63-yard touchdown pass, West Virginia answered once again with another outstanding drive to get seven. Seldom-used Dreamius Smith was a big part of this drive, netting runs of 11, 7, 6 and 8 before his 9-yard touchdown run put the Mountaineers back in the lead, 21-20.
The margin expanded to four at the end of the half when Josh Lambert comfortably knocked one in from 54 yards. It was the second straight week he has kicked a 50-plus-yard field goal and fifth for his career, tying him with Paul Woodside for the most made kicks beyond 50 yards in school history.
Check out Saturday's photo gallery from the 47-21 victory.
Photo Gallery
After a 10-point third quarter – three coming on Lambert’s 24-yard field goal and seven as a result of Shock Linwood’s 1-yard run for the Bears, West Virginia seized control of the game in the fourth quarter, just as it did a week ago at Texas Tech.
Once again, the defense got things going when it forced Baylor to punt at its own 26 and Jordan Thompson was able to hang on to Spencer Roth’s boot at the WVU 32.
Right away Trickett went to the air, hitting White for 12 to the 44 before finding Buie out of the backfield for 42 years to the Baylor 14. Two plays later, White was standing in the end zone with his second touchdown catch of the game.
Yet again, the D forced another Baylor punt, and Thompson was able to hang on to the ball at the WVU 22, giving the Mountaineers a chance to distance themselves with 9:57 left in the game.
A Wendell Smallwood run and a pass to Mario Alford netted 10 yards to the 32, eight more on a Trickett-to-White pass moved the ball to the 40.
Smallwood runs of 4 and 3 yards moved the ball to midfield where White kept the chains moving with a 14-yard catch to the Baylor 39.
The key play of the drive – and the game – came in third and 10 at the Bear 39 when Trickett hit Alford on a quick slant and he was able to out-run the Bear defense to the end zone.
"We had confidence in both Kevin and Mario going vertically and when you don't have guys who can go vertically it makes it hard," said Holgorsen. "We had opportunities and we needed to capitalize on it and we were able to a little bit better there today."
Trickett passed for 322 yards and three touchdowns, extending his streak of 300-yard passing games to eight to establish a school record. White also extended his streak of 100-yard receiving games to seven with his eight-catch, 132-yard effort today.
"I think Goodley is a great player and I think Kevin has improved to the point to be included in the conversation with him," said Holgorsen.
Smallwood, Smith and Buie combined to rush for a combined 150 yards after starter Rushel Shell left the game during the first series with a foot injury.
"I've been talking about depth for a long time," said Holgorsen. "Our starting running back goes out on the first series and we have other guys step up. Our two starting corners go out and we just keep on playing. (Center) Tyler Orlosky goes out for a couple series and (Tony) Matteo goes in."
Goodley matched White with a game-high 132 yards receiving on nine catches. Baylor was called for a staggering 18 penalties for 215 yards, both Big 12 records. Five were called on Baylor defensive backs trying to cover White and a sixth would have gone in the books if West Virginia didn't decline pass interference called on White's 12-yard TD catch.
"That's how they play," said Holgorsen. "I knew it was going to look like this. They had 17 (penalties) against Central Florida and they average about 12. That's how they play. We were going to do the same thing; we were going to play and play physical."
The win today will likely move the Mountaineers into the Top 25 this week, with games coming up against Oklahoma State in Stillwater, Oklahoma, on Oct. 25 and back home against 12th-ranked TCU on Nov. 1 and then later a big home game against 14th-ranked Kansas State on Nov. 20.
The Wildcats will likely move into the Top 10 and become part of the playoff discussion after their 31-30 win at Oklahoma earlier today.
There are still plenty of good tickets remaining for those two games and those can be purchased by logging on to WVUGAME.com.
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