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Undefeated Mountaineers Still a Work in Progress
September 25, 2016 11:55 AM | Football
LANDOVER, Md. - Dana Holgorsen reminded everyone sitting in the media room at FedExField early yesterday evening following West Virginia’s 35-32 victory over BYU that he never, ever takes a win for granted.
His Mountaineer football team got their third one on Saturday by making one more play than the Cougars did when senior cornerback Maurice Fleming was able to secure a tipped pass near the end zone with only a minute showing on the clock.
Fleming’s interception ended what turned out to be a very unpredictable, sometimes bizarre late September afternoon in suburban Washington, D.C.
“There were a lot of things that happened that put that victory in jeopardy, but due to us playing as a team we figured out a way to win,” noted Holgorsen.
Indeed, it did.
West Virginia’s offense drove the length of the field three times for touchdowns and looked like a well-oiled machine for most of the game, quarterback Skyler Howard completing throws to 10 different players and hitting on better than 75 percent of his pass attempts for 332 yards and a touchdown.
That’s very encouraging.
Cornerback Rasul Douglas made a beautiful pick-six late in the second quarter when Justin Arndt’s pressure forced BYU quarterback Taysom Hill to throw an ill-advised pass out in the flat, and the offense took advantage of some rare good field position midway through the third quarter to score another touchdown -- all of this helping West Virginia build a 16-point lead with 11:27 to go.
Those things were very encouraging, too.
But then, when the Mountaineers needed to get some critical first downs or push the football across the goal line to seal the deal, they couldn’t get out of their own way.
A dropped pass by Ka’Raun White, and then a much bigger drop late in the game when senior center Tyler Orlosky and Howard got their signals crossed, turned concern on the WVU sideline into downright worry.
That critical goal-line fumble gave BYU the football at its own six with 1:39 still to play.
“They were starting to blitz and I figured we could freeze them and they would jump gaps, but they didn’t blitz on that one so Skyler went up to get a play called and T.O. thought that they jumped so he snapped it,” explained Holgorsen. “It’s miscommunication that can’t happen. Any time you freeze people then you’ve got to do a better job of taking care of the ball. It’s on me. I put the call in there. They know what they did wrong and they know how to fix it.”
Immediately, as they had done on two prior fourth-quarter touchdown drives that were made in rapid-fire succession, the Cougars marched right down the field to the West Virginia 28 in a matter of just 39 seconds before Fleming came to the rescue.
That’s probably not how winning game plans are drawn up during the week, but it does demonstrate the inconsistent and unpredictable nature of college football - even for undefeated teams.
“I think we probably relaxed a little bit and the game wasn’t over,” admitted Holgorsen. “Defensively, we’ve got to get out there and stop them. If we give up a score, which we did, then the offense has got to go out there and they’ve got to make up for it.”
Holgorsen pointed out several areas that his coaching staff must address this week in order to not take another victory for granted next Saturday against Kansas State, which is not very likely anyway since the Wildcats are one of two teams the Mountaineers have yet to defeat since joining the Big 12 four years ago.
The coach said he was not happy with a kickoff coverage unit that consistently allowed BYU’s offense to take the field about where the Washington Redskins logo sits at midfield; he was not pleased with a defense that allowed BYU (a team that was averaging just 111 yards per game rushing) to run for 280 yards and average 6.7 yards per rush; he was not happy with the defense’s inability to get off the field on third down (ending a streak of 27 straight games of holding its opponent to less than 50-percent success rate on third down); he was not happy with the defense’s ineffectiveness in getting to the opposing quarterback and he was not happy that the offense was unable to take control of the game in the fourth quarter to stop BYU’s momentum.
But, collectively, they were able to stick together, overcome their wounds - some self-inflicted - and come up with one more play than the other guys.
And that’s the most encouraging thing of all.
“It’s encouraging to be able to address some of these things when you’re 3-0 as opposed to losing a game like this and trying to address it after that,” Holgorsen pointed out.
So now it’s on to next Saturday to face a Kansas State team that West Virginia fans have gotten to know pretty well over these last four years in the Big 12.
It’s a game that could very well begin to chart the Mountaineers’ course for the remainder of the season. Based on the limited number of tickets remaining, West Virginia fans are certainly not taking this one for granted.
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