Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
West Virginia-Baylor Game Preview
October 30, 2019 08:00 PM | Football
| Tale of the Tape |  |
 |
|---|---|---|
| Points Per Game | 38.9 | 22.7 |
| Points Against | 19.1 | 33.4 |
| Rushing Yards Per Game | 202.7 | 88.1 |
| Rushing Yards Allowed Per Game | 137.4 | 178.0 |
| Passing Yards Per Game | 281.4 | 226.0 |
| Passing Yards Allowed Per Game | 221.1 | 229.9 |
| Total Yards Per Game | 484.1 | 314.1 |
| Total Yards Allowed Per Game | 358.6 | 407.9 |
| First Downs For | 162 | 127 |
| First Downs Against | 141 | 165 |
| Fumbles/Lost | 11/4 | 5/2 |
| Interceptions/Return Ave. | 6/10.0 | 4/15.0 |
| Net Punting | 36.3 | 38.7 |
| Field Goal/Attempts | 5/8 | 7/12 |
| Time of Possession | 28:07 | 29:13 |
| 3rd Down Conversions | 36/80 | 40/108 |
| 3rd Down Conversion Defense | 48/119 | 39/95 |
| Sacks By/Yards Lost | 25/129 | 18/115 |
| Red Zone Scoring | 36/30 | 16/19 |
However, an upset of the undefeated Bears will not be an easy chore for Neal Brown's youthful Mountaineer football team.
Baylor (7-0, 4-0) rolled through the nonconference portion of its schedule by a margin of 140-44 in wins over Stephen F. Austin, UTSA and Rice, but demonstrated its grit in a tough 23-20 home victory over Iowa State in its league opener back on Sept. 28.
An impressive 31-12 victory over Kansas State in Manhattan, Kansas, followed. Then came a 33-30 two-overtime win over Texas Tech before Baylor registered its most impressive performance of the season in Stillwater, Oklahoma, when it came back to rout Oklahoma State 45-27 on Oct. 19.
"They got down and then completely turned it," West Virginia coach Neal Brown said. "I don't remember exactly what the score was, but Baylor scored, Oklahoma State scored to go up and then Baylor finished the game strong.
"I think they matched scores a couple of different times and coming from behind in that atmosphere … the fans are right on top of you beating their paddle boards and all that kind of stuff (was impressive)."
The Kansas State and Oklahoma State performances may be an indication that Baylor is beginning to hit its stride with standings-altering games on the horizon against TCU, Oklahoma and Texas in the next three weeks.
Junior quarterback Charlie Brewer, who had one of the worst performances of his college career last year in Morgantown, is completing 66.3 percent of his pass attempts for 1,866 yards and 12 touchdowns. Brewer has also run 61 times for 145 yards and six touchdowns, but he mostly scrambles to buy extra time to throw to an exceptionally fast receiving corps that features a couple of big-play threats in Denzel Mims and Tyquan Thornton.
Mims leads the Bears with 33 catches for 519 yards and five touchdowns, while Thornton has been an outstanding complementary weapon with 26 catches for 507 yards and three scores.
R.J. Reed is another pass-catching threat with 25 receptions for 296 yards and two scores.
Speedy running back JaMycal Hasty, coming off a season-best, 146-yard rushing performance at Oklahoma State, is another threat in the passing game with 16 catches for 143 yards. It was Hasty's 73-yard touchdown run late in the fourth quarter that put the Oklahoma State game on ice.
Defensively, the Bears play a three-down front and will use their D-linemen to occupy blockers and create lanes for their second-level players to rush the passer. Baylor had six sacks in the Kansas State win and five a week later against Texas Tech.
Two weeks ago, Baylor had a pair of sacks against Oklahoma State to give them 25 heading into Thursday night's game, good for 16th nationally. In addition to those 25 sacks are 55 tackles for losses and a 13-7 turnover advantage. Baylor is also extremely effective at blocking kicks.
The Bears allowed 21 points or fewer in their first five games to open a season for the first time since 1991 and are the only Big 12 team yet to give up more than 28 points during regulation this season.
The Baylor D is giving up just 19.1 points per game, best in the Big 12 and 19th nationally.
West Virginia, seeking to avoid its first four-game losing streak since the 2015 season, has been a work in progress under first-year coach Neal Brown.
After suffering a 38-7 blowout loss at Missouri, West Virginia recovered a week later to upset NC State 44-27. Another win followed at Kansas before the Mountaineers experienced consecutive losses to Texas, Iowa State and Oklahoma.
WVU was within striking distance of Texas and Iowa State going into the fourth quarter and scored a touchdown late in the second quarter to pull within 14 points of Oklahoma at halftime.
"I really felt like we were making strides up through the first half of the OU game where we were getting better," Brown said. "Now some of that was hidden because Austin (Kendall) didn't play against Iowa State, but we really made some strides in that game that didn't necessarily show up in our production."
But unproductive third quarters have really hurt West Virginia in its last three losses. The Mountaineer offense has scored just three third-quarter points in its last three games and WVU has been outscored by 49 points in the second half of those games.
Some of that can be attributed to a lack of depth, which is really showing up late in games.
Overall, West Virginia's two-deep roster is littered with true freshmen, redshirt freshmen and first-year players. Brown said earlier this week that he is no longer using the F-word (freshmen) because most of them have as much as seven game's worth of experience under their belts, but West Virginia's inexperience has been on display at the most inopportune times of football games.
Yet despite having an inexperienced supporting cast and missing nearly the entire Iowa State game with an upper body injury, junior quarterback Austin Kendall has performed solidly in his first season behind center for the Mountaineers.
The Waxhaw, North Carolina, resident is completing 63.5 percent of his pass attempts for 1,429 yards and 11 touchdowns with seven interceptions.
Redshirt freshman Sam James has been his leading target with 41 catches for 388 yards and two touchdowns – a lot of that coming in the NC State win when he snared nine passes for 155 yards and a touchdown.
Junior T.J. Simmons has emerged as a competent No. 2 receiver with 31 catches for 409 yards and four touchdowns. In his last three games against Texas, Iowa State and Oklahoma, Simmons has been the Mountaineers' most reliable receiver with 18 catches for 284 yards and four scores.
"We've got a lot of hope on offense," Brown said. "People sometimes wonder why I come in here in a good mood because we've lost three games in a row and we got our tail kicked pretty good (against Oklahoma), well, offensively I think the future is very bright for us."
It will become even brighter when WVU develops a more effective run game.
With the exception of NC State and Kansas, WVU has gotten next to nothing out of its rushing attack against James Madison, Missouri, Texas, Iowa State and Oklahoma.
West Virginia ran for just 34 yards in the season opener against James Madison, had 30 in a 31-point loss at Missouri, gained 96 in an 11-point defeat against Texas, produced 41 in a 24-point loss to Iowa State and managed 51 most recently against Oklahoma.
The Mountaineers' inability to run the football has affected all facets of play, including defensively, where Vic Koenning's unit is having to defend more snaps than usual. Twice this year the Mountaineers have surrendered more than 200 yards on the ground, and Oklahoma came three yards shy of reaching the 200-yard barrier 11 days ago.
The defense is also lagging in turnovers, something for which Koenning's units at Troy were known. The Mountaineers are producing just one turnover a game so far this season after Koenning's guys at Troy averaged nearly 2 ½ last season.
Getting some turnovers Thursday night and having some success on special teams are two areas where West Virginia could possibly slow down Baylor.
"Here is where we are at with this football team – I just want to get better, period," Brown said. "I'm not spending a large amount of time on what Baylor's doing on offense, defense and special teams – not because I don't respect them because I do – and I'm not spending any time whatsoever looking at any other teams in the league because for our football team right now, we've just got to get better."
WVU will have a chance to demonstrate that before a national television audience. The contest will kick off at 8 p.m. and will be televised on ESPN (Adam Admin, Matt Hasselbeck, Pat McAfee and Holly McGrath).
The Mountaineer Sports Network's coverage will begin at 4:30 p.m. on stations throughout West Virginia leading into regular network coverage with Tony Caridi, Dwight Wallace and Jed Drenning at 7 p.m.
West Virginia has a 5-2 advantage over Baylor in the series with the Mountaineers taking the last three, including a 38-36 win in Waco two years ago.
Players Mentioned
A Special Announcement for No. 5 Pat White
Friday, June 05
NCAA Super Regional (Steve Sabins, Chansen Cole, Tyrus Hall) - WVU Baseball | June 5
Friday, June 05
Pat White No. 5 Retirement
Friday, June 05
Gold-Blue Spring Festival Fan Recap
Sunday, April 19
