Mountaineers Come Up Inches Short in Upset Bid Against No. 22 OSU

Saturday, November 23

Morgantown, W.Va.

12:00 p.m.

West Virginia University

4-7 , 2-6

Oklahoma State

8-3 , 5-3

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Oklahoma State

West Virginia

Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks

Mountaineers Come Up Inches Short in Upset Bid Against No. 22 OSU

November 23, 2019 03:53 PM | Football

Box Score Neal Brown Postgame Josh Chandler Postgame George Campbell Postgame Jarret Doege Postgame Jeffrey Pooler Jr. Postgame Game Photos West Virginia - Oklahoma State Game Book West Virginia Postgame Notes

By: John Antonik

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – They say football is a game of inches and mere inches are what decided today's football game here at Milan Puskar Stadium in overcast Morgantown.

No. 22 Oklahoma State was able to get the tough yards it needed to hold off feisty West Virginia 20-13 in front of a season-low 46,022 fans on Senior Day for 22 Mountaineer players.

The two times Oklahoma State got the football near the goal line it scored touchdowns on short Dru Brown touchdown passes while West Virginia's red zone opportunities either resulted in field goals or empty possessions.

"I think the story of the game came down to the issues we had all year. They are the issues that haunted us today - our lack of ability to run the football," West Virginia coach Neal Brown said. "We didn't score touchdownsin the red zone."

The OSU defense wasn't the only ones keeping WVU out of the end zone.

Early in the second quarter, freshman Sam James took a Jarret Doege pass over the middle and lunged into the end zone with the football appearing to break the plane of the goal line for a 12-yard score.

The official on the far side of the field ruled that James was down just short of the goal line and the replay official chose not to overrule the call on the field, making it first and goal at the Oklahoma State 1.

Two Doege quarterback sneaks went backwards about a foot and before he could run another play, offensive guard Michael Brown was called for a false start that moved the football back to the 6.

Doege's third-down pass to Isaiah Esdale fell incomplete and West Virginia settled for Evan Staley's 22-yard field goal, making the score 7-3.

The way West Virginia was moving the football between the 20s - and was unable to advance it inside the 20 - made the James play early in the second quarter one to circle.

The Mountaineers (4-7, 2-6) did get into the end zone the next time they had the football as Doege marched them from their 30 to the OSU 34 where he delivered a pretty 34-yard touchdown pass to senior George Campbell, who made a terrific adjustment on the ball to get into the end zone.

Doege also did an outstanding job withstanding heavy pressure to deliver a catchable ball to Campbell.

It was Campbell's team-leading seventh touchdown reception of the season.

West Virginia's defense made the 10-7 lead hold up until halftime against an Oklahoma State offense ranked eighth in rushing, ninth in total offense and 16^th in scoring.

However, the Cowboys took their opening possession of the third quarter from their 28 to the West Virginia 19 where Brown was sacked by Jeffery Pooler Jr. for an 8-yard loss on third and 6. Matt Ammendola came onto the field to kick a 44-yard field goal to tie the score at 10.

Following an exchange of possessions, West Virginia had the football back in OSU territory when Doege found Campbell wide open along the near sideline for 39 yards to the OSU 46.

A 13-yard Doege pass to Simmons and then a 21-yard completion to running back Leddie Brown coming out of the backfield got the football to the Oklahoma State 11.

West Virginia's next play, a Brown run, went backwards 4 yards to the WVU 15 and Doege went backwards 6 more yards when he was sacked by Samuela Tuihalamaka at the 21.

Doege was able to get back 9 of that on a swing pass to Isaiah Esdale setting up Staley's 29-yard field goal and making it 13-10.

"Too many missed opportunities," Brown said. "Credit to them. They made the plays at the end of the game and we didn't."

The score remained that way until early in the fourth quarter when the Cowboys marched 78 yards in 13 plays to make it 17-13. West Virginia got heavy doses of Chuba Hubbard, who finished with 106 yards on 26 attempts, and Dillon Stoner, who caught eight passes for 62 yards and a touchdown.

"Chuba is the real deal," Brown said. "He hurt us in the pass game today, especially a couple of screens and a couple of third downs. He either made us miss or stiff-arm or ran through tackles. We had him bottled up a couple of times and he just got out."

It was Stoner who caught the 2-yard touchdown on the second-and-goal play.

Five minutes later, Oklahoma State extended its lead to 20-13 when Ammendola punched through a 22-yard field goal with 6:18 remaining after West Virginia had a three-and-out possession.

Beginning at its 25, West Virginia got two first-down catches from James and Ali Jennings to advance the ball to the OSU 42.

A pass interference penalty on Rodarius Williams when he made contact with Sean Ryan during a deep pass down the middle gave the Mountaineers a first down at the OSU 27.

A Doege-to-James pass for 9 yards on second down gave the Mountaineers a third and 1 at the 18. Here, Brown chose to use his first timeout with 3:23 remaining.

A Leddie Brown rush into the middle of the OSU defense failed to get a first down, and Brown had to use his second timeout with 2:42 left.

Brown's fourth-down run did get the yard, but a screen pass to Kennedy McKoy two plays later lost 2 yards, and T.J. Simmons' inability to hold on to Doege's pass over the middle led Brown to call his final timeout with 1:43 on the clock to set up a fourth-down play.

"We had critical drops - I think we had four drops in the second half," Brown said. "Some of those were competitive catches, but you have to make those to win games and we didn't do it."

Another Doege pass to Simmons fell incomplete and Oklahoma State took over the ball at its 19 yard line and ran out the clock.

Doege finished the afternoon completing 28-of-38 passes for 307 yards and a touchdown. Campbell caught five passes for a team-best 92 yards as nine different Mountaineer players caught passes.

"Offensively, at some points today, we looked like we were getting ready to take off," Brown said.

Brown completed 22-of-29 passes for 196 yards and two touchdowns and a OSU running game averaging 265.2 yards per game finished with just 89 when counting West Virginia's three sacks.

West Virginia actually outgained Oklahoma State 333 to 285, but the Cowboys managed to get the tough yards when the Mountaineers couldn't.

"I'm proud of our guys," Brown said. "I thought they played extremely hard. Last time I was in this chair after a game at home (a 38-17 loss to Texas Tech), I was not pleased with the performance we had, and how we represented our program. It's a totally different story today.

Today's victory was the fourth straight for Oklahoma State, now 8-3, 5-3, and its fifth straight against West Virginia since the Mountaineers upset the Cowboys 34-10 in Stillwater in 2014.

West Virginia will wrap up its season next Friday afternoon in Fort Worth, Texas, against TCU in a game that will kick off at 4:15 p.m. and will be televised nationally on ESPN.