Photo by: Caleb Saunders
Oklahoma State’s Experience on Display Saturday
September 27, 2020 01:53 PM | Football, Blog
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – You can really boil down West Virginia's 27-13 loss at 15th-ranked Oklahoma State on Saturday to one word – experience.
Oklahoma State has a lot of it and West Virginia really doesn't.
"Credit Oklahoma State," West Virginia coach Neal Brown said afterward. "They've won a ton of games like this.
"Here is the deal," Brown added later. "They repeatedly made routine plays. I don't think they did anything extraordinary that I can remember, and that's how you win games – just repeatedly stack routine plays and we didn't do that."
The Cowboy defense West Virginia faced 10 months ago in Morgantown was basically the same one running around out on Boone Pickens Feld Saturday – 10 of 11 starters were back. In fact, Phil Steele, who charts all of the FBS teams in his preseason magazine, considered Oklahoma State the 11th-most experienced team in the country.
So when the COVID-19 virus forced the Big 12 to reshuffle the deck and change its scheduling model for this fall, Oklahoma State drew an ace when it got youthful West Virginia and West Virginia pulled a deuce when it got experienced Oklahoma State right out of the gate.
The Cowboys boast 31 juniors and seniors on their offensive and defensive two-deep rosters, while the core of West Virginia's offensive and defensive players will be returning for the next couple of years.
The game's two biggest plays were really the result of West Virginia's inexperience – a misfit on L.D. Brown's 66-yard touchdown run early in the second quarter and a young tackle being unable to get enough of Trace Ford to keep him from blindsiding Jarret Doege, forcing the quarterback to fumble resulting in Tyron Irby's 56-yard scoop and score.
Those 14 points basically decided Saturday's game.
There were some other instances of West Virginia's inexperience.
The Mountaineers were penalized an alarming 12 times for 106 yards – this coming from a Neal Brown football team that typically doesn't beat itself with penalties.
"We gave them 10 points on offense – the scoop and score and then a procedure penalty on third and 1 that gave them the ball back right before half," Brown said. "It was just an undisciplined receiver not getting lined up and a quarterback not looking and we give them a field goal there."
And, four times Oklahoma State put the football on the ground and all four times the Cowboys recovered.
"I think you make your own breaks," Brown said. "We had opportunities to get on all of them, really, we just didn't do it. We have to look back and see how we were getting hats to the ball and what was the difference."
But there were plenty of bright spots for the Mountaineers, too.
Junior tailback Leddie Brown continued to run hard and got a lot of his game-best 104 yards after contact. He has now strung together consecutive 100-yard games for the first time in his career, marking the first time a WVU back has been able to do that since the 2017 season.
"I thought Leddie ran hard, but we cannot have the penalty he had (unsportsmanlike conduct after running for a first down)," Brown said. "That is a selfish penalty. He is one of the leaders of our team and was a captain for the game and you can't have that penalty.
"But the effort and the strain that he played with is what we need across the board," Brown added. "He plays physical, ran the ball hard and broke tackles. I just thought he was this close (puts his two fingers together) to breaking a couple of more so I thought he competed."
Sophomore Winston Wright Jr. caught a 70-yard touchdown pass and continues to show the explosiveness in the slot he demonstrated during preseason camp. Four of his receptions went for 103 yards and West Virginia's other inside receiver, T.J. Simmons, caught four passes for 82 yards in one of his better performances at WVU since transferring from Alabama three seasons ago.
"I thought both of our insider receivers did a nice job winning versus man coverage," Brown said.
A pair of transfers also led the WVU defense. Arizona transfer Tony Fields II was credited with nine tackles in his first Mountaineer start at inside linebacker, while Alonzo Addae continued his solid play with a team-high-matching nine stops from his free safety position.
Felds came up with West Virginia's lone turnover when he stepped in front of a Shane Illingworth pass and returned it 22 yards to the OSU 42.
Kicker Evan Staley, who struggled at times last season, made both of his field goal attempts on Saturday and a third unsuccessful one wasn't his fault because the snap was mishandled.
For the people who rely on stats, West Virginia actually outgained Oklahoma State 353 to 342 and had two more first downs than the Cowboys.
Doege didn't connect on a high percentage of his passes (20 of 37), but he didn't throw an interception for the second straight game and many of his aerials on Saturday were contested by Oklahoma State's outstanding secondary.
So there were many positives to be taken out of Saturday's defeat.
If West Virginia can clean up the penalties, shore up some of its protection issues and fix some of the misfits it had on defense then the Mountaineers should be in a much better place when Baylor arrives this Saturday for the Big 12 home opener.
It won't be easy, though, because the Bears will be coming to Morgantown with some confidence after an impressive 47-14 victory over Kansas in Waco yesterday.
"How do we handle this next week? How do we come back after not playing and not competing like we want to compete against one of the top teams in our league?" Brown said. "We've got to handle adversity better, and we've got to compete because most of these guys are going to be here for two years or more.
"Before we can win big games, we've got to quit losing them," he concluded.
Oklahoma State has a lot of it and West Virginia really doesn't.
"Credit Oklahoma State," West Virginia coach Neal Brown said afterward. "They've won a ton of games like this.
"Here is the deal," Brown added later. "They repeatedly made routine plays. I don't think they did anything extraordinary that I can remember, and that's how you win games – just repeatedly stack routine plays and we didn't do that."
The Cowboy defense West Virginia faced 10 months ago in Morgantown was basically the same one running around out on Boone Pickens Feld Saturday – 10 of 11 starters were back. In fact, Phil Steele, who charts all of the FBS teams in his preseason magazine, considered Oklahoma State the 11th-most experienced team in the country.
So when the COVID-19 virus forced the Big 12 to reshuffle the deck and change its scheduling model for this fall, Oklahoma State drew an ace when it got youthful West Virginia and West Virginia pulled a deuce when it got experienced Oklahoma State right out of the gate.
The Cowboys boast 31 juniors and seniors on their offensive and defensive two-deep rosters, while the core of West Virginia's offensive and defensive players will be returning for the next couple of years.
The game's two biggest plays were really the result of West Virginia's inexperience – a misfit on L.D. Brown's 66-yard touchdown run early in the second quarter and a young tackle being unable to get enough of Trace Ford to keep him from blindsiding Jarret Doege, forcing the quarterback to fumble resulting in Tyron Irby's 56-yard scoop and score.
Those 14 points basically decided Saturday's game.
There were some other instances of West Virginia's inexperience.
The Mountaineers were penalized an alarming 12 times for 106 yards – this coming from a Neal Brown football team that typically doesn't beat itself with penalties.
"We gave them 10 points on offense – the scoop and score and then a procedure penalty on third and 1 that gave them the ball back right before half," Brown said. "It was just an undisciplined receiver not getting lined up and a quarterback not looking and we give them a field goal there."
And, four times Oklahoma State put the football on the ground and all four times the Cowboys recovered.
"I think you make your own breaks," Brown said. "We had opportunities to get on all of them, really, we just didn't do it. We have to look back and see how we were getting hats to the ball and what was the difference."
But there were plenty of bright spots for the Mountaineers, too.
Junior tailback Leddie Brown continued to run hard and got a lot of his game-best 104 yards after contact. He has now strung together consecutive 100-yard games for the first time in his career, marking the first time a WVU back has been able to do that since the 2017 season.
"I thought Leddie ran hard, but we cannot have the penalty he had (unsportsmanlike conduct after running for a first down)," Brown said. "That is a selfish penalty. He is one of the leaders of our team and was a captain for the game and you can't have that penalty.
"But the effort and the strain that he played with is what we need across the board," Brown added. "He plays physical, ran the ball hard and broke tackles. I just thought he was this close (puts his two fingers together) to breaking a couple of more so I thought he competed."
Sophomore Winston Wright Jr. caught a 70-yard touchdown pass and continues to show the explosiveness in the slot he demonstrated during preseason camp. Four of his receptions went for 103 yards and West Virginia's other inside receiver, T.J. Simmons, caught four passes for 82 yards in one of his better performances at WVU since transferring from Alabama three seasons ago.
"I thought both of our insider receivers did a nice job winning versus man coverage," Brown said.
A pair of transfers also led the WVU defense. Arizona transfer Tony Fields II was credited with nine tackles in his first Mountaineer start at inside linebacker, while Alonzo Addae continued his solid play with a team-high-matching nine stops from his free safety position.
Felds came up with West Virginia's lone turnover when he stepped in front of a Shane Illingworth pass and returned it 22 yards to the OSU 42.
Kicker Evan Staley, who struggled at times last season, made both of his field goal attempts on Saturday and a third unsuccessful one wasn't his fault because the snap was mishandled.
For the people who rely on stats, West Virginia actually outgained Oklahoma State 353 to 342 and had two more first downs than the Cowboys.
Doege didn't connect on a high percentage of his passes (20 of 37), but he didn't throw an interception for the second straight game and many of his aerials on Saturday were contested by Oklahoma State's outstanding secondary.
So there were many positives to be taken out of Saturday's defeat.
If West Virginia can clean up the penalties, shore up some of its protection issues and fix some of the misfits it had on defense then the Mountaineers should be in a much better place when Baylor arrives this Saturday for the Big 12 home opener.
It won't be easy, though, because the Bears will be coming to Morgantown with some confidence after an impressive 47-14 victory over Kansas in Waco yesterday.
"How do we handle this next week? How do we come back after not playing and not competing like we want to compete against one of the top teams in our league?" Brown said. "We've got to handle adversity better, and we've got to compete because most of these guys are going to be here for two years or more.
"Before we can win big games, we've got to quit losing them," he concluded.
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