Bye week critical for what comes next with West Virginia football

Bad football.

That is how West Virginia head coach Neal Brown described the 45-20 loss to Baylor. It was a contest where the Mountaineers consistently struggled to block the Bears defensive front and the defense failed to cover the opposition’s pass catchers who were running free the entire game.

It’s a recipe for disaster.

“It’s going to be a long day and it was. Disappointing performance, bad football,” Brown said.

The Mountaineers gave up six sacks and will limp into a bye week on the heels of two of the most disappointing efforts of the season following the 23-20 loss to Texas Tech the week before.

Once is bad, two is a disaster when the major culprit in each was the effort and energy that the Mountaineers failed to play with for a half against the Red Raiders and the entire game Saturday.

"That's two weeks in a row that we did not come to play right away and that hurts us," defensive lineman Dante Stills said. "We just didn't handle business second week in a row."

The Mountaineers have lost three games by a combined 12-points heading into the Baylor contest, but this was something entirely different as the Bears jumped out early and never looked back.

The closest West Virginia could make the game was 15-points in the second half and even that seemed much wider than it actually was given the play in every phase of the game.

The bye week will provide some time for reflection and it’s clear that Brown is looking at everything.

“We’ve got to solve some issues. If you look at it through five games we’ve been right there so we haven’t been far off, but today was a totally different story,” he said. “So, I think everything is on the table.”

Brown admitted that his team simply didn’t do enough to compete at this level which causes head coaches to reflect on what can be done to address it. Ultimately, the team not being ready to play or not having energy is at the feet of the coaching staff and that becomes a major concern moving forward.

The plan is to take 48-hours to regroup and then get back to work with a plan on how to fix the deficiencies. It’s easier said than done, but the bye does at least provide more time to work on it.

But results matter and finding a way to correct these mistakes will be at the forefront of what must emerge from this upcoming open weekend ahead of the TCU game. The Mountaineers are 2-4 and not where anybody reasonably expected them to be, but the season isn’t over.

If West Virginia can put bad football in the past.

“We’re beat up pretty good. Nothing major, probably emotionally beat up more than anything because things haven’t gone very well the last three weeks,” he said. “I think the bye hits at a good time.”

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