The message to the West Virginia defense was loud and clear this past week.
Run to the football and eventually good things will happen. Pursuit was one of the things that bothered head coach Neal Brown the most about the 38-20 loss to Texas, so it was a focus all week.
The West Virginia defense had struggled in most games this season but compounding that was the fact that the unit had struggled to force turnovers.
It isn’t as easy as it sounds in theory, but one key thing that helps in that department is simply playing hard and rallying to the ball.
“We’ve got to get better, everybody understands that,” Brown said. “But if we just continue to play hard good things will happen. Things have a funny way of evening out.”
The Mountaineers hadn’t gotten many bounces through the first five games of the year, so the defense took it upon themselves to create some against Baylor.
Brown didn’t hesitate to say the biggest play of the game was the forced fumble by defensive lineman Sean Martin that was returned 65-yards for a touchdown by linebacker Jasir Cox. That play was critical considering the Bears had driven the ball deep into West Virginia territory and was already ahead 17-10.
That play flipped the entire momentum of the game and gave the Mountaineers some new life after struggling to get things going on the offensive side at times in the first half.
“If you play hard and do things the right way in preparation the ball is going to eventually bounce your way and let’s be honest it hasn’t bounced very many damn times our way this year until tonight,” Brown said. “We got a couple good bounces.”
The Mountaineers forced a total of three turnovers, which resulted in 14 points in the 43-40 win over the Bears. While the defensive gave up 590 yards and 40 points, they did deal with a number of injuries in an already shorthanded secondary. But the overall theme was received loud and clear.
“We keep working at it at practice trying to get turnovers, fumble recoveries and anything and it happened tonight,” Cox said. “It showed that we have to take the ball away. That’s something we emphasized this week and we executed well.”
This was a unit that played with effort and made their own breaks through that including yet another fumble recovery by Cox late in the game as well as an interception by Aubrey Burks.
“When you run to the football and the ball is on the ground you get it. I’ve been selling it to the kids and it’s something I believe with every ounce of my being,” Brown said.
“Had some guys come in and make plays and we forced turnovers,” he added. “We’ll grow from that.”
This unit is far from arriving at this stage of the season with plenty of issues to sort through, but as long as the defense plays with effort there is the possibility for plays like what unfolded against Baylor.
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