Welcome to the fourth edition of my weekly analysis named "I Got Five On It," where I will give you five of my biggest takeaways and thoughts following every WVU football game this season and give you insight on what I saw from watching the Mountaineers. This week, WVU fell in another shoot out with Oklahoma State and the defensive struggles continued in a 48-34 loss to the Cowboys where the West Virginia offense was strong throughout the night but fell short with some costly turnovers.

1-- Tackling must improve on defense and it comes down to fundamentals.

On Saturday, West Virginia's tackling was the worst we've seen on the season, and it was against one of the conference's best running backs, Ollie Gordon, and led to a ton of yards after contact. Watching the Oklahoma State game on Saturday, there were a lot of missed gaps and a lack of lane integrity paired with poor tackling attempts and that was a recipe for disaster. The defensive unit struggled in open space and were not stout in their form tackling and used a lot of arms to bring ball carriers down, which against a strong runner like Gordon made for some big plays. And honestly, this comes down to coaching and technique on defense and that definitely needs to improve on the second level of the defense. Coach Brown spoke about it after the game, but the group as a whole struggled mightily in that area, however there is potential with this group especially in terms of physicality. In past games this season, we've seen tackling from defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley's group be a concern, and they were making strides up until last week but have allowed over 40 points in two straight games. Getting back to the fundamentals should be a priority for this group and hopefully they can see some improvement next week because we've seen the potential that's there.

2-- Gordon is a legitimate talent and it's visible that he has next-level aspirations.

My colleague Keenan made a comparison on Saturday that I couldn't deny and that is the comparisons between OSU's Ollie Gordon and a former Iowa State running back and current New York Jets ball carrier Breece Hall. Watching Gordon against the Mountaineers, he has shades of what you see in an NFL talent since he can handle the ball well and doesn't jeopardize possession, but more importantly, he is a strong and balanced runner and his ball carrier vision is special. Gordon on Saturday was great at second-effort plays, but also showed a unique combination of speed and strength in the running game and he was explosive once he got to the second-level. He was able to survey the defense and find and manufacture running lanes and that's not something you see from college running backs. Of course, credit must go to the Cowboys' offensive line who also had a great night pushing WVU off the ball, but Gordon was the one to finish off the plays and put an exclamation point on the game. After going for 282 and four touchdowns, the second-highest rushing performance against the Mountaineers in school history, Gordon has solidified himself as a top-tier running back in the conference.

Related: The Day After: West Virginia football vs. Oklahoma State

3-- The offense has been stellar in the last two games but at this point, it's been for nothing.

After tonight, West Virginia has accumulated over 450 yards in two straight games, both of which ended in a loss. Last week against Houston, the Mountaineers actually outgained the Cougars and fell in that game, but Saturday was not the same with still a very similar offensive output. WVU finished with 475 total yards compared to OSU's 491 yards but I don't think that was really the difference in the game on Saturday. The defense has struggled of course, but the offense may have turned a corner in terms of what works well for them. Earlier this season, the Mountaineers won a game against Pittsburgh passing under 100 yards and there were certainly a lot of question marks for that phase of the offense and the lack of confidence and consistency shown in the pass game. Now, with Greene solidly under center and recovered from his injury, Brown may have finally found a flow in his offensive passing game with 391 yards and 249 yards through the air in back to back games. Greene has also obviously improved with his deep to medium balls and that's worth noting in this passing attack. The positive changes in this part of the game also includes a visible bump in confidence for this part of the offense, where you'll see Brown go to it more often on first downs or in third and medium situations along with mixing in the occasional shot play. Now that confidence, performance and consistency have started to meet the last two games, hopefully WVU can ride what has worked.

4-- Inopportune turnovers and missed opportunities caused the downfall against Oklahoma State.

Turnovers, turnovers, and turnovers came at the absolute worst time for West Virginia and it includes wasted drives, wasted plays and of course losing the ball. WVU finished with three turnovers starting with an early-game fumble that put the Mountaineers down 10-0 right from the beginning. Tight end Kole Taylor caught a pass and looked to be working up field when he lost the ball and it took an unlucky bounce directly into the defenders' hands. This was step one in the downfall on Saturday night, because then another turnover assisted that 10-0 deficit and that was the interception from Greene in the first half. While rolling out to his left, Greene threw a pass into coverage on a route he believed to be open and it was underthrown and intercepted, the second turnover of the night. Then, West Virginia put together a strong stop in the second half but are struck with another costly turnover caused by two teammates running into each other on a muffed punt, which if fielded cleanly would have given the Mountaineers a chance to take control of the game and go up by two possessions. These missed opportunities culminated with the fact that there were just a few drives and plays that were wasted by Coach Brown and the offense, including some first down plays that lacked aggressiveness and seemed to just waste a down by not pressing the issue. For example, I continue to go back to the two drives in the third quarter, where West Virginia was leading by a field goal, and albeit backed up deep in its own territory, WVU only ran six plays in eight minutes within that quarter and this missed opportunity ended up giving Oklahoma State multiple chances to get back into the game. In that situation, you would like to see WVU give themselves a chance to get out of their endzone and put the ball down the field and be aggressive, but passive play calling somewhat put those drives to bed before they started, To the defense's credit, West Virginia created stops and even forced a turnover in the early second-half but possessions deep into their own territory were just wasted plays that spelled disaster on the way.

5-- Was the hangover real? Did WVU let Houston beat them twice?

This may be up to the coaching staff and the players to respond to this loss, but Coach Brown recognized how many would attribute this game to a loss of focus and a hangover from the emotional performance and outcome against Houston on the road. I think I agree and disagree with this idea for a couple of reasons because in one eye, the Mountaineers' offense has been hitting its stride and you can firmly say it played well again with 475 yards and 34 points on the board. However, you also look at the lackadaisical defensive performance in terms of tackling in the run game and the very slow start on both sides of the ball and point to this as a sign of hangover from one game to the next. I don't think Houston directly effected this game and I think you saw that in how this team rebounded. We've all seen it in football before how one team doesn't show up and isn't ready for the game or is overmatched and this was not WVU on Saturday, even at the beginning. When you look at unlucky mistakes in the first half and going down by 10 early, you could look and say that the hangover is real. It's much harder for me to say that after how the Mountaineers responded and took the lead multiple times throughout the second and third quarters, but the fourth quarter hit this team. The offensive unit responded to the adversity in the game and answered the hangover questions, but it's tough to see the second-straight week of a defensive struggles and that brings into question how the last game effected that unit. However, it's going to end up being up to the coaching staff and players to prove me wrong and respond to these two losses, because I think they could be connected some, but you can't deny how West Virginia battled through two emotional contests. I'd like to see them bounce back in a big way but that's up in the air with UCF on the road ahead.

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