After the win against Texas Tech on Saturday, it's clear that the West Virginia defense took another step forward, holding the Red Raiders to only 13 points after being tested time and time again. Defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley feels like this is an aspect of their game that can be relied upon.
The Mountaineers' on defense rallied to back up their best defensive performance against Pittsburgh with three interceptions, by stringing together another solid outing to cap off the three-game home winning streak. WVU held a powerful and up-tempo Red Raiders offense to only 211 total offensive yards in Saturday's contest.
Texas Tech came into Saturday's matchup in Morgantown averaging just under 35 points per game at 34.6 and accumulating over 400 yards per game on average, but the Mountaineers were able to shut them down.
"I think the first thing is fundamentals, the next thing is how we play. The good thing about that is we'll always have guys that we can point to on how we want to play," Lesley said.
This was especially true on third down and in the redzone on Saturday. West Virginia's defensive unit only allowed Texas Tech to move the chains on two of its 18 third-down conversion attempts and they also stopped three of the Red Raiders' eight fourth down attempts to create turnovers on downs.
"[Stopping third and fourth down] is really their MO. They’re by the book on that and then you have the percentages and they're really aggressive off those numbers, knew that going in," Lesley said. "They were that way last year, so we expected that. I think we were able early to really be effective on first and ten, especially at the start of a series to get them off schedule."
On the season the Mountaineers are holding opponents to just a 25-percent conversion rate on third down.
This strong performance on crucial third down plays, in a game that came down to only a one-touchdown deficit to add, is a credit to what West Virginia did in neutralizing the Red Raiders on especially first down and in early down situations.
"First down is always key, it's getting them off schedule and getting them behind the chains. It’s really been just great team defense and everything working together," Lesley said. "The guys, they feed off each other and they hold each other accountable. They know more people’s jobs than their own and so they're able to communicate and look around."
Head coach Neal Brown has credited what the defense has done in early down and what specifically the defense has been doing well to put teams behind the chains.
"I think we're creating more pressure as well, whether we're sending three, four or five, we're creating more pressure and we're getting into some more friendly down and distance," Brown said. " Which means we're better at first and 10's and we're getting teams in more third and longs."
Now with two solid performances under their belt, Lesley and the West Virginia defense are comfortable that they can rely on their fundamentals and practice, which can help them focus on what they need to do to be successful.
'[Changes are] more fundamental than it is anything else. We don’t go out with the changes we made defensively over the off-season. We’re not going to go out from day to day and week to week and reinvent the wheel. I think it's more about getting better at what we're trying to do. This year, it's about getting better at what we’re doing, who we are and who we have to be to be successful," Lesley said.
----------
• Talk about it with West Virginia fans on The Blue Lot.
• SUBSCRIBE today to stay up on the latest on Mountaineer sports and recruiting.
• Get all of our WVU videos on YouTube by subscribing to the WVSports.com Channel
• Follow us on Twitter: @WVSportsDotCom, @rivalskeenan, @zachanderson_11
