WVSports.com looks at the Baylor postgame press conference from West Virginia Mountaineers head coach Neal Brown and determines the three most interesting topics of discussion following West Virginia's 17-14 loss to the 12th-ranked Bears.

We examine what was said as well as what it means for the football team both this week and moving forward.

1. Delay of game before field goal - Thursday’s game was filled with miscues and missed opportunities by both teams, but one of the most costly mistakes by West Virginia came late in the game.

Casey Legg, filling in for an injured Evan Staley and attempting his first-ever field goal attempt in a football game from 43 yards out, made the kick which would’ve tied the game up at 17-17 with less than four minutes left in the game.

But a delay of game penalty was called on West Virginia which wiped away the field goal and the attempt from 48 yards out was blocked.

The Mountaineers had three timeouts at the time and failed to use one prior to the delay of game. Brown took full responsibility for the gaffe.

“We got people that are kind of in charge of looking at the clock, but at the end of the day, it’s my fault,” Brown said following the game. “(I’m) sitting there worrying about how we’re going to use our timeouts, how we’re going to kick off and I didn’t see the clock, so that’s on me.”

Things didn’t get any better from there with Baylor completing a 43-yard pass on 3rd-and-17 on the ensuing drive and West Virginia being unable to rally with no timeouts left at the end of the game on offense.

2. Brown praises defense, special teams - Among the positives that came out of Thursday night’s loss for West Virginia were the performances of the defense and special teams.

The defensive unit lost Josh Norwood to a targeting penalty late in the first quarter, which put true freshman Kerry Martin into the game at safety. True freshman Jared Bartlett also saw some snaps at bandit.

But despite some of the departures this season, injuries and all of the young and first-year players who have had to step up and be counted on to contribute this season, this unit forced two turnovers and was a force to be reckoned with all night long, racking up eight total sacks against the Bears.

The unit did in fact allow the 43-yard completion on third-and-long which was another backbreaker for West Virginia during the game, but this group helped put the team in a position to get an upset win and stood tough against a fast and talented Baylor offense.

“They kept us in it,” Brown said. “I thought especially our defensive line, they really put pressure on Charlie (Brewer) all night and (Baylor’s wideouts) made some contested catches.”

Special teams have mostly been solid this season for the Mountaineers aside from the blocked punt that resulted in a touchdown for Oklahoma before the bye week and blocked field goal Thursday night, but this unit scored half of West Virginia’s points with a 95-yard kick return for a touchdown by Winston Wright and recovered a fumble on a muffed punt by Baylor.

“It was huge,” Brown said of the kickoff return for a touchdown. “I thought our kickoff team and punt coverage were really, really good.”

3. Offense continues to have problems - West Virginia’s offensive woes continued against Baylor and it wasn’t pretty.

Two turnovers, penalties, miscues, dropped passes, two bad snaps and the inability to capitalize on opportunities all proved to be costly for West Virginia as the Mountaineers finished the game with 219 yards of total offense with just 14 rushing yards on 26 carries, but 48 yards were lost due to the two bad snaps.

Overall, Baylor committed three turnovers during the game, but the West Virginia offense didn’t score any points off them.

In this game, quarterback Austin Kendall completed 20-of-39 passes for 205 yards with a touchdown and an interception with 83 of those passing yards coming on a touchdown pass to George Campbell during the third quarter.

Wide receiver T.J. Simmons, running back Kennedy McKoy, who ran the wildcat formation against Baylor at times and offensive guard Chase Behrndt all got banged up and missed part of the game, but regardless, this offensive group was dominated by the Bears’ defense.

“It was just a struggle, they whipped us up front,” Brown said. “It wasn’t anything special they were doing. They kind of played what they did and they whipped us.”

WATCH: West Virginia Mountaineers head football coach Neal Brown | Baylor Postgame

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