WVSports.com looks at the Texas Tech postgame press conference from West Virginia Mountaineers head coach Neal Brown and determines the three most interesting topics of discussion following West Virginia's 38-17 loss to the Red Raiders.

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

1. West Virginia’s offense beats themselves - The Mountaineers had their problems again offensively against Texas Tech like they have all season.

It was a combination of Texas Tech being able to make plays and West Virginia not being able to get out of its own way as the Mountaineers went just 6-of-15 on third down, 1-of-5 on fourth down and converted on just 2-of-5 of its red zone trips.

Dropped passes from West Virginia’s receivers also hurt the unit throughout the game with one of those drops resulting in an interception during the first quarter. This was one of four turnovers for the West Virginia offense (two interceptions, two fumbles).

Quarterback Austin Kendall also had some missed throws on plays that could’ve been touchdowns for West Virginia such as the 51 and 47-yard passes to Sam James. Had Kendall hit James in stride, both plays each could’ve been touchdowns.

Junior and Bowling Green transfer Jarret Doege, who'll redshirt this season, saw his first game action of the season late in the third quarter and finished the game at quarterback because Brown wanted to get him reps.

Brown also insisted that quarterback play isn’t the lone problem for the team’s offensive woes.

“I’ll say this, I wish quarterback was our problem," Brown said. "I wish quarterback was our problem because that’s an easy fix.”

Overall, the Mountaineers did gain a season-high 549 total offensive yards and redshirt freshman wide receiver Sam James tallied 223 receiving yards (the fourth-most receiving yards in a single game in program history), but the yards and individual performances don’t matter at the end of the day if they don’t lead to points on the board and a win which was the case for West Virginia.

“We did some good things offensively, but we do things to beat ourselves over and over again,” Brown said following the game. “To me, the game came down--it was 21 points--the game comes down to turnovers and missed opportunities in the red zone... I thought we had some good individual performances but at the end of the day, it’s not good enough.”

2. Difference from last week to this week defensively - It was a completely different story for the West Virginia defense against the Red Raiders.

After last week’s strong performance against Baylor which saw Vic Koenning’s defense hold the Bears to a season-low 17 points, the Mountaineers surrendered close to 500 yards of total offense (481) and 354 yards through the air (the second-most passing yards the defense has allowed this season).

Although, the defensive unit held Texas Tech to just three points during the second half, the damage had already been done with the Red Raiders controlling the tempo and pouring on 35 first half points.

Texas Tech’s fast tempo, ability to control the line of scrimmage and win one-on-one battles helped pave the way for victory.

West Virginia’s defensive line that accounted for five of eight sacks last week against Baylor wasn’t effective on Saturday. Overall, the Mountaineer defense failed to record a sack against Tech and tallied four tackles for loss.

While the Mountaineers have had their issues with injuries and underclassmen playing, Brown said that’s no excuse and at the end of the day, the defense on the field couldn’t make plays to win the game.

“I didn’t think we handled the tempo very well at all. I didn’t think we played with the same sense of urgency up front,” Brown said. “We’re limited in the secondary as far as bodies.

“Some of those guys are beat up. Here’s the deal: that’s all excuses. They made plays, and a lot of those plays were one-on-one.”

3. Brown’s message to the fans - Brown closed his postgame press conference with an unprovoked statement.

The first-year West Virginia head coach praised the fans who attended the Mountaineer Mantrip as well as the game and asserted that the program will have success in the future despite the rough season it has had in year No. 1 of his regime.

“They were supportive. They were here through the bad first half. They were here through the second half and a high percentage of them stayed and I appreciate that and that absolutely does not go unnoticed,” Brown said.

“And we’re not playing very well as a football team right now. We’ve got a ton of work to do in this program, but I’ll tell you and this is probably going to be on one of our worst days, but I’ll tell you right now, is we will build a successful program here and it doesn’t look like it right now, but because of them (fans) and for them, we will be successful here.”

Brown’s full statement can be watched below from the 10:42-12:25 mark.

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

WATCH: Musings from the Mountains | West Virginia Football vs. Texas Tech Recap | Episode 40

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