Each week WVSports.com Managing Editor Keenan Cummings provides a look at some of the things that stood out to him during the course of the game and on the stat sheet.
These observations are a snap shot of what unfolded in the West Virginia 17-14 loss to Baylor and what could happen next for the Mountaineers.
--Well, that was deflating. This West Virginia team battled hard on the road against an undefeated team in a hostile environment but you aren’t awarded anything for moral victories. In the end, you can’t help but think this is one that got away especially with how well the defense played despite all of the injuries and things that they have dealt with on that side of the ball, but more on that later. This is a young football team, we all know that, but at times it seemed that they just didn’t want to find a way to win it with critical mistakes in high leverage situations. There were two snaps that ruined drives and of course the field goal by Casey Legg that was waved off due to a delay of game. Those are mistakes that simply can’t happen and that falls on all parties involved, especially the latter with three timeouts in the pocket. There were a lot of positives in how this team responded out of the bye week but it’s going to be remembered more for what they weren’t able to do and the opportunities that slipped away.
--The West Virginia defense was a patch-work unit with freshmen and new players all over the field but it was the story of this game holding the Bears to 17 points and recording 8 sacks. That sack total is the most that the Mountaineers have had in a single game since matching that against Connecticut in 2011. The defense forced two turnovers, essentially three if you consider the goal line stop in the first half, and continued to make play after play in this game. You hate to see an effort like that wasted but Vic Koenning got everything he could out of the unit and one positive is that a lot of these guys will be back. This team averaged 39 points per game coming in and the defense did its job.
--West Virginia rushed for 14 yards on 26 carries. That is the lowest total that the Mountaineers have accounted for since -10 against Syracuse in 1996. A 30-7 loss. Now granted they lost 48 yards on the two bad snaps but the Mountaineers can’t run the ball right now clearly, but major credit to this team in the pass blocking department with only one given up against a team that has lived in opponents’ backfield.
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