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 42-31 loss to Texas and what could happen next for the Mountaineers.
--This game isn't hard to diagnose on the surface. You simply can't turn the ball over four times, three of which resulted in touchdowns, and expect to be a fringe top ten team. It can't happen and for West Virginia it did and the game out away from them in large part because of it. If you look at the final line, the Mountaineers actually out gained the Longhorns 463-427 but by now you know that you "can't score yards," and that was true here as well. Texas did what the Longhorns have done this season by keeping drives alive going 10-18 (55.6-percent) on third down and relying on the run game (216 yards) and junior Sam Ehlinger to make enough plays to pull away when they needed to. Thought the way they controlled the ball almost +13 in time of possession and +13 in total plays was significant in wearing down the defense.
--I do think this team is getting better. It's not going to be pretty at all times and Texas was able to make the plays that West Virginia couldn't in others, but this team didn't quit and continues to grow up. I think that you'll see this club continue to improve as the year goes on and if you remember how bad Missouri looked this team just took Texas to the edge for over three-quarters. I understand you don't want to read moral victories, but you do want to see improvement. That's happening.
--Biggest sequence of the game in my opinion came after the Keith Washington interception trailing 21-14. The Mountaineers get the unsportsmanlike conduct penalty tacked on to start 1st and 10 at the 15-yard line of Texas and have a one-yard run, a dropped pass, and a one yard pass to kick a 29-yard field goal and squander away that chance to tie the game. That was a momentum killing sequence with the interception in the first quarter after going ahead 7-0 the runner up.
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