Oklahoma bests WVU 56-28
It started with Oklahoma stomping on the West Virginia logo and finished with the Sooners doing the same to the Mountaineers Big 12 Championship aspirations 56-28 Saturday night in Morgantown.
With the college football world tuned into the prime-time match up the No. 9/10 Mountaineers (8-2, 5-2) fell flat in the first half with their chance to impress and a late rally fell short to the No. 8 Sooners (9-2, 8-0).
West Virginia turned the ball over four times resulting in 27 Oklahoma points, while the Sooners only turned the ball over once and used a fast start to take control of the game in the first quarter. And while the Mountaineers would cut the lead to 13-points in the fourth quarter, West Virginia couldn't overcome the mistakes to get any closer.
In the first half, Oklahoma used three West Virginia turnovers along with 80-penalty yards to jump out to a 34-0 lead and never looked back in the Sooners fifth straight win over the Mountaineers. At halftime, the Sooners had accounted for 357 yards while turning three turnovers into 20 points.
Much as was the formula two years ago, Oklahoma ran the football effectively rushing for 313 yards on the legs of junior Semaje Perine (160 yards and 2 touchdowns) and sophomore Joe Mixon (147 yards and a touchdown).
One bright spot to the Mountaineers offensive effort was junior running back Justin Crawford, who didn’t start the game but finished with a career high 331 yards rushing, good for third all time in West Virginia single game history.
Senior quarterback Skyler Howard completed only 12-27 passes for 191 yards with two touchdowns and an interception as the offense struggled throughout until the game wasn’t in jeopardy. Howard would also add a pair of rushing touchdowns in the game.
The Mountaineers won the opening coin toss and deferred the option until the second half putting the Oklahoma offense on the field first. And after a 12-yard run by Perine, the Sooners offense would stall and kicked the football to Gary Jennings who would muff the punt and Oklahoma would subsequently recover the ball at the West Virginia 34-yard line. The Sooners would quickly move the football inside the five-yard line and Perine would cap off the drive with a two-yard touchdown run out of the wildcat formation to put the score at 7-0 with 10:53 left in the first quarter.
After a touchback, the Mountaineers would take over at their own 25-yard line and after getting the start, freshman running back Kennedy McKoy would leave the game after one snap. From there, the West Virginia offense would go three and out and punt the football back to Oklahoma.
It would take three plays for Oklahoma to find the end zone again on a screen play into the Mountaineers blitz as Westbrook would take the ball 75-yards to put the Sooners ahead 14-0 with 9:16 left in the first quarter adding to the difficult start for West Virginia.
After a first down, West Virginia would again punt the football back to the Sooners and Oklahoma would cash in yet again this time with a 78-yard drive over nine plays capped off with a five-yard touchdown pass to Jeffery Mead to put the score at 21-0 with 3:24 left in the first quarter.
The Mountaineers would go three and out again giving the football back to Oklahoma with the first quarter coming to a close. And the West Virginia defense would respond with a stop getting the ball back to the offense at the start of the second quarter.
West Virginia would put together its best drive of the game inside the Oklahoma ten yard-line on the heels of two Justin Crawford scampers, but the struggles would continue as Crawford would fumble the football and the Sooners would recover it keeping the Mountaineers off the scoreboard.
After holding the Sooners on third down, West Virginia would rough the punter and give Oklahoma another first down on a night that continued to spiral the wrong way for the Mountaineers. And that would be all the Sooners offense needed to cap off a 96-yard drive with a five-yard touchdown run by Mixon to put the score at 28-0 with 10:07 remaining in the first half.
The Mountaineers night of miscues would continue on the following drive when the offense would take the ball inside the five-yard line and fumble it for the second time leaving the score at 28-0, despite 162 yards rushing from Crawford with 8:12 left in the first half.
The Mountaineers defense would be unable to stop the Sooners again as Oklahoma would travel 97-yards this time in 11 plays to put the score at 34-0 after a missed PAT with 2:26 remaining.
After being denied multiple times, West Virginia would score its first points of the game on a 20-yard touchdown pass to Durante to put the game at 34-7 with 1:13 left in the half. And that would be the score as the two teams headed to the locker room.
On the first drive of the second half, West Virginia would turn the ball over again and this time a pick six by the Sooners to put the game out of reach for good at 41-7.
West Virginia would add two late Howard rushing touchdowns as well as a touchdown pass to White to cut the score to 41-28 with 10:06 remaining but the Mountaineers would never cut the score closer as the Sooners would add a critical late touchdown and another with the game already out of reach.
West Virginia will head to Iowa State next Saturday for a 3:30 p.m. kickoff in Ames.