--West Virginia head coach Neal Brown said they didn't get it done and made too many mistakes. In a game that had such few possessions, you can't do things to beat yourself like negative plays on offense. They played poor complimentary football. They had a chip shot field goal that they missed and the defense needed to put out the fire and they had a miscommunication and it was 7-7. The Mountaineers punted the ball inside the 10 and they went on a 17-play 91-yard drive to score a touchdown. The offense needed to be able to answer, but they went out and had to kick a field goal and made it 14-10. The defense gets two punts at the start of the second half and offensively they couldn't capitalize on it. The Mountaineers had chances at 14-10 and couldn't do it.
--Special teams the issues they had they struggled at kicker, kickoff was short. They had a big kickoff return, Ollie Straw had a great day. And the coverage units were very good. Defensively, the biggest thing they've got to work on is getting off the field because they were 11-14 on end-of-possession downs. They scored touchdowns in the red zone. One half of the defense was playing one call and the other one was another on the explosive play. They held them to 2.9 per rush and gave them opportunities to stay in the game. West Virginia on offense struggled on the fringe and in the red zone. There were eight possessions in the game and of those possessions, two they scored touchdowns, the missed field goal was inside the red zone and the made one was in the fringe and the interception was in the fringe. They had too many negative plays due to the snaps. They continued to execute the two-minute offense well and on third downs. That was a game they were right there and simply didn't make enough plays to win.
--Kansas State is similar in its approach to Iowa State. They are used to winning and on special teams they are really sound. Their specialists are good. They want to run the football, they are multiple and they shift and use a lot of motions. Giddens their running back is playing very well. Their offensive line has some good players. Kansas State is a three-down defense and are more multiple. They are really talented at corner and play a lot of man coverage.
--Brown said they broke some tackles on that first drive. And they moved their front around a little bit. They usually play a five, four high and some big guys up front but they had some pressure answers. They played more of a traditional defense as the middle safety played more of a quarters look.
--Garrett Greene didn't play well enough to win Saturday, but he is the starter. He hasn't done anything to lose that job but has to make better decisions. There are scenarios that Nicco Marchiol could play in packages and they have a bright future with him but he is the backup.
--Brown lives in a bubble during the season and he is in this building from Sunday all the way to his radio show Thursday. What is hard about this from a coaching perspective is the family piece to it because they're open to scrutiny. They didn't sign up for that. The intent is not to screw up from a coaching and player perspective.
--It's next week. It's a new week Sunday is the off-day and treatment and recovery they meet at 10 a.m. At 9:50 they flip it over and move onto the next week. You have to make the corrections and be accountable and hold yourself to a standard.
--Brown said they have to get the high snaps fixed. Yates had a hand injury, they had 11 in the game and five were critical. Livingston played the last two drives and did pretty well. It had to do with gripping the ball. There were plays that were there including five of those that were directly because of the snap. Yates' hand is better.
--Jaden Bray is going to miss this week, he got hurt at the end of the Oklahoma State game with a lower leg injury. They'll evaluate it after that.
--Brown said you have to create your own momentum. They had an option route that was clearly pass interfered and it was picked. They probably did hold the guy in the end zone but that wasn't how the game was called. Fate worked against them there but they had opportunities where they should have made the field goal, converted the third and three. They should have gotten off the field on two third and longs.
--That was a uniquely small number of possessions but West Virginia can't be a group that beats themselves. For West Virginia to get to that level they can't make those types of mistakes. They're better but to knock out a top-ten team you can't do those type of things.
--There are some instances where teams are better. That wasn't necessarily the case here, or it wasn't the case at Pitt. They just didn't make plays at winning time or calls at winning time.
--Burks is questionable. He has only played one full game he's had some lingering injuries. T.J. Jackson did not practice today but it's going to be close. He has a weird lower leg injury and they will see how he feels.
--Coverage wise Kansas State is a lot different than Iowa State on defense but they might take some things from what West Virginia did against the three-man front.
--Brown understands that the fan base wants to win but asks if they had a good time at the game? If they're in the deal for enjoyment Brown urges fans to come back. They need the fans to come back and provide a home-field advantage. They've played a tough schedule, everybody that's beaten them hasn't lost. He understands the frustration but when you watch the product, other than the outcome, there is clear strain and physicality. It was an entertaining football game, they didn't win.
--TJ Crandall was injured last week and the two corners played pretty well so they didn't sub a lot.
--Some of the issues in the run game against Iowa State were poor footwork and they didn't ID things the way they should have. The only play that was frustrating to him was the blown coverage but they had to earn everything they did.
--Schematically they do a good job with their twists getting vertical, especially in the B-Gap. They play two big noses with vertical push and their two ends are really active. They get strain sacks and strain pressures. They get it just because they outwork those guys.
--Brown said they have four-down and three-down plans. They do a late spring breakdown of opponents and he spends some time in May taking notes on plans they like. They work those in summer OTAs and fall camp. They pick and opponent and try to hit them three times and Sundays he goes back to look at those summer notes to see what matches. There are always different ways to change the picture for the defense but for the most part the schemes are the schemes.
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