The Day After: West Virginia football at Oklahoma
The West Virginia football team followed up their most complete performance of the season with their worst on the road falling to Oklahoma 59-20 in a dominating defeat.
The Mountaineers fell to 6-4 on the season and and WVSports.com takes a look back at what unfolded in our weekly feature The Day After.
HOT:
The opening drive. West Virginia could not have started this game any better as the Mountaineers took the opening kickoff 75-yards in 8-plays to move ahead 7-0 on a 13-yard touchdown run by CJ Donaldson. It was a nice mixture of plays and was the third consecutive game where the Mountaineers had scored on the opening drive. But unfortunately that was the only time that West Virginia would have a lead in this one and from this point forward the ball rolled down the hill in the wrong direction.
NOT:
The rest. I could go and cherry pick some of the things that went wrong in this one for West Virginia but it's appropriate to just call it how it unfolded. The Mountaineers were thoroughly dominated in this football game allowing both the most points (59) and yards (644) of the entire Neal Brown era while the offense struggled to generate much following that impressive opening drive with struggles from the top down. Even the most reliable players struggled in this one. There were glimmers of hope at times, but those were quickly extinguished as the Sooners controlled this one. West Virginia had lost other football games this season, but this was the first that they felt overmatched by an Oklahoma football team that was hitting on all cylinders. There is no use to belabor the point, this was the poorest effort of the season for the Mountaineers.
DEFINING PLAYS:
1st and 10 from WVU 48. After moving the ball around midfield, Greene hung in the pocket and uncorked a throw down the right side to Devin Carter who came open and picked up a 32-yard gain to set the Mountaineers up right outside the red zone.
2nd and 3 from OU 13. Donaldson took the ball off the left side and broke a tackle to race into the end zone to gives the Mountaineers their first touchdown of the game and their third consecutive opening drive that ended in a touchdown.
3rd and goal from 2. Beanie Bishop saved a touchdown with an ankle tackle on Gavin Sawchuk, but on third and goal Dillon Gabriel was able to take the ball off the left side into the end zone to tie things up.
3rd and 11 from WVU 15. After a Sean Martin sack, the Sooners faced a third and long inside the red zone but allowed a 12-yard completion to move the sticks. And Gabriel would go into the end zone for his second rushing touchdown of the first quarter three plays later.
4th and 11 from OU 24. After a pair of three and outs on offense, the Mountaineers punted, and the blocker collided with Drake Stoops forcing a fumble which was recovered by West Virginia to set them up deep in Sooners territory. However, the offense would again go three and out and the field goal attempt was missed badly to keep the mistake from costing Oklahoma.
3rd and goal from 5. After Bishop yet again saved another touchdown with a tackle on a 63-yard pass play, this time the Mountaineers held in the red zone on third down. Bishop yet again was on the play knocking a pass away on a slant in the end zone to hold the Sooners to a field goal.
4th and 2 from WVU 46. The Mountaineers rolled the dice on fourth down and the ball was broken up giving the Sooners the ball in West Virginia territory already leading 17-7.
4th and 5 from the WVU 41. West Virginia had their own chance to get off the field but were unable to do it and the Sooners would make them pay scoring on a touchdown toss to Stonger five plays later to take a 24-7 lead with 9:06 left in the second quarter.
1st and 10 from WVU 32. Oklahoma would tack on yet another touchdown with a 32-yard toss to Jayden Gibson to extend the lead to 31-7 as the Mountaineers continued to sputter on both sides of the ball.
4th and goal from 1. West Virginia had been stuffed three times trying to get into the end zone and on fourth down, the Mountaineers elected to try a shovel pass that was stuffed leaving the only positive drive since the opening one without points on the board.
1st and goal from 3. The Mountaineers got the football back and engineered a 6-play, 75-yard drive with a touchdown toss to Kole Taylor to cut the score to 31-14 before halftime. It was a drive aided by two defensive pass interference penalties, but it helped to erase getting stuffed inside the one.
3rd and goal from 7. After an Oklahoma touchdown, West Virginia was able to move down the field and cashed in on a touchdown toss to Devin Carter to cut the Sooners lead to 38-20 but from there Oklahoma would control the game.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS:
0 - Sacks allowed by the West Virginia offensive line.
1.3 - Yards per play for West Virginia over the next five drives after the opening possession. It was 17 yards on 13 total plays.
1-10 - West Virginia record against Oklahoma as Big 12 Conference members.
2 - Penalties for 20 yards by West Virginia.
4.6 - Yards per play for West Virginia. Oklahoma was at 8.3.
5 - Consecutive scoring drives by Oklahoma to open the game.
6-20 - Third and fourth down conversions for West Virginia.
13 - Games in a row that West Virginia has rushed for 140 yards or more.
17 - Explosive plays by Oklahoma, either passes of 15+ yards or runs of 10+.
19 - Pass breakups by Beanie Bishop. He finished with 2 in this game.
28-29 - West Virginia record under Neal Brown.
37 - Completion percentage by starting quarterback Garrett Greene.
59 - Most points allowed under Neal Brown, the previous high was 55 against Kansas in the second game of the season last year.
336 - The most rushing yards of the Neal Brown era. It is the most against an FBS team overall since rushing for 388 against Oklahoma in 2016.
644 - The most yards West Virginia has permitted in the Neal Brown era. It was the most yards that the Mountaineers have allowed since 672 against the Sooners in 2018.
2018 - The last time West Virginia football was ranked.
15,036 - How many days since the last time West Virginia won in Norman in 1982
Related: West Virginia football crushed by Oklahoma on the road, 59-20
GAME BALL:
None. A week after giving this award to the entire team coming off their best performance this was the exact opposite. Now to be fair, this isn't the first West Virginia team to get dominated on the road at Oklahoma but it doesn't make it any easier to swallow. Credit to this team for taking care of business and beating teams that they should for the most part on the schedule, but this was a chance to secure a signature victory on the road and Oklahoma was having none of that and then some in primetime.
BIGGEST QUESTION/CONCERN MOVING FORWARD:
Can West Virginia forget this and close strong? This game is over and it isn't coming back. It was a perfect storm of picking the worst time to play your worst game against a team that is more than capable of taking advantage of it. The Sooners are one of the most talented teams in the country when they're hitting on all cylinders and that's exactly what occurred in this one and the Mountaineers provided little resistance. But now the trick for the coaching staff is to flush this one as soon as possible and move on to two critical games to close this season.
Cincinnati at home and then Baylor on the road presents a golden opportunity for this team to finish 8-4 and 6-3 in the Big 12 Conference. After this team was picked 14th in the pre-season and expectations were at an all-time low, there isn't anybody who wouldn't have taken that as a strong result for this club. The Bearcats and Bears are a combined 6-14 this season with each winning only three games.
Cincinnati is at home and Baylor is on the road, but both should be very winnable games. An 8-4 record doesn't fix everything, but it certainly provides some much needed momentum heading into bowl season for this staff to work with on the recruiting trail. That's going to require putting this one behind them and showing resiliency in short order which this team has done before. Can they do it again?
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