The West Virginia football team lost at home to Baylor 49-35 to fall to 4-3 in the Big 12 Conference.
The Mountaineers are now 5-5 on the season, and WVSports.com looks back at what unfolded in our weekly feature The Day After.
HOT:
The first half offense. West Virginia didn't play perfect but the unit scored 28 points and rolled up 338 yards to give the Mountaineers a chance with the other side of the ball struggling. The unit got a spark from the rushing ability of quarterback Garrett Greene and was able to cash in on their opportunities.
Second half defense. After a poor showing in the first half where the Mountaineers struggled to tackle, get off blocks and make plays on the football the unit surrendered a total of 335 yards and 35 points. But in he second half, West Virginia held the Bears to just 177 yards and 14 points with seven of those coming off a short field after a turnover. The Mountaineers were trailing 35-28 and the defense made three consecutive stops to give the offense a chance to match that score.
Reid Carrico. The redshirt junior linebacker finished with 16 total tackles and was around the football a lot as he has continued to play well when given the chance.
NOT:
Second half offense. After that strong showing in the first half, the Mountaineers simply struggled in the second failing to put the ball into the end zone or score any points until the game was already decided late. West Virginia had three opportunities to tie the game and drove the field into Baylor territory on each but came up empty.
Fourth down. This has been a good spot for the offense all season, but in this game, two scoring drives were ended by not being able to convert and overall the team was just 2-5 in those situations. The drop by Justin Robinson was critical.
First half defense. It wasn't good at all.
Special teams. West Virginia had been very good in this department but in this game, the program gave up a 41-yard kick return and failed to capitalize on some field position-changing punts. It was an uncharacteristic day at the office.
Home field. West Virginia is now 2-4 at home this season and simply hasn't played well in those situations. It has been the story of this year and with just one opportunity left the chances at a bowl berth could depend on that changing.
DEFINING MOMENTS:
3rd and goal from BU 3. After moving down the field in a hurry, Greene completed an 11-yard pass to Gallagher to set up a third and goal from inside the five. Greene would take the ball off the left side for a walk-in touchdown to give the Mountaineers a 7-0 lead capping off a 12-play, 79-yard drive.
3rd and 1 from BU 34. With a chance to get off the field on the first drive, Baylor elected to throw the football and connected on a 23-yard catch and run to give the Bears a first down. Baylor would score four plays later to tie the score at 7-all and make it look easy in the process.
3rd and 6 from BU 45. Greene had an avenue for a first down but elected to throw the ball and it fell incomplete. It wouldn’t have mattered because there was holding on the play, but a promising drive ended and gave the football back to the Bears in a tie game.
1st and 10 from WVU 43. Baylor once again easily moved the ball down the field and a short throw to Josh Cameron quickly turned into a 43-yard touchdown with poor tackling to give the Bears a 14-7 lead.
2nd and 6 from BU 9. After picking up a pair of first downs via penalty, West Virginia drove the ball deep into the Bears territory and Greene scrambled around and fired the football where it was almost intercepted by Devyn Bobby but it bounced off him and landed in the arms of Traylon Ray for a score.
3rd and 4 from BU 34. The Bears threw the ball short and managed to just pick up three yards before he was tackled to the ground. The Bears lined up to go for it and got a false start giving the football back to the Mountaineers after their first defensive stop of the game.
4th and 5 from BU 35. The Mountaineers moved the football into Baylor territory but on fourth down Greene delivered a nice pass to Robinson who dropped it and ended the drive.
1st and 10 from BU 40. After that turnover on downs, Baylor quickly moved the ball and fired a pass from the 40-yard line down the field for a wide-open touchdown to Monaray Baldwin to take a 21-14 lead with 4:22 left in the second quarter.
4th and 1 from WVU 33. Baylor stopped Garrett Greene short of the first down and the Mountaineers elected to punt the football and after a 20-yard punt, the Bears would go 51 yards in two plays to take a 28-14 lead with 2:13 left in the half. The decision not to go for it loomed large.
The ensuing kickoff. Baylor elected to attempt an ill-advised on-side kick, which went out of bounds and gave the Mountaineers the ball at midfield. Three plays later, Donaldson rumbled into the end zone untouched 23 yards down the sideline to cut the score to 28-21.
The ensuing kickoff again. West Virginia would take their own turn botching a kickoff by allowing the Bears to return it to midfield. From there, the Bears would go 55 yards in five plays to retake a 14-point lead at 35-21 with 47 seconds remaining in the half.
2nd and goal from BU 1. With four seconds remaining in the half, Greene took off with the ball and was able to get into the end zone as time expired to cut the score to 35-28 at half.
3rd and 18 from WVU 43. After getting a first down called back by penalty, the Bears threw a six-yard pass and at first it was ruled a touchdown on the field before it was overturned. Baylor attempted a 55-yard field goal and it fell short to keep the score a seven-point difference.
4th and 15 from BU 38. The Mountaineers again drove the ball down the field but elected to punt from inside the Baylor 40 and gained only 24 yards of field position in the process.
3rd and 15 at BU 28. The decision to punt the ball didn’t turn out to be too problematic as West Virginia was able to record a sack to get the football back at the Baylor 48.
4th and 1 from BU 9. The Mountaineers again moved the football deep into the Baylor end of the field but on fourth down elected to throw the football and Taylor caught the ball short of the sticks to give the football back to the Bears and keep the score at 35-28.
3rd and 4 from BU 30. The Bears' first snap of the fourth quarter was a pass to Baldwin who dropped the ball and gave the football back to the Mountaineers. A 21-yard punt return by Fox set up the offense at the Mountaineers 39-yard line.
4th and 6 from BU 35. In a story that kept repeating itself, West Virginia again drove the football down into Baylor territory but came up empty when a pass to Hudson Clement fell incomplete, keeping them off the scoreboard and giving the football back to the Bears.
3rd and 3 from WVU 46. West Virginia appeared to get off the field on a misfired pass but a late pass interference flag on a questionable call extended the drive. The Bears could end up capping that drive off with a nine-yard touchdown run to take a 42-28 lead with 8:07 left.
2nd and 11 from WVU 35. The Mountaineers would get the football back but a Garrett Greene interception would effectively end the game as Baylor would tack on another touchdown.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS:
1 - Wins needed to become bowl-eligible.
3 - Consecutive empty possessions in the third quarter trailing 35-28.
4 - Home losses for West Virginia this season.
6 - Consecutive home wins over Baylor prior to the 49-35 loss.
7.4 - Average yards gained on first down by Baylor.
7-18 - West Virginia on third and fourth down.
14 - points allowed by the West Virginia defense in the second half after giving up 35 points across the first two quarters.
16 - Tackles by redshirt junior linebacker Reid Carrico, who came into the game with just 23 on the season.
17 - Consecutive times that West Virginia has started with the football.
29 - First downs for West Virginia in a losing effort a week after winning a game with just 9 total first downs.
49 - Completion percentage for Garrett Greene on 39 attempts.
81 - Yards allowed in the third quarter after surrendering 335 in the first half.
262 - The most rushing yards for West Virginia under Neal Brown in a loss.
GAME BALL:
Garrett Greene. Greene didn't play his best game in this one but was the best offensive player for West Virginia and his rushing ability kept the Mountaineers in the game in the first half. He threw for 237 yards with 2 touchdowns and a pick but rushed for 129 yards and 2 more scores. However, he completed just 19-39 passes and some of those misses proved costly in a tightly contested game. But the Mountaineers definitely got a lift from their senior quarterback and he had them in position to make this a different game had the offense been able to make a few more plays. But there weren't a lot of obvious choices for this game and Greene is my pick out of the list.
Can this team make a bowl game? Yikes but that's where we're at at this stage of the season. West Virginia is sitting at 5-5 on the season with two games left first with a home game against UCF and then a trip to West Texas to take on Texas Tech. That game against the Knights becomes pretty important when you consider that trip to Lubbock isn't going to be an easy one and with how difficult this season has been there isn't a lot left to focus on outside of attempting to make it to a bowl.
The chance to compete for the Big 12 Championship Game is now gone and essentially this team needs to try to salvage what they can to qualify for a bowl. Can they get it done? In a season full of disappointment and missed opportunities that would be the worst of all considering the expectations heading into this year compared to the results.
----------
• Talk about it with West Virginia fans on The Blue Lot.
• SUBSCRIBE today to stay up on the latest on Mountaineer sports and recruiting.
• Get all of our WVU videos on YouTube by subscribing to the WVSports.com Channel
• Follow us on Twitter: @WVSportsDotCom, @rivalskeenan, @wesleyshoe
