"Do your job.”

This simple three-word phrase has been the rallying cry for the NFL’s New England Patriots over the course of head coach Bill Belichick tenure in Foxborough which has seen the franchise capture six Super Bowl titles.

It was also the same quote that was used by West Virginia defensive coordinator Vic Koenning during a team meeting Monday at the Milan Puskar Center. This was two days after the Mountaineers suffered a lopsided 38-7 road loss to Missouri.

West Virginia struggled on all three sides of the ball, but defensively, missed tackles, missed sacks, blown assignments and a lack of aggression plagued the unit.

The defense did shut out the Tigers during the second half but this was after Missouri had built up a 31-point lead and the group missed 23 tackles overall and allowed 131 rushing yards after contact.

“Too many guys were not doing what they were supposed to do and we did not execute,” Koenning said. “We tried to make some adjustments going into the game to simplify some things for some of the guys and we obviously made a mistake with that because what we thought was simple, froze them up and so we didn’t play with the aggression we need to.”

"We gotta do what we’re supposed to do. We did things in the game that I’ve never seen our guys do in practice,” he added.

Miscommunication played a role in players not doing their jobs, according to senior SPEAR safety JoVanni Stewart.

That comes with players still trying to learn the ins and outs of the new defense and resulted in some players lining up incorrectly. As Koenning pointed out, this kind of confusion led to the group not playing at full speed.

“We didn’t reinvent the wheel schematically. There wasn’t anything they shouldn’t have been able to execute,” Koenning said. “We have to coach them better, but we got to inspire them better.”

As the adversity grew during the loss to Missouri, so did the defensive players’ tendencies to go beyond their duties at their respective positions which only worsened the situation. But during that second half, the communication improved according to Stewart which benefited the defense during the second half.

“What happened is guys end up trying to do more than their own job so I think communicating everybody understands what they’re supposed to be doing and realize if you do your job, I’m going to do my job and everything’s going to work out,” Stewart said.

“I mean I can see just in any situation when adversity hits you, a lot of guys I know try to do more than they should be doing. I mean I do that sometimes, but it’s just being competitive.”

Improving communication and building more trust amongst each other are both key to West Virginia’s defensive players doing their jobs and nothing beyond that because if they don’t, well…a similar result will occur Saturday against N.C. State in Morgantown and against the rest of the team’s opponents this season.

“We just gotta do our jobs. When we’re coached to do something, we gotta do it, we gotta execute it because if we don’t do our jobs, you saw what happened at Missouri,” reshirt junior BANDIT Zach Sandwisch said. “We didn’t do our jobs some of the time and big explosive plays happened when they could’ve been stopped.”

It’s a simple task, but at times it’s easier said than done.

If accomplished, the players doing their respective jobs and nothing more will go a long way in helping the defense reach become more disciplined, reach its full potential and become a force in the Big 12.

“We’ve got to find that fine edge that can convince these guys that they’re capable of being as good as they want to be,” Koenning said. “That was the message to them (Monday) and we showed where if they just do what they’re supposed to do, the plays will come to them and we’ll be as good as we want to be.”

WATCH: Musings from the Mountains - N.C. State Preview Episode 20

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