West Virginia controlled the game against Oklahoma State from start to finish but a big factor in that was the way that the Mountaineers were able to run the football.
The offense piled up 389 rushing yards which was the second most against a Mike Gundy-coached team since Texas A&M rushed for 399 yards in his first season atop the program.
The Mountaineers rushed the ball 65 times and averaged over 6 yards per carry while also controlling the time of possession in the process with a 42:36 to 17:24 edge in time of possession. That also resulted in 81 plays for the visitors compared to only 45 for the Pokes.
“And so to come in here and run for 389 is special. You know, this will be something that we remember,” head coach Neal Brown said.
For West Virginia, the coaching staff felt that the offense hadn’t been able to run the ball to the point they are capable of but this game was the unit hitting on all cylinders. That’s a total team approach in order to be that effective especially with all of the things that the offense uses in the run game. That includes the perimeter blocking, the quarterback run game and everything in between.
“It’s really an all-11. The quarterback’s a factor. Our running back CJ Donaldson we asked him to block quite a bit today. Our tight ends, that's the best they’ve played,” Brown said. “We blacked really well on the perimeter. Our receivers were huge factors. When you go back and watch the TV copy of this, you're going to see our receivers at the point of attack.”
The offensive line played well also and the coaching staff mixed it up well using a bunch of counter players as well as inside zone and getting on the edge with some power read looks.
“We tried to keep them off balance, really,” he said.
West Virginia felt that the team that was going to be able to run the football the best and can cash in when they were in the red zone would win the football game and the Mountaineers dominated both. The rushing edge was 389 to just 36 yards, while West Virginia was 6-7 in the red zone and the only misfire was when the offense elected to take a knee to run out the clock late in the game.
The sixth-year head coach credited his team’s preparation in all phases heading into the game and felt that his team was ready to play despite it being on the road in a difficult environment. A big component of that was how his team handled the bye week and kept to their mantra.
“All I ask this team is, man, we’re focused on week to week. I think what we talked about in the press conference Monday is just go 1-0 and just compete on every single play,” Brown said.
And after the most complete game of the season, West Virginia plans on enjoying the game before shifting their focus to what’s next with a talented Iowa State team. The Mountaineers are now 2-0 in a difficult league like the Big 12 but they aren’t forgetting this win in Stillwater.
“We want to enjoy the plane ride home. We want to watch the game tomorrow. And then when we flip it over to Iowa State, I know it's a huge challenge,” Brown said.
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