West Virginia has struggled to connect on explosive pass plays down the field this season.
On throws over 20+ yards, the Mountaineers quarterbacks are just 10-34 with 352 yards and a touchdown against two interceptions. If you take out the 2-3 for 65 yards on those attempts that the offense had against FCS opponent Albany that number dips even lower.
That was a big part of the success last season for the offense, especially as the season progressed as Greene completed 32-69 passes for 1,179 yards and 12 touchdowns with only 3 interceptions. But that hasn’t been the case so far at this point of the year.
And there’s a reason for that.
“We’re not getting as many explosive runs so when you’re not as explosive in the run game it’s not setting up those explosive passes,” head coach Neal Brown said.
While Brown acknowledged that the Mountaineers have been able to hit on plays in that 10-19 yard range at a higher clip which is backed by the evidence of going 35-59 for 635 yards with 6 touchdowns and 4 interceptions but there is still a need to be more successful there.
“It’s fair we’ve got to have some bigger plays,” he said.
Overall, the Mountaineers pass protected well against Kansas State but the pass catchers and quarterbacks struggled to get anything going with the two signal callers combining for just 143 yards with a pair of touchdowns but also recording two interceptions.
Some of that comes down to the pass catchers being better against man coverage with their route discipline, while the quarterbacks need to do the little things like their drops, getting their eyes on the proper safeties and windows as well as anticipating throws better.
“That’s where we’re struggling and when we’ve done that well that’s when we’ve been efficient in the pass game,” Brown said.
That’s always critical but especially with how much attention teams are giving the West Virginia run game which has left the pass catchers in man coverage situations.
That means that the Mountaineers have to be better when it comes to making contested catches and getting open to help move the chains.
“We’ve got to be able to throw the ball down the field,” coordinator Chad Scott said. “Kansas State did a great job of coming in and stacking the box so we’ve got to be able to throw the ball.”
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