Across multiple contests this season, West Virginia has dealt with a slow start out of the gates and that was no different in the Mountaineers' 48-34 loss to Oklahoma State on Saturday, which has made Brown rethink what his offense needs to do to get back on the right track early in games.
Head coach Neal Brown, along with players and coaches, have noticed the effects that this has on the Mountaineers and it's not the first time this has plagued the squad. West Virginia has scored 30 or more points in the last two games, but there have been multiple missed opportunities againsts the Pokes and Cougars to capitalize on early first half and second half possessions and this has become a challenge.
Going back to the matchup against Duquesne before the rain delay, as well as in matchups against Texas Tech and Pittsburgh, WVU has struggled out the gate and averages just over 11 points in the first half of each of those matchups.
In instances like against Oklahoma State and Houston, the Cougars held WVU to four-straight punts in the second quarter and then against OSU, West Virginia struggled to put together an offensive flow opening the second half and punted on its first two possessions of the third quarter.
This has been indicative of a wider trend for the program, which is a struggle to open games and second halves with a strong offensive attack. This equates to pulling away in some games, putting a team away in the second half or coming back from a deficit like against Penn State.
After the second-straight loss for the Mountaineers, Brown was forced to go back to the drawing board and figure out the issues behind these offensive stutters.
"That's something that's really one of the more head-scratching deals and we're attacking that," Brown said. "The opening drive of games, we're going to work and give them every single look they could potentially get on the opening drive."
Behind this issue to Brown and the offense is a process that takes place on the opening drive of every game and that is feeling out the opponent and how they attack. Although preparation can do a lot, there's only so much you can predict according to Brown.
"I think part of it is there's a little bit of a feeling out process of how people are going to play us, there's a little bit of cat and mouse there. Once you figure out what they're doing then you've got better answers and there's some where we've just got to execute better."
"From a scheme standpoint, I think as you get into this point of the year, what you do in the run game is basically what you do and we try to be a little different each and every week," Brown said. "Our second and third drives have been alright but we haven't been good on our first ones."
Since WVU relies so heavily on its run game and Brown wants to learn how they attack it, offensive lineman Doug Nester also recognizes the process that goes on and how the run game is approached differently by each opponent.
"Some of the defenses we’ve been playing have shown us completely different looks with how we run the ball," Nester said. "So you have to account for that because you never know what they’re going to throw at us."
To remedy this, Nester says communication is key and that comes between the coaching staff and the players ahead of the team's first drive in each half.
"It's mostly that we’ve got to talk it through. We have to explain everything we saw on the drive to Coach [Matt] Moore and the offensive coaches," Nester said. "The biggest thing for us is communication with the coaches."
This communication channel and the in-game adjustments come from what the team can reinforce in practice and that's where offensive coordinator Chad Scott's role comes into the offense's flow. To Scott, the Mountaineers need to continue to promote good habits in practice with competitive and upbeat methods to spark confidence.
"We have to continue to emphasize that in practice and we’ve done a good job of that," Scott said. "That’s something we do every practice to emphasize that and do better at it."
"We have confidence within ourselves we can go down the field and score. It was evident at the end of the game against Houston, it was evident in last week’s practice in two-minute situations," Scott said.
For Scott, it comes down to maintaining this mentality in a game situation and having a killer instinct no matter what the score is.
"We have to have that same mentality when we start games, same mentality when we’re up and not just that mentality when we’re down. That’s the one element we’re missing,"
"A killer instinct, so to speak. Once we’re up, have that same mentality when we’re down, but we do have to start fast and that’s an emphasis for us to do that in practice," Scott said.
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