AMES, Iowa — Saturday’s 49-19 victory over Iowa State could have evolved into a shootout if not for West Virginia’s defense being resilient on its half of the field.
“Our pass defense is pretty good in the red zone,” head coach Dana Holgorsen said. “We go against it all the time and it’s a nightmare for me going against our guys.”
The Cyclones penetrated West Virginia territory on 12 of 14 possessions yet never scored an offensive touchdown.
“I know (Tony Gibson) is probably a little upset over the amount of yards they had, but at the end of the day that’s not the stat that matters,” Holgorsen said. “We held them to field goals and didn’t give up a defensive touchdown. That’s winning football. We created four turnovers, and as a team what I’m proud of is that we capitalized on their mistakes.”
It marked the first time an opponent’s offense failed to score a touchdown since the 49-0 win at Kansas in 2015.
Quotable
Tony Gibson’s response to Iowa State compiling 561 yards: “If you can tell me every week we’ll give up four field goals, we’ll take it. I don’t care if we give up a thousand yards.”
Quotable, part II
Skyler Howard on the complex instructions he gave freshman receiver Marcus Simms before their 48-yard hookup: “I told him ‘Just run and go get it.’ Then he ran and got it.”
Statistically speaking
With 378 yards of total offense Saturday, Howard passed Marc Bulger for third place on WVU’s all-time list. His 8,073 yards trail only Geno Smith (12,003) and Pat White (10,529).
No fumble, no grounding?
Wrapped up by linebacker Sean Walters on third-and-9, Iowa State quarterback Jacob Parks was twirling toward the turf when he desperately flung the ball sideways. Initially ruled a fumble that WVU recovered, the replay booth correctly overturned the call resulting in an incompletion.
However, with Parks in the pocket, with no receivers in the area, and with the pass failing to reach the line of scrimmage, it was a textbook case of intentional grounding. Only the penalty wasn’t called in real-time and couldn’t be applied after the replay.
Tony Gibson relayed what officials told the WVU sideline:
“The guy basically told Dana ‘I screwed up.’ That was the explanation from the guy — totally on him. Good thing it was fourth down and they had to punt, so it didn’t hurt us. If they had went for it on fourth down it could have changed the game. It was a one-possession game at that point.”