Like armadillos flattened on I-27, the No. 5-ranked West Virginia Mountaineers were trampled Saturday, run over repeatedly by a Texas Tech team unable to sell out its stadium after losing five straight home conference games.
For the 57,328 who attended, they saw Tech’s string of futility vanquished and WVU’s national title hopes vaporized. It was “guns up” from the get-go for Seth Doege and the Red Raiders offense, who compiled 676 yards at a hearty clip of 9.6 per play. And the fact that Doege put up a six-TD afternoon seemed somehow less noteworthy than Geno Smith’s inability to keep pace. After all, wasn’t West Virginia constructed to chase a championship down a path of Shootout Saturdays?
Though a Big 12 banner remains in play, the grand prize sits hopelessly out of reach given the way WVU surrendered so meekly in a 49-14 loss to Texas Tech. No one sounded more stunned at the margin of defeat — and WVU’s inability to mount a charge — than Doege.
“We knew that obviously West Virginia is one of the top offenses in the country,” Doege said. “We thought we were going to have to score points to win this game. (But ) our defense played even better than we thought they were going to.”
Of course it aided Texas Tech’s cause that Smith — an 81-percent completion passer coming in — suddenly turned less accurate than a man skeet-shooting blind-folded. He badly overshot Jordan Thompson in the second quarter on a deep post route. And in the third quarter, on a fourth-and-6 from his own 28, Smith eyeballed Tavon Austin breaking toward the sideline only to fire a pass into the Texas Tech bench.
“I wasn’t hitting my targets, wasn’t hitting my reads,” said Smith, who concluded the afternoon 29-of-55 for 295 yards. “It’s the way the game goes. Everyone has a bad game. I can say a number of things I did wrong. I was off.”
So off, in fact, that West Virginia went scoreless on nine consecutive possessions against the Red Raiders (a drought we wouldn’t have thought possible against the Oakland Raiders). And twice Saturday WVU came up empty in the red zone, an area in which it had converted 23-of-24 previously this season.
After throwing only 38 incompletions during the first five games this season, Smith suffered 26 of them in Lubbock. Surely those 30-mph prairie winds were partly to blame?
“The wind didn’t bother me,” Smith said. “There’s no excuses for what happened today.”
Nor did the meteorological alibi wash with West Virginia quarterbacks coach Jake Spavital, who emphasized that Doege went 32-of-42 amid the same conditions. The Texas Tech quarterback — after throwing three interceptions to Oklahoma last week — threw just one to West Virginia, and it was a pinpoint pass that escaped the paws of receiver Alex Torres.
Doege typically unloaded quick passes before WVU could mount pressure. But on occasions where routes needed time to develop downfield, the senior enjoyed a pocket so comfortable he compared it to non-contact 7-on-7 drills. Witness Doege’s 29-yard touchdown to Darrin Moore, a deep-middle strike that put the Red Raiders up 42-7 in the third period and extinguished any embers of a WVU rally.
“Who would have thought that game would have been over after three quarters?” Texas Tech coach Tommy Tuberville mused.
(The only fourth-quarter suspense involved whether a streaking fan would get naked at midfield before lawmen apprehended him. He ditched his shirt at the 30, his belt at the 40 and was perilously down to his boxers by the time officers in 10-gallon hats interrupted the shenanigans.)
Of Doege’s 499 passing yards, nearly a third were attributed to the fleet feet of tight end Jace Amaro, who excelled in YAC on the field even though tender ribs had him yacking in the locker room. Tuberville provided details of Amaro playing through the pain: “He threw up the entire halftime.”
So, too, must have WVU coordinator Joe DeForest, sickened by watching his defense concede 35 first-half points and 438 yards. Even more perplexing was how the Mountaineers’ worst half of defensive football this season could follow what players and coaches described as a great week of practice.
“This was probably the best week of practice we ever had,” said cornerback Pat Miller. “Everybody was doing their work and watching extra film. There’s just no explanation and no excuses. We just didn’t react on the field.”
DeForest’s reaction was to substitute more liberally, though regardless of what combinations surfaced, nothing seemed to impede Doege & Co. Visibly exasperated after the game, DeForest spoke of the need for coaches to find positives, and for players to find internal motivation. But after a pregnant pause, he admitted, “I don’t know what else to say.”
Also at a loss to describe the debacle was linebacker Isaiah Bruce, who presumed his unit was pointed toward brighter times after making two clutch stops at Texas: “We didn’t expect this at all. This hit us by surprise.”
Just like roadkill.