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Brown believes drops a case of ‘fundamental errors’

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Dropped passes have plagued West Virginia for a good portion of Neal Brown’s tenure as head coach of the Mountaineers.

While there is a belief within the program that the current cast of wide receivers — particularly each of the top three — are capable of measuring up to any opponent, drops were again an issue for West Virginia last Saturday in a 38-20 loss at Texas.

“We probably had seven drops in the game and six of those were by wideouts,” Brown said. “The timing was fine. That really wasn’t an issue. It comes down to fundamental errors really. 

“You want to catch 90-plus percent of catchable balls. There’s going to be times where you do everything right, and for whatever reason, you just don’t make the catch. But you need to catch 90-plus percent of your balls and obviously seven [drops] is not catching 90 percent.”

Several early drops aided the Longhorns, who ran off 28 unanswered points to start the contest and create an insurmountable deficit for West Virginia.

On their second series, the Mountaineers started at the Texas 48, and soon after, faced third-and-2 from the UT 40. Quarterback JT Daniels threw a short pass to tight end Mike O’Laughlin, and while a completion would’ve resulted in a first down, O’Laughlin was unable to bring in the reception and suffered an injury on the play that sidelined for the remainder of the game.

West Virginia elected to keep its offense on the field and Daniels’ fourth down pass to wideout Bryce Ford-Wheaton fell incomplete, though the Mountaineers’ leading receiver had an opportunity to make the catch.

The game was still scoreless at that point and Texas went on to build a 14-0 lead in the first quarter. 

Had either of the aforementioned incompletions on West Virginia’s second series been caught, the Mountaineers would’ve had a fresh set of downs and been in position to score the game’s first points.

Adding to the pass-catching issues was a drop from wide receiver Sam James on third-and-3 on the second play of the second quarter. A reception would’ve again produced a first down, but West Virginia was instead forced to punt. Seven plays later, Texas upped its advantage to 21-0.

“Some of them were just straight fundamental issues,” Brown said. “A big thing when you’re catching the ball is you want to catch the ball in front of your face. When you don’t, it’s a really hard track. It’s the same when you’re catching the ball over your head. Where it gets really difficult is if your hands get low and if I’m catching the ball over my shoulder, I have to track the ball [a long time]. 

“A bad habit is having your hands down. If I come out of a break and my hands are down, my hands have to come all the way up, and if the timing is right on the route, it can really get on you fast. But if you come out of the break and your hands are up, now you’re not adjusting. A lot of our drops are not necessarily hand-eye coordination issues. They’re hand placement and fundamental issues.”

There was even a critical drop from the WVU defense that directly led to a Texas touchdown. The Longhorns’ lone second-half TD came after West Virginia safety Aubrey Burks was in position to intercept or breakup the pass, but Burks instead deflected the football, and it went behind him and into the arms of Xavier Worthy for a 44-yard scoring play.

With 11 days to prepare for Thursday’s home game against Baylor, West Virginia hopes to correct the fundamental problems that have led to drops, which were also an issue in a 38-31 season-opening loss at Pitt. In that game, what would’ve been a first down reception by Ford-Wheaton instead went off his hands and led to an interception by M.J. Devonshire, who returned the pick for a touchdown and what proved to be the game-winning score late in the fourth quarter.

Brown didn’t see drops as a major issue in the moments after the loss to the Panthers, though he changed his stance a few days later.

“We didn’t catch the ball well enough,” he said. “I minimized that and I was wrong. We dropped six balls in the game.”

Daniels has made a smooth transition to WVU, and over his first five starts, the veteran quarterback has completed better than 63 percent of his passes for 1,209 yards and eight touchdowns. He has only two interceptions on 181 attempts and has gone three straight games without being picked off.

Yet Brown is well aware Daniels’ completion percentage would be closer to 70 were it not for the drops that too often have prevented West Virginia’s offense from staying on the field.

The coach says the quarterback doesn’t dwell on the shortcomings that have prevented him from completing more passes, and he’s hopeful improvement as a whole will be on display in the near future.

“Not a whole lot bothers him. He handles it better than I do probably,” Brown said. “It’s not something he can help with. All he has to do is continue to trust and deliver the ball where it’s supposed to be. 

“Catching balls come down to repetition. You have to continue to rep it, correct the mistakes and then you have to continually put them in situations in practice where they have an opportunity to utilize the skills that you’re working on. I wish there was a magic button or something JT could really help with. It’s really not. It’s about repetitions, catching balls, making sure your hands are in the right spot and going into practice doing it in a game-like situation.”





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