MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Less than 48 hours removed from a 28-16 loss to unbeaten Iowa State, the common theme felt by West Virginia coaches and players was the Mountaineers missed out on too many opportunities and made too many self-inflicted mistakes to defeat a team of that quality.
West Virginia missed a first-half field goal and failed to score on a touchdown on six consecutive drives, during which time it managed only 3 points and threw two interceptions. The Mountaineers did not force a turnover and directly after missing a field goal that would’ve amounted to a 10-0 lead early in the second quarter, a defensive miscommunication led to Cyclones’ receiver Jaylin Noel bringing in an uncontested 60-yard touchdown reception.
“That was an eight possession game for us and nine for them. Traditionally in our league, it’s usually in that 11-13 range,” WVU head coach Neal Brown said. “That’s a uniquely small number of possessions. We have to be a group that doesn’t beat ourselves. I’m not taking away from Iowa State. But we turned it over twice, they didn’t turn it over any. Our penalties were higher than theirs [by a 6-1 margin]. After watching the film, do I believe that was accurate? No. But that’s how it was called. We made some mistakes. They didn’t blow a coverage. We did. We had a miscommunication.
“Things happened in the game where we clearly beat ourselves and Iowa State didn’t. To get to a level where we can beat an Iowa State or Kansas State, we cannot make those mistakes. The previous week, we did not make those mistakes. There’s a lot of examples a year ago where we didn’t. To knock out a top 10 team, we can’t do some of the things I just listed.
There were also frequent issues on snaps from center Brandon Yates that too often threw off the timing of plays and led to a loss of yardage and the offense being forced to operate in perilous down and distance situations.
“We have to get it fixed. He had a little bit of a hand injury coming into the game,” Brown said. “He had a few issues early in the week, but not later in the week. But it was a detriment. We had 11 in the game and five of them were critical. [Landen] Livingston played either the last two drives or last drive of the game and did pretty well.”
Brown maintained his faith in Yates during Saturday’s postgame media session, but didn’t deny the impact his struggles had on an offense that was held scoreless in the second half until the game’s late stages when the outcome was well in hand.
“It had to do with how he was gripping the ball and how it was taped because he had a hand injury,” Brown said. “If you go back and look at the negative plays we had, five of those are because of a snap. One worked out because [quarterback Garrett Greene] pulled it and ran. The rest of them were not. We haven’t been in second-and-longs and our third-and-longs have been minimal, but we had more in that game because of some of those negative plays.”
Greene’s two second-half interceptions put to rest any thought of a rally, and while Brown expressed displeasure with no pass interference called on the first one, he described the second as a poor decision.
Had the Mountaineers made the field goal, not endured another miscommunication on what led to the longest play of the game and a momentum-swinging touchdown, avoided the troublesome snaps or gotten off the field more often when the defense had opportunities to end possessions, a fourth-quarter comeback would’ve likely never been required.
“Minor things turn into big things later on,” West Virginia tight end Treylan Davis said, “and when you don’t do those minor things throughout a game, it results in what it did.”
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West Virginia wideout Jaden Bray missed Saturday’s loss to the Cyclones and will be out of action again this week when the Mountaineers welcome 17th-ranked Kansas State for a 7:30 p.m. contest.
“He got hurt at the end of the Oklahoma State game. It’s a lower leg injury,” Brown said. “We’re going to re-evaluate it after this week and have a better answer for you, but he’ll miss this week.”
Bray, an Oklahoma State transfer, has caught two 44-yard passes and is a key piece of WVU’s coverage units on special teams.
The status of defensive lineman T.J. Jackson isn’t as clear after the Mountaineers’ most productive defensive player this season suffered an injury against Iowa State. Jackson did not practice Monday.
“It’s going to be close. Hopeful, but he has a little bit of a weird kind of lower leg injury that we need to see how he feels,” Brown said. “He probably won’t be able to practice much.”
Jackson, a Troy transfer, leads the team with 9.5 tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks. He also has a fumble recovery.
Safety Aubrey Burks continues to battle a lingering injury and was limited to 27 snaps against Iowa State.
“Questionable probably. He’s only played one full game this year,” Brown said. “He’s really had some lingering issues.”