MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia was hopeful it had overcome the disappointment of a 1-2 mark in non-conference play by winning its first two games against Big 12 competition.
Instead, the Mountaineers are a beat up bench after they fell flat in a home game for the second straight week, this time suffering a 45-18 loss against No. 17 Kansas State on Homecoming at Milan Puskar Stadium.
“We have a beat up locker room. Probably the most injuries I can remember in the first half, and then they just took it to us in the second half,” WVU head coach Neal Brown said.
It marks the ninth straight loss for WVU (3-4, 2-2) against a ranked opponent, and brings Brown’s record to 3-17 against ranked teams in six years with the Mountaineers.
While plenty went wrong for West Virginia that led to a 17-3 first-half deficit, the game completely turned in Kansas State’s favor late in the first half and even more so on the first series of the third quarter.
After the Mountaineers battled back to trail 17-10, they forced a punt to regain possession at their own 8-yard line with 5-plus minutes left in the opening half. WVU then drove 89 yards, and faced with a fourth-and-1 from the Wildcats’ 3, Brown elected to keep his offense on the field. But Garrett Greene’s pass for tight end Kole Taylor fell incomplete 22 seconds before the break and allowed KSU to lead by seven at halftime.
It would be the last throw of the night for Greene, who did not play in the second half as a result of a head injury.
“We were going to be aggressive. It’s a good team. We knew we were going to have to score touchdowns,” Brown said. “We felt like we had a good play and we had a touchdown play. We didn’t execute it. I don’t want to be too hard on our players on that. I’m not sure when Garrett’s injury happened and I have no way to know.”
The Wildcats (6-1, 3-1) made the most of the opening second-half possession, moving 74 yards in 11 plays and regaining their two-touchdown lead on Avery Johnson’s 16-yard pass to Garrett Oakley.
Playing without Greene, tailback Jahiem White and left tackle Wyatt Milum for the entirety of the second half, the Mountaineers couldn’t respond from the deficit and went three-and-out on quarterback Nicco Marchiol’s first series of the matchup.
By the time the West Virginia offense was back on the field, the KSU lead had grown to 31-10 as a result of Johnson’s 1-yard TD pass to Will Anciaux, which was directly set up by tailback DJ Giddens’ 53-yard reception.
“Missed some crucial third downs and when the chances opened in the pass game, we have to hit them,” Marchiol said. “I missed the mark and was a little bit inaccurate.”
WVU turned it over on downs on its final possession of the third quarter, and the Wildcats made it a four-score game when Giddens reached the end zone on a 1-yard run 2:51 into the second half.
Marchiol’s 12-yard pass to Traylon Ray provided WVU with a second-half touchdown and was followed by a 2-point pass to Taylor.
After the Mountaineers turned it over on downs deep in their own territory, Giddens capped off the scoring with an 18-yard touchdown run.
KSU ended the contest taking a knee of the Mountaineers’ 1.
“We have good character and buy in. We just didn’t play well,” Brown said. “We got beat by a better team tonight.”
West Virginia ran 45 first-half plays to Kansas State’s 19, but the Mountaineers never led.
After an exchange of punts on the first series for both squads, Greene was intercepted by Jack Fabris, bringing an end to WVU’s second possession.
Starting from their 37, the Wildcats got near the red zone before settling for Chris Tennant’s 44-yard field goal and a 3-0 lead with 3:03 left in the first quarter.
Michael Hayes’ 44-yard field goal late in the opening frame allowed the Mountaineers to pull even, but on the second play of K-State’s ensuing series, Johnson found a streaking Jadon Jackson for a 60-yard touchdown after he got behind safety Anthony Wilson.
“It was just a busted coverage,” WVU linebacker Trey Lathan said.
Faced with third-and-9 on the next possession, Greene was intercepted by Marcus Sigle, who returned the takeaway 43 yards to the end zone for a 17-3 lead with 13:14 left in the first half. It marked Greene’s eighth interception over the last five games and his sixth in Big 12 play.
Yet WVU’s signal-caller bounced back on the Mountaineers’ next drive, which covered 70 yards in 13 plays and concluded with Greene’s 7-yard touchdown pass Hudson Clement, bringing the home team to within seven 6:38 before halftime.
The Mountaineers’ next possession was their longest drive of the night, but amounted to no points after the Wildcats’ pivotal fourth down stop as they defended their goal line.
Johnson completed 19-of-29 passes for a season-best 298 yards with three touchdowns.
Giddens, the Big 12’s leading rusher entering this week’s action, gained 57 yards on 19 attempts with a pair of TDs.
Nine different Wildcats caught at least one pass and seven had multiple receptions.
Greene was 9-for-19 with 85 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions.
“The first interception was unfortunate. Wasn’t a great pass, got tipped,” Brown said. “The second one was really a good play by them. We were in empty, they pressured and they’d shown to play zero [coverage] behind it. They bailed and really didn’t have enough in coverage, but our hot throw was in the flat and they were sitting right there.”
Marchiol finished 6-for-13 with 58 yards and one TD. He missed Tuesday’s practice with an injury before getting back on the field the next day.
“I found out I was going in right when we came out at half,” Marchiol said. “It’s something we talk about all the time. It’s next man in, next play mentality. When you get thrown in, you’re expected to do as well as the guy in front of you. Tonight, a couple things didn’t go our way.”
Greene was the Mountaineers’ leading rusher with 88 yards on 10 attempts. White and fellow tailback CJ Donaldson combined for only 52 rushing yards on 19 carries.
“They got after us in the third quarter, but we played the run really well,” Brown said. “That was the goal. If you told me we’re going to hold them to 114 yards rushing and we’d have 151, I felt we’d have a pretty good chance. Obviously that’s not the way it turned out.”
Brown described Greene, White and Milum as each battling head injuries and their status remains unclear moving forward.
WVU was without cornerback Ayden Garnes and safety Aubrey Burks against KSU, while defensive linemen T.J. Jackson and Hammond Russell left the game with injuries after both initially battled through them to play.
“We’re pretty beat up and severely down,” Brown said, “because we got beat.”
It marked the worst home loss of Brown’s WVU tenure.
The Mountaineers play at Arizona next Saturday.