A defense fresh off a poor tackling performance that allowed season highs in yardage and points last Saturday is a description that applies to West Virginia and its opponent at noon Saturday when the Mountaineers take on Iowa State at Jack Trice Stadium.
In the Cyclones’ 31-17 home loss to 15th-ranked Utah last week, the Utes had 411 total yards with 206 through the air on 27 attempts and 205 on the ground by way of 33 rushes.
A 24-point first half allowed Utah to play from ahead as the visitors raced out to a 17-0 lead over the first 20 minutes, and then iced the game with a touchdown with inside 3 minutes remaining to cap a 61-yard drive.
“We had 29 missed tackles, which is really high,” Iowa State coach Jimmy Rogers said. “Some of those are not finishing, some of those are over-pursuing and some of those, less of them, were dropping the head. It was not wrapping up and getting a really good running back to the ground. Some of those were coming in on the angles in pursuit. Some of those were overthinking what their overall job is, executing your job and putting your eyes where they need to be. We’re going to clean those things up this week.”
Iowa State remains a top 30 scoring defense nationally and is surrendering only 16 points on average, but Utah scored nearly half of the points the Cyclones have allowed this season, and it wouldn’t be a stretch to say the Utes are the best offense Rogers’ team has faced in a schedule that’s otherwise consisted of Southeast Missouri State, Iowa and Bowling Green to this point.
Utah’s 31 points marked a season low for the No. 12 scoring offense among FBS teams, but the Utes manages 6.2 yards per rush and 6.8 yards per play, while out-gaining the Cyclones by 95 yards on 13 fewer plays. Wayshawn Parker rushed 18 times for 174 yards with two scores, and quarterback Devon Dampier was steady behind center, completing 18-of-27 passes and throwing a pair of touchdowns while guiding an offense that did not turn it over.
Rogers felt fundamental football was lacking from a unit that had otherwise thrived on it through three games when it allowed an average of 11 points and no more than 16 in a game.
“We missed too many tackles in so many different spots. But I would say more than anything, just like playing offense, everybody has to do their job for the picture to be the same picture which you spoke about and tried to execute all week in practice,” Rogers said. “When your job is to tackle the dive, you tackle the dive. The next person has to be able to tackle the quarterback and the next person has to tackle the pitch option off of that. You have to put your eyes in the right spot. For you to be balanced in the box, everybody be able to set an edge, do your job, play from inside-out and tackle the football, one thing has to be done before the next step can occur.
“If you’re expecting the dive to be tackled and all of a sudden the dive doesn’t get tackled because that guy is going at the quarterback, it changes the guy’s next responsibility and he has to react after you, and that’s not what he was thinking. In every phase, everybody has a role they have to do and they have to execute it the way it was taught. When it’s not as much as it wasn’t, that falls on us as coaches.”
Rush defense will certainly come into focus for the Cyclones (2-2) in their matchup with the Mountaineers (3-1).
West Virginia is rushing for an average of 294.8 yards, the fourth-highest mark nationally — and only Air Force is running the ball more often than the Mountaineers among FBS teams. No player has rushed more than WVU tailback Cam Cook, who has 99 of the team’s 229 rushes and is sixth among FBS players with 510 yards. Quarterback Michael Hawkins Jr. has a large chunk of the others and is second nationally among quarterbacks with 18 carries per game, 12th among all players with 425 yards and second with nine rushing touchdowns.
“Hawkins, is probably one of the fastest players in the country. He’s extremely explosive and they have a downhill running back that will make you pay, too, just because he’ll get behind his pads,” Rogers said. “They do a really good job in their scheme and they go really fast, so everybody needs to be able to get their feet in the ground, get aligned, get their eyes right, know the call and then execute the plan, because they’re not going to give you a whole lot of time to process with how fast they’re on the football. They may make the scheme naturally simpler on their end. They also do it at mach speed where it challenges you defensively to be able to execute really against the same type of offense, just slightly different in plays.”