MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Far too often this season, West Virginia’s defense has been out of position, leading to long gains from opponents on plays where they’ve more or less been unchallenged.
That happened on several occasions last Saturday in the Mountaineers’ 53-48 loss at No. 15 Texas Tech, particularly during a 41-point first half for the Red Raiders that was as discouraging as any two-quarter stretch this season for the WVU defense.
But in the second half, the Mountaineers showcased significant improvement, particularly throughout a third quarter that saw Texas Tech total 16 yards and one first down across four drives.
“I didn’t particularly like our demeanor on the sidelines at the end of the first half or in the locker room,” WVU head coach Rich Rodriguez said. “Our defensive guys looked kind of dejected, which you can almost understand. You’re playing awful, but you have to fight through that. That’s something at halftime that I addressed, and said, ‘Listen, let’s have a little energy, quit hanging your head. We know we can play better than that and we’ll need to.’
“Give them credit, too. [Texas Tech quarterback Thomas] Castellanos played a brilliant game and they made some contested catches. Some of the issues we’ve had all year continue to show up and that’s really frustrating for everybody. It’s my job to help get it fixed as quickly as we can.”
Ultimately, West Virginia’s inability to make plays on the ball, particularly on downfield throws, played a big part in the outcome.
The Mountaineers scored 21 unanswered points in the second half and led 48-41 when Texas Tech regained possession at its 3-yard line with 13:40 to play in the fourth quarter.
The Red Raiders put together a 15-play, 69-yard drive that ended with Stone Harrington’s 46-yard field goal to cut their deficit to four. On the series, WVU cornerbacks Nick Taylor and Chams Diagne were flagged for pass interference in third-and-long situations.
The first infraction went against Taylor on third-and-7 when Castellanos underthrew a pass intended for Kenny Johnson and Taylor was unable to get his head turned around in time.
Later on the series, the Red Raiders faced third-and-10 at the WVU 40 and Castellanos again targeted and underthrew Johnson, only for Diagne to be flagged for pass interference. A referee within a few feet of both Johnson and Diagne did not throw a flag, but one much further away did.
“We get the two PIs [pass interference] and we’re in position,” WVU defensive coordinator Zac Alley said. “He throws a terrible ball on both of them. They’re underthrown 10 yards, and good coverage plus a bad ball equals PI. That’s how it goes, so we have to do a better job finishing when we have the opportunity to do it.”
In Taylor’s case, Alley felt the defensive back didn’t do enough to disguise guilt.
“Nick put his hands up. If you ever see the lineups in the movies and they walk down and point, and a guy is like, ‘not me’, it’s that guy. That was the first thing,” Alley said. “Don’t put your hands up, because that’s going to get it called. Referees are human right or wrong. I had a referee tell me last year on a PI in the end zone, on tape he’s not even looking at it, but he said, ‘I saw the receiver on the ground, so I threw the flag.’ That’s what’s going to happen. How many offensive PIs do you get versus defensive PIs across the country in every game? It’s always going to be more on defense. So not looking guilty is definitely important.”
As for Diagne’s penalty, the cornerback failed to get his head turned around in time, and while both he and Johnson contacted one another, the defender didn’t help his cause by failing to properly play the ball.
“Chams was in great position and he ran into the receiver instead of turning and playing the football,” Alley said. “He was on top of the guy. He had it. He panicked a little bit at the end and ended up getting body to body with him. Once again, it’s a bang-bang play and they got the call.”
On the Red Raiders’ following possession that ultimately produced the winning score when Castellanos threw a 5-yard touchdown pass to Johnson, they converted a fourth-and-3 from their own 48 with inside 5 minutes remaining.
That play featured Castellanos, afforded plenty of time against a five-man pressure, finding Micah Hudson for 26 yards. The quarterback seemed to throw more to a general area more than a specific target, but Hudson found the ball, got in front of nearby Mountaineer defenders and came up with the pivotal reception to prolong the possession.
“We have to get there. We have to hit home on the blitz. We tried to rush it, but we weren’t good enough as far as the soundness in how we were rushing them,” Alley said. “I wish I’d have brought everybody. We dropped one guy off on that one to try and play the under that was coming across. We have 5-for-5 [five defenders rushing against five players in pass protection] there and he had like 8 seconds in the pocket. That becomes a hard throw and a hard, contested catch, but we have to stay on our man, too. It’s really on both there. You want to finish the ball in the air, but we have to win and give ourselves a chance to get the quarterback down.”
Thus, playing the ball better in the air has come into focus more for the Mountaineers this week as they prepare to play host to Kansas at 5:30 p.m. Saturday.
“The Captain Obvious here is we’ve been very poor playing the deep ball when teams just throw it up,” Rodriguez said. “In other games, we weren’t even in position to make a play. In this game, we were there sometimes and in position to make a play on a deep ball, but they outworked us, or whatever they did, they made the catch and we didn’t.
“A lot of times, in practice you don’t work the deep ball. Sometimes you don’t have enough room or your scout quarterback doesn’t throw it deep enough for you. Whatever the case may be, we’ve had problems with the deep ball. We’ve done it some, but obviously haven’t done it enough. We have to do a better job of playing the deep ball in the air with our secondary guys. We’re going to work on that every day.”