HOUSTON, Texas — West Virginia suffered a heartbreaking 41-39 loss on a Hail Mary touchdown pass by Houston on the last second. Here’s what West Virginia head coach Neal Brown had to say following the loss:
“People are going to want to talk about the last play, but the last play didn’t loss us the game. We had plenty of opportunities to win that game and we didn’t do it. I wasn’t happy with the way that we played today. Where we lost the game was with discipline. We lacked discipline and that’s what we have been winning with. We had 8 penalties and we didn’t play very well.
The celebration penalty is kind of microcosm to me of the game. It’s completely assinine to take helmets off. I don’t understand it. The refs are going to give you the benefit of the doubt and don’t want to call it, but if you take your helmet off it’s pretty clear. The rules are clear about that. Keep your helmets on! It’s ridiculous! There’s nothing more that I’m upset about than that. That gave them (Houston) a chance and they took it. We didn’t play well enough on defense or special teams to win tonight. We struggled to tackle. We didn’t tackle well and anytime you struggle to tackle it’s going to be tough to win.
Garrett (Greene) was special, but he’s got to grow up. He was the best player on the field tonight and he had a breakout game, but you can’t get that penalty like that.”
