MORGANTOWN, West Virginia — West Virginia had everything it could have possibly asked for Saturday night. A packed Milan Puskar Stadium, a night game in Morgantown, a 3-0 record, a chance to start the season 4-0, an opportunity to open Big 12 Conference play with a win and, perhaps most importantly, a chance to finally break an eight-year drought and find its way back into the Top 25. Everything was set up perfectly for the Mountaineers to take another major step forward under Rich Rodriguez. The crowd was there, the energy was there and Morgantown was rocking. All West Virginia had to do was take advantage of it. Instead, the Mountaineers blew a massive opportunity and came crashing back down to earth with an incredibly disappointing loss to Oklahoma State.
There really isn’t any other way to put it. West Virginia’s defense was terrible for most of the night, particularly when it came to tackling and defending Oklahoma State’s passing game. The Cowboys finished with a staggering 613 yards of total offense, including 389 yards through the air and another 224 on the ground. Oklahoma State quarterback Drew Mestemaker looked like an All-American against the Mountaineers, completing 20-of-27 passes for 389 yards, three touchdowns and one interception. He completed 74.1% of his passes, averaged 14.4 yards per attempt and finished with a 224.4 quarterback rating. West Virginia simply could not stop him, and far too often when the Mountaineers actually were in position to make a play, they failed to finish it. The missed tackles were absolutely brutal and repeatedly turned plays that should have been stopped into huge gains.
W. Young absolutely destroyed the West Virginia secondary, catching eight passes for 192 yards and a touchdown while averaging an incredible 24 yards per reception. Bowick added four catches for 63 yards and a touchdown, Barnes had two receptions for 58 yards, including a 52-yard gain, and T. Lewis added two catches for 31 yards and another touchdown. Oklahoma State averaged an unbelievable 19.4 yards per completion. Think about that for a second. Every time the Cowboys completed a pass Saturday night, they averaged nearly 20 yards. That’s almost impossible to overcome, especially when West Virginia wasn’t stopping the run, either.
Hawkins carried the football 31 times for 180 yards and a touchdown, averaging 5.8 yards per carry, while A. Adeyi added another 44 yards on just six attempts. Oklahoma State finished with 224 rushing yards and averaged 5.9 yards per carry. So this wasn’t simply a matter of West Virginia’s secondary having a bad night. The entire defense struggled. The Mountaineers couldn’t consistently cover, couldn’t consistently tackle and couldn’t consistently stop the run. When you give up 389 passing yards and 224 rushing yards for 613 total yards at home, you’re putting your offense in an almost impossible position.
And while the defense deserves the majority of the criticism, West Virginia’s offense wasn’t nearly balanced enough to overcome it. The Mountaineers actually finished with 464 total yards and were outstanding on the ground, rushing for 334 yards and averaging 5.1 yards per carry. Cam Cook was tremendous, carrying the football 29 times for 193 yards and averaging 6.7 yards per attempt, including a 75-yard run. Michael Hawkins Jr. added 102 yards and three touchdowns on 27 carries. If you had told me before the game that West Virginia would rush for 334 yards against Oklahoma State, I would have felt extremely confident that the Mountaineers would win. Instead, WVU became completely dependent on the running game because it simply could not generate enough consistency through the air.
Hawkins finished just 9-of-19 passing for 130 yards with no touchdowns and one interception. He completed only 47.4% of his passes and averaged 6.8 yards per attempt. There were occasional flashes, but West Virginia never established a passing game that Oklahoma State had to truly respect. D. Epps led WVU with only two catches for 39 yards, J. Neider had two receptions for 35 yards, J. Bray caught two passes for 22 yards and Cook added one reception for 22 yards. R. Ward finished with seven receiving yards and Prince Strachan had five. Not a single West Virginia receiver caught more than two passes. The Mountaineers ran the football 65 times compared to only 19 passing attempts, and although there is absolutely nothing wrong with being a run-first football team when you’re averaging more than five yards per carry, you still have to be able to throw the football when defenses force you to do it.
That’s going to be the blueprint against West Virginia moving forward. Teams are going to load the box, commit extra defenders to stopping Cook and Hawkins on the ground and dare the Mountaineers to beat them through the air. West Virginia has to prove it can do that consistently. But even with the problems in the passing game, WVU still produced 464 yards of offense and rushed for 334. This loss ultimately comes back to a defense that allowed Oklahoma State to pile up 613 yards. You simply cannot give up that kind of offensive production at home and expect to win a Big 12 football game.
That’s what makes this loss so frustrating. This wasn’t just another game on the schedule. This was an enormous opportunity for West Virginia. The Mountaineers had started the season 3-0, had already picked up a huge win over Virginia and had completely changed the expectations surrounding this team in only three weeks. Suddenly, we weren’t talking about simply making a bowl game anymore. We were talking about competing near the top of the Big 12. We were talking about how high the ceiling could be for this team. We were talking about a potentially special season. Most importantly, we were talking about West Virginia potentially being ranked for the first time in eight years.
All the Mountaineers had to do was take care of business at home against Oklahoma State. They couldn’t do it. Instead of 4-0, West Virginia is now 3-1. Instead of starting Big 12 play 1-0, the Mountaineers are 0-1. Instead of waking up Sunday morning waiting to see where West Virginia would be ranked, Mountaineer fans are left wondering how a defense that had generated so much optimism allowed Oklahoma State to come into Morgantown and rack up 613 yards of offense. That’s a huge blow, especially because everything was sitting right there for the taking.
One loss doesn’t erase everything West Virginia accomplished during the first three games. It doesn’t erase the Virginia win, and it certainly doesn’t mean this team can’t still have a very good season. There is a lot of football left to play and plenty of opportunities remaining in the Big 12. But let’s not sugarcoat this one, either. This was a devastating missed opportunity. You don’t get many nights set up like this. You don’t get many chances to play in front of a packed house, under the lights in Morgantown, with an undefeated record, a national ranking potentially waiting on the other side and momentum around the program as high as it’s been in years.
West Virginia had all of it Saturday night, and the Mountaineers let it slip away. The undefeated season is gone, the chance to make a statement in the Big 12 opener is gone and the opportunity to finally break that eight-year Top 25 drought will have to wait. West Virginia spent the first three weeks of the season showing us just how high the ceiling for this team might be. Saturday night exposed some major flaws that have to be corrected quickly. Now we’ll find out what Rich Rodriguez and the Mountaineers are really made of.
