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The West Virginia Mountaineers gave a much better effort and performance coming off their disastrous trip to Texas Tech the previous week but still came up short in a 41-31 loss to undefeated and 7th-ranked TCU.
In the first half, the WVU offense was as good as we saw this season, with 16 first downs, piling up 305 yards, scoring 21 points and having zero punts. But all of that still wasn't enough, as the West Virginia defense couldn't cover, couldn't tackle and yielded touchdowns plays of 71, 55, 51 and 30 yards.
The script completely flipped in the second half. Suddenly, the Mountaineer defense began making plays, holding the prolific TCU offense to only two field goals until the waning seconds of the game. But the West Virginia offense, so dominant in the first half, could not take advantage of the opportunities. After a TCU fumbled punt early in the third quarter, WVU was set up at the TCU 17 but couldn't get into the end zone and had to settle for a field goal.
On the next possession, the Mountaineers drove inside the Horned Frogs' 10 -yard-line but were stopped on downs. The fourth down pass attempt to Kaden Prather was incomplete as the officials declined to throw a flag on what was clearly pass interference. When playing against a top 10 opponent, those calls need to be made for an underdog to have a chance, and the seven points left off the board loomed large as the game played out.
In any event, the failure of WVU to get into the end zone on those two third quarter possessions ended up being the difference between a possible upset and yet another loss. But even with those failures the Mountaineers still closed to within 34-31 with 4:12 remaining. Head coach Neal Brown obviously had no faith in his defense to make a stop and instead tried unsuccessfully to execute an onside kick. It was a puzzling move with that much time left in the game. To win, the defense was going to have to stop the Horned Frogs at some point anyway and recovering an onside kick attempt is a low percentage play. The net result was giving up field position, and when the WVU defense made a stop and came up with a turnover, it left the Mountaineer offense with a much longer field to traverse.
With one last chance to execute a game winning drive, West Virginia instead went in reverse, and the opportunity for a season-turning win slipped away.
THIS SATURDAY: The battle to avoid the cellar of the Big 12 is joined, as WVU travels Saturday to Iowa State. The Cyclones have had a disappointing season as well, standing 0-5 in Big 12 Conference play. Although solid defensively, they struggle to put points on the board, so if the WVU offense can get back on track, there is a good chance for a victory here. The concern is that the last two conference road trips the Mountaineers have come out flat and allowed the games to get away quickly. Surely, that can't happen a third time.
WEST VIRGINIA 24 IOWA STATE 20.