Welcome to the Fr– wait, that’s not it.

Hey, a little later than usual, but here nevertheless, it’s the recap of the game played six nights ago. And what a night that was. I thought the night of the game that WVU wasn’t very good if WVU couldn’t win that game with ample opportunities to do so, but having listened to people talk about it and having watched it after listening to people talk about it, which usually happens in reverse, I kind of feel like Texas won a game either team could have and deserved to win.

And Texas is pretty good.

The truth is, the Mountaineers were really close a few times. I don’t mean one play here or there. I mean inches here or there. But you know what they say about inches.

Anyhow, it sounds hollow and Pop Warnerish to say, “Those guys play hard! They aren’t that far away!” but I think it can be applied, especially in a three-point loss in overtime to the Big 12’s co-first place team in which you scored 40 points and, again,  came close to making the needed plays to win the thing.

It didn’t happen, but nothing really changes. WVU was playing for bowl eligibility last week and it is again this week and two weeks from now, which means Charles Sims can keep the Sharpie tattoo someone applied last week as the Mountaineers tried to win two straight for the first time this season.

How did we get here? Let’s find out by taking a look at the good and the bad of WVU v. Texas.

Good: Special teams
Goodness, that’s two weeks in a row. There’s no denying it, though. Mario Alford was good on kickoff returns. The coverage teams were solid. Jordan Thompson is suddenly a rebooted Vaughn Rivers. Josh Lambert is quite reliable. WVU even scored off special teams. That said, do we have to have a serious talk about Nick O’Toole? Because that 30-yard punt to set up the game-tying Texas drive was not insignificant.

Good: Snow puns!
I was immediately happy for Jewone Snow here, not knowing he’d be in line for a much larger role and much larger headlines by the time we were through with overtime. I was not happy about the inevitability of “Let it Snow!” or “It’s beginning to look a lot like an upset!” lines. Anyhow, I don’t think he’s ever done anything to lose his job. Remember, he started as a redshirt freshman and he looked like he was going to be the man in the middle. Labrums happen, especially when they’ve been a problem since your freshman year of high school. Herniated discs happen. It’s not like he was out of shape and pulling hammies or hurt in a pickup basketball game, or that he strung together missed assignments and missed tackles. Kid got hurt.

This was neat to see. You could almost tell it was coming, too. Texas shifted players from the offensive line to a rare two-man shield and they were spread out, not bunched up. There was room for someone to come right through the middle and hope the shield had their eyes outside. That’s exactly what JoeDeForest told Snow and that’s exactly what happened. The best part? Snow said he had to slow down and then look around and find the ball. That shouldn’t happen.

Good: Rosebration
Kyle Rose has been a factor for a few games in a row now and he’s going to have to keep that up against Kansas and its running game and in particular the zone read. He’s going to be playing over a guard’s outside shoulder, which means he’ll have some big responsibilities defending those plays. But, whatever. That’s not why we’re here.

Remember when Rose started overtime against TCU with a TFL and a six-yard loss and a celebration that quite nearly grew to feature a self-Gatorade bath? Well, so did Erik Slaughter and that was something of a talking point before the Texas game.

“He’s excited and there’s a time for that, but I don’t know if overtime is the time for that,” defensive line coach Erik Slaughter said. “We have to be careful about getting a celebration penalty, and we’ve talked about that. We sat down and had a face-to-face about that. I like the passion he plays with, but he needs to curb that a little bit at times, especially in overtime.”

Never change, Kyle. Never change.

Good: Football move
One reason the loss hurt so badly for the Mountaineers was their defense played out of its mind for a half of the game. I’ll let you guess which half. But they were shutting down Texas and affecting the game with plays that aim to swing  the momentum. This is a terrific football play, and precisely the sort of lunch you better pack if you’re trying to beat Texas. K.J. Dillon doesn’t get home on the blitz, but he makes it count and bats the ball. Daje Johnson makes the catch, but you can tell he never gets it where he wants to put it because he has to reach for the deflected pass. Jared Barber then does a linebacker thing and punches the ball out before Rose rallies from the back to recover a fumble he really has no business recovering. That right there was an extremely good sign for the Mountaineers and the answer to your question concerning whether they had a chance.

Bad: Make plays!
I have a feeling we’re going to have issues with one another one day when we get together and talk about what went wrong against Texas in 2013. I can’t believe I’m typing this in 2013, but I swoon for Greg Robinson’s arrogant and admirable refusal to back out of his game plan. He was going to load the box with linebackers and a safety and play man-to-man outside, sometimes with no safety, and he was willing to spin the chamber and see what happened. He just didn’t think WVU’s guys could beat his guys outside and he didn’t think WVU’s guys could shake his guys in the open field. He was wrong on only a few occasions and while some mattered, like Mario Alford’s touchdown, others did not. But right here was a bad sign for WVU’s offense. I think a stronger throw gives Kevin White a chance. I know Charles Sims was open on the check-down, which, you know, wouldn’t have been a bad idea on second-and-19, especially when the linebacker turns his back to Sims to help on White. Robinson and the Longhorns were emboldened and they’d get PBUs on two more deep balls to White and they’d properly defend a fade in the end zone, while White would win just once — though that did set up a touchdown.

Anyhow, WVU couldn’t win outside. Dana Holgorsen called it “disgusting.” Texas wouldn’t budge outside and kept loading the box inside. That’s why WVU ran into a wall on that second and third down in the fourth quarter and decided to pass over the wall in overtime.

Bad: While we’re here…
…let’s look at WVU’s game-ending sequence. This is difficult to fathom because Paul Millard changed the play from a run to a pass. You’d have to assume he did so because Thompson was going to have an opening for the quick slant, which he does indeed get. Sooooo, where was the throw? Millard still nearly pulls it out of the fire and makes the throw to an alert Thompson, who pivoted his route back outside, but the ball is tipped and falls short.

Inches, man. Inches.

Bad: Just like third down
Here’s the fourth down play. It’s the same as third down, except the formation is flipped and what happens here at the bottom of the screen is what had just happened at the top. Cody Clay is supposed to flatten out and take his defender outside with him on both plays. He instead plants himself in a spot that allows his defender to stay in the play, drop off of Clay and bat the first pass and intercept the second. If Clay does go out wide, he takes Steve Edomond with him and Millard has a cleaner shot to White first and Alford second.

Inches!

Good: Going out with a bang
Poor Dillon. He played great, save that untimely and indisputable holding call, and WVU will miss these last two games his ability to blitz, to play the run and to cover receivers. He’d become WVU’s most versatile defender and had a very nice season. I have no idea how Keith Patterson goes about replacing him, but it’s going to be by committee and that committee is going to have guys who haven’t played much.

Good: It can only be Jared
Barber was also great. Fourteen tackles is no joke, and you’ll hate to see the way he hurt his knee. I wasn’t always a fan of the way he covered and got swallowed up when he blitzed, but he’d clearly tightened up the past few games and looked like was settled in in the middle. Again, a very nice season. He’ll be replaced by Snow and Ty Anderson, guys who can play and who have played, but they’re going to be busy.

Bad: Look familiar?
Previously on The Good and the Bad, I thought Kansas State was devilish when it threw outside screens three times in a row in the fourth quarter against WVU and alternated sides of the field. Then TCU had some  fun with it and Texas took its turns too. We can assume Kansas will do the same. If there are two receivers to a side and the linebackers are compressed in the middle while the defensive back over the inside receiver, be he the safety or an extra defensive back, is a little deep, that throw’s going wide to the slot receiver or the outside receiver while the other blocks the cornerback and WVU chases and tackles. On the play right after this, Barber lined up a few steps to his left and the play was a run inside that he was able to get to for a stop. Let’s watch that Saturday, OK?

Good: Texas defensive line
Whew, they’re good. Jackson Jeffcoat can ball, though he is 29. I think. That Cedric Reed is a problem. We barely saw Chris Whaley, but Desmond Jackson and Malcom Brown were handfuls. The guy I couldn’t stop watching was a fella who played only a little, but who gave WVU issues inside. Oh, just a prep All-American from the Metroplex who happens to be your  sixth guy. No big deal. WVU’s offensive line looked bad and overwhelmed, but remember, those same guys looked good the previous few games. Texas had a whole lot to do with WVU’s poor form Saturday.

Good: Did you see those zone blitzes?
They baffled WVU. No one denied it, either — not that they should have. Four really good players on the line. Three second-level defenders scooting in and, oh, here comes a safety and it’s 8-on-5 and what do you do? Then the plan changes when three guys in the middle drop and the rest of the blitz can overwhelm WVU’s tackles and backfield. Side good to Reed acrobatically pulling the ball from Millard’s hands as Reed fell on the first play.

Bad: Possibly related!
Texas shows some more seven-man stuff, which always  precedes a safety, and Millard talks to the line. What happened on the prior clip? The middle dropped back and the edge caused trouble. Watch this: The middle doesn’t drop back, but center Pat Eger goes left, his man swims over top of him and to Eger’s right and gets on Millard to cause the interception. (Aside: Eger was not great in the game, but he was fun to watch on the sideline. He was constantly congratulating and talking up teammates. His coach took him out of the lineup, but Eger didn’t let his coach take him out of the game.)

Bad: My bad
I wrote after the TCU game that Trickett did a pretty good job handling the very busy plays WVU was calling. There was a lot of play action and misdirection because Shannon Dawson wanted to unplug TCU’s pressure. But, man, the Longhorns don’t flinch in anything they do. Those guys just kept coming and these play action passes clearly started to bother Trickett. He knew he was running out of time. That said, he was sacked four times in his final five plays and three were these play action passes, including the quizzical third one here that had two very different and ultimately slow-developing fakes. This plan did not work, but I’m curious why we didn’t see some draws and screens because, again, Texas was coming.

Good: Here comes Millard
And Joey Harrington just nails it. I was fine with WVU taking chances, but Texas kept winning. And that mattered.

Bad: So close
There were some screen plays. This was one and the Mountaineers darn near score on it. How close was it? Well, for starters, Charles Sims can’t shake that last guy, which, you know, Sims. But watch the top of the screen. The safety is really deep and looks like he’s going to cover White and that the cornerback creeping in will come from the edge. That’s a trick, though. The cornerback drops back and the safety rotates to the middle of the field and ultimately tackles Sims. If that cornerback blitzes and White runs the route with the safety, Sims scores. It’s a good play for WVU, but not a great play.

Bad: One play, three misses
Millard misses Sims on an easy throw he has to make. Sims misses the catch that he could have made. No officials see Dalton Santos hold Wendell Smallwood. But a good pass and catch is another big gain and good play for WVU here. Once more, with feeling: Inches!

Good: Dueling cuts, Part I
Not sure what to think here, but I think WVU got it right, but the wrong guy had the ball. The defense is communicating something and overloads the right side of the play. So, basically, the players saw a cue that tipped them off to something they saw on film. It’s a power play to that side with the left guard pulling across. So far, so good for the Mountaineers. But then Joe Bergeron — he’s third string! — sees it and cuts it back left. No contest, but not a whole lot WVU could do there.

Good: Dueling cuts, Part II
Maybe my favorite play of the game. Texas won this at the snap and trampled the right side of the play, but it goes left and Clay takes out his man and Sims targets locks in on his guy. The alley is between those two is there for Dreamius Smith to exploit. So far, so good for the Mountaineers. Then Smith decides to go outside and, you guys, watch Millard react with the “No, Dreamius, no, it’s meant to go that way!” Except Sims puts his guy on the ground and Smith squares his shoulders and gets moving. That was fun. I watched it, like, six times. (Side good: Smith looked like himself again, and the oddly warm embrace with a waiting Holgorsen on the sideline after this play wasn’t the sort of thing you see all the time.)

Good: 9 plays, 91 yards, 2:46 TOP
This game heated up early in the third quarter and WVU didn’t ease into it. Texas kicked a field goal to make it 19-16 and on the kickoff return Jarrod Harper, who’s really good on special teams, was called called for an illegal block. WVU started a big drive at its 9-yard line, but zoomed down the field for a touchdown. The Mountaineers chunked up yards and moved fast on the drive. And this was odd: It was the second drive of the half, and maybe it had to do with Sims running 33 yards on the first snap, but Smallwood was featured. He ran hard for six yards, he caught a pass for eight yards and caught another pass for 29 when he was motioned outside and made folks miss. I feel like WVU knows he’s a a player — remember, he was part of their solution to “garbage” kickoff returns — but hasn’t had the time or the opportunities to use him properly this season.

Good: Alford
He’s an outside receiver. Pencil him and White  in now for next year and don’t worry about  that in the spring or the summer, which is a big thing for a team that’s tried to find two outside receivers, seriously, for seven months now. And remember when Alford dropped this pass from Millard against William & Mary? It would have looked like this.

Bad: Daikiel Shorts
What happened to him? I know he didn’t get a ton of PT because WVU used extra blockers to combat the pressure, but he did play. And, I know, I know: “Freshman.” But he’s better than zero catches, right? Especially on a night when WVU could have used someone to do some work in the middle, where there were to be some opportunities with the outside defenders on an island, the box filled with defenders and sometimes just one man to guard the slot receiver. And that’s three zero-catch games now.

Good: Useful
Cheeky play by the Longhorns. But for some reason, Malcolm Brown dives, I guess to  carry out the play action fake, and submarines Barber. Yes, that’s the play that blew out Barber’s knee.

Bad: Third downs
You know the numbers: Texas starts 1-for-11, converts seven in a row on back-to-back-to-back touchdown drives, finishes 10-for-23. Darwin Cook lost track of Jaxon Shipley on a critical third-and-14 and, though not a third down, the fourth-and-7 was a similar letdown when Travis Bell paid no heed to directions given in a timeout to watch the curl routes and stay in front of the sticks. But Texas did make some big-time throws and catches to convert many of these third downs. Seriously, inches.