So there’s Saturday’s second half in a nutshell. It’s the third-and-9 when Clint Trickett and Kevin White finally connected on a deep (deepish?) pass for a momentous touchdown. And Texas Tech not only has 10 players on the field, but is pulling a player off the field before the snap. There’s a level if disorganization on that side of the ball, in case you didn’t know.

Texas Tech also started the second half with a delay of game, which might require practice, and committed seven other penalties after that. In one very special sequence, senior James Polk committed back-to-back holding penalties, laid low for a snap and then committed a false start.

Eight penalties in a half is above the average for the Red Raiders, but not by much. Eight penalties in a game as an average would be No. 107 nationally. Texas Tech is, by a full penalty per game, the most-penalized team in the country.

After going up by two touchdowns with half of a quarter left in the game they really had controlled, the Red Raiders ran nine plays and picked up 30 yards and but one first down the rest of the way, and that first down was a fluke where a hurried pass fell into the lap of a receiver who had tripped and fallen. DeAndre Washington carried twice for 1 yard in that sequence. He carried 27 times for 131 yards before that.

WVU’s offense, meanwhile, snapped it 22 times for 195 yards to close on a 17-0 run. WVU had, up to that point, 72 snaps for 355 yards.

Texas Tech lost the game and WVU won the game, but my point here is that these games, as we have already witnessed, come down to singular moments and single plays, and who are you going to trust when one side is running 10 players on the field and the other team not only has 11, but has No. 11, who is a GAM?

Thought so.

And here’s the weird part: I’m not certain 10-on-11 hurt Texas Tech here.

The defense is missing a defensive lineman, not a cornerback or a safety who might cover White. The safety who spent most of the game double-teaming White instead stepped forward to step on the shallow cross … on third-and-9 … and the deep safety is not deep enough to get over to keep White out of the end zone. Bad form there, and bad timing, because truth be told, Texas Tech played a nice game defensively and didn’t have those issues. But when it slipped, the Mountaineers caught it and took advantage of it.

I think what you’ll find is WVU was fortunate to have it happen for them there and to not have it happen to them earlier in the game. The Mountaineers won late due in large part to the fact the Red Raiders didn’t put a lot of distance between themselves and the visitors earlier.

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

Good: Dodge!
Not to be confused with (Seth) Doege, who obliterated the Mountaineers the last time this game was played in Lubbock and is now behind Darian Durant and Tino Sunseri in Riderville. Anyhow, here’s a touchdown pass that never happens. WVU is out of sorts and you see Cullen Christian, the fella with the pants towel, run up and cover absolutely no one and nothing and instead let Jakeem Grant go free. Icky Banks sees it and takes a line between his man and Grant and more or less says a prayer. It’s answered when Davis Webb makes a bad read and doesn’t see six points running up the rail. That’s one.

Good: Dodge! Again!
This is just a busted play on defense and you see Wes Tonkery, the Sam linebacker at the top of the formation, realize it, panic, spin and speed deep. That’s because Grant, who is a handful in the slot, is going to angle deep and uncovered across the middle and probably score, provided he gets the pass. That’s the play design (and basically just what Jordan Thompson did later on his long touchdown play). The wide receivers are going vertical and the inside slot receiver sweeps across the middle and pulls the safety in the middle forward. But K.J. Dillon, who dropped deep to be the third safety in Cover 3, tracks Webb and strides over for his first career interception. For a guy who we’ve sometimes questioned in deep coverage, that’s a nice play at a really nice time. But here’s the thing: It’s not Cover 3. Well, it is until it turns into Cover 2 thanks to the mistake Darvon Henry makes in the middle that Dillon, for some reason, rescued. Also, that’s two.

Good: Math
2 > 1. But WVU’s one happened. Texas Tech’s two did not.

Bad: Openings
The Dillon interception really did rescue the Mountaineers, and that’s because of a weird and likely frustrated offensive sequence at the end of the first half. This clip is two plays, and the first is a third-down play. Texas Tech is showing eight in the box, and that, for the entire game, meant WVU was not going to run. WVU ran into it. No chance. So now, down 21-10, #TeamGoForIt assembles and Texas Tech shows seven in the box. The Mountaineers pass … but that’s OK here. That sneaky safety crept forward on the playaction, which was probably the point for WVU, and Trickett lets it go for Mario Alford, who has made better efforts on deep balls. It really could have gone badly for the Mountaineers to end that half.

Bad: Timeouting
I didn’t think Dana did anything bad or reckless on the final drive, which, you know, was the game-winning drive. I didn’t even object to the end of the first half … until he called the timeout after a 9-yard gain to the WVU 35-yard line with 13 seconds to go. It looked, for all practical purposes, that the Mountaineers knew they’d avoided certain danger a few times and the locker room would be a welcome safe haven. They get the ball at their 9 with 66 seconds to go and three timeouts and run on four straight plays, though with some purposeful pace I didn’t quite get. They were in between gears, it seemed, and then they decided to see if they can get three points out of Josh Lambert’s leg on that second-and-1 down. Look, they think they have a weapon in No. 86’s leg and 30 or so yards with 13 seconds and two timeouts is not a bad risk. But was it the right risk? I could argue yes and no and use the fact it was on the road to prop up both points … but they hadn’t done anything vertically all half, they were perilously close to some big plays the other way and then Trickett ended up getting smacked here. The whole thing was trending a bad way, and it’s probably impressive he didn’t fumble. Only then did Dana decide, “You know what, given everything that happened, 21-10 is fine.”

Good: Grant
A lot of us were hard on him, but we ought to be clear on this: Dillon is not a bad football player. He was made to look bad because Grant is a dynamo inside. Factor that into your evaluation and weigh it heavily. Dude just runs away from the Mountaineers, who created the opening with a blitz. Remember that.

Good: Keenon Ward
If you’re going to play this two-high safety look against WVU, your going to have to stop the run and the quick passes and screen passes. Texas Tech did not stop the run, because that is something the coaches and players have not yet figured out how to do this season, but Texas Tech stopped the short passes. The big reason? Keenon Ward, who diagnosed and tackled all game long. Sixteen stops, 11 on his own. He’s the safety at the top here and he ends up running in to make the play. This sort of action was pretty consistent, which was a troubling development for the Mountaineers, who figure they should make hay with the quick ones when the safeties are 20 or so yards away from the catch.

Good: Pew, pew, pew
Webb’s arm … best in the Big 12? I say yes. He made some impressive and effortless and accurate and brow-arching throws Saturday. This one is a little of everything with pace and touch and aim. Put them in a vacuum, and I wonder how scouts compare and evaluate Webb and Bryce Petty. You’ll see this week that Petty is way underrated as an athlete, who some call a freak, but Webb has NFL measurables with a big-time arm, and that combination, I think, disarms the System Quarterback label he’s sure to receive. Scouts are already watching very closely.

Good: MTEP
How about this play by the gunslinger? (Side good: Marquis Lucas, who had a long game, managing to get back into the play, toppling the chaser and then laying on him.) Saturday’s MTEP stats: 3-for-6 for 32 yards and sacked once with a lost fumble. He ran two other times for four yards. For the season, 12-for-26 for 173 yards and an interception, a sack and a lost fumble, plus four runs for 32 yards.

Good: Speaking of comebacks
Welcome back, Daryl Worley. He was fine from the start, when he made three tackles and a punt-forcing TFL on the opening series. He even became the punt returner in place of Thompson, though that was short-lived. The long touchdown to Devin “Lauderale” Lauderdale was Karl Joseph’s fault and not Worley’s. I also think this is worth noting as Baylor, Petty and his flock of frightening receivers come to town: Saturday was the first time WVU played its top two cornerbacks together this season. That’s a good thing to feature going forward.

Bad: Glad that she knew this…
Just so you know, I’m trying to do something to resolve how the pregame dissemination of information somehow continues to evade the people who cover the team on a day-to-day basis and, in this case, spent a lot of money to go to West Texas and get scooped by a sideline reporter who was around the team for but a few minutes this season before filing that relevant report. Getting pertinent game information from the television and radio about changes to the lineup and injuries and the like is getting really old really fast. It’s not asking a lot to have someone come to us before the game and say, “Look, just so you know, Worley will return punts, Brown is not with the team and Crest and Hyman traveled and are on the sideline, but are not in uniform.” Or, “Hey, we gave the FCS All-America transfer his first career start. He’ll be backed up by our Sam linebacker, who started the past 16 games there. The new starter there is Ed Muldrow.” It’s not.

Here’s the traveling Red Bull mini-fridge. pic.twitter.com/JFEp6Njp8K #WVU

— Shawn Withrow (@withrowsp) October 12, 2014

Good: Sideline update
“You didn’t take anything out of there, did you? Dammit, Clint. How many times do we have to go over this? I mean, really. How many times do you catch me going through the TIGI cabinet in the locker room? Never. That’s right.”

Bad: Millard has to go soon … or eventually … whatever. He won’t be here forever.
One more from the sidelines, and don’t get me wrong. I’m not pushing him out. Far from it, in fact. Every game, I find myself drawn to Millard, whether he’s doing whatever it is he does in warmups or chatting up people on the sidelines. I saw this happen live, and was taken aback by the camouflage backwards cap. It’s so good. Though it’s apparent he’s not going to play this season unless Trickett and Sky Howard both get hurt, we don’t yet know if he’s staying or going after this season. I know he’s married and is close to his family, though far from home in Round Rock, Texas, so he may decide enough is enough and that five years as a backup is not for him. Or he may want to get one last shot at one season as a starter in the spring and/or summer. Selfishly, I hope he stays. He’s a treat to watch.

Good: More conversations
The sideline reaction to Quinton Spain losing his mind was fun to see. JaJuan Seider, who’s the running backs coach, was lighting Spain up from about the same distance Spain trekked to trash-talk the Texas Tech sideline. And then Ron Crook, who’s Spain’s offensive line coach, stepped in and cooled off Seider and then tried to figure out what Spain was thinking. If you took a poll of the media covering the team, Spain would be named Most Soft-Spoken Player and probably also Least Likely to Mach 30 Yards to Mouth Off to an Opposing Sideline. I’m certain. When I was leaving the postgame interviews and walking back to the press box, I passed a crowd of players and coaches. A coach had pulled Spain aside to go over that moment again. The message: You can do that taunting and flaunting, but you can’t go out of your way to do it. Spain’s fire, which was probably responsible for how well he played after that out-of-character meltdown, was not to be extinguished after the game. He on a roll.

Good: The unsung
That said, center Tyler Orlosky was the team’s offensive player of the week and Mike Molinari, who I thought did well on kickoffs and with the holds, was the special teams player of the week. Nick Kwiatkoski, of course, was the defensive player of the week. And after Spain left the game for two plays, Stone Underwood stepped in and sealed off the back end on a run to the right and then rattled a defensive tackle on a pass play. It was a small, small sample, but Underwood played big.

Bad: Surprises
I sort of thought Thompson would be the pick for the offense. He played as well as ever when the offense needed it. He’ll get a lot of credit for that touchdown, but that was easy — and he’d tell you the same. He was clutch during the 17-point comeback and, man, how about this play? My head was up and down writing and watching at this point and I just assumed he started at the bottom of the screen, his route took him right and that the play ended up where it did. Nope. Nope. He starts up top and is running square in to the left when he breaks his route and goes back to the right to open space. Not only that, but Trickett is on top of things and makes a really nice throw. Eight Wendell Smallwood yards later Josh Lambert trotted onto the field.

Good: Shoulder shrug
Really, what’s Worley supposed to do about that? At least Dylan Cantrell didn’t score, and that was a big deal in the end because Texas Tech had to kick a field goal here and WVU’s sideline was pretty content with that outcome as it happened.

Bad: This
If not for that field goal, or another similar stop after Trickett was sacked and lost a fumble, this may have sealed the game. Hell, it probably should have. Blown assignments — plural — according to Tony Gibson, who said two guys were out of position, though it was the nickel defense against the run. But how many times now has a blown assignment turned into a touchdown?

Diggs 77 pass from Brown (Maryland)
Lauderdale 76 pass from Webb (Texas Tech)
Brown 75 rush (Maryland)
Stockton TD rush (Texas Tech)

A lot, right? I know, I know. Most big plays are blown assignments. But we’re talking about an unhealthy number of those instances now, and we recounted Texas Tech’s misses, too. Baylor’s tempo, formations, obscene spreads and personnel cause busts. This is something you ought to worry about this week.

Good: That said
Gibson called the same play on the next third-and-long and Texas Tech obliged with the same run. Gain of three. Punt. Touchdown. Tie game.

Bad: Omen
I was thinking it was over there. Game-winning field goal. The sun was not shining on the Mountaineers, and Gibson agreed. “I thought, ‘We’re not meant to win this game if that kind of stuff happens,’ ” he said.

Good: Middle blitzes
OK, now go back to that Grant touchdown earlier and the blitz. It happens again here. We saw that A-gap action a lot Saturday, including on five of the six plays on the last Texas Tech drive. We hadn’t seen that before, and there’s a reason.

That blitz Gibson used again and again in the 37-34 win was new to his call sheet and designed to get after an offense that allowed just four sacks on 239 pass attempts in the first five games.

“I was looking at them just break film down last week, and on Monday I’m sitting there and thought, ‘You know what? Nobody ever gets to them with outside pressure. We’ve got to make sure we get something in his face and let him see us,” Gibson said.

So beginning on Tuesday, the Mountaineers (4-2, 2-1 Big 12) rehearsed a blitz that sent players through the middle. They didn’t sack Davis Webb in that sequence, but they did everything else and hit him, hurried his throws and jumped to force difficult releases.

“We came from a lot of different angles and had people guessing,” WVU middle linebacker Nick Kwiatkoski said. “They’d block one way and that gave us an opportunity to still him the blitz from another angle. It was very effective.”

Bad: Takes one to know one, or so we thought
That shouldn’t have been a touchdown, but credit Texas Tech for executing the hell out of this play. Now criticize Terrell Chestnut and Worley for letting a long run get into the end zone … but also tip your cap to Worley for getting into that play at the end. He’s the corner at the top of the screen and he hustles to at least inject himself into the conclusion. Kwiatkoski and Shaq Petteway did not. They, like me, probably didn’t think this should have been a touchdown, but they had something to do with it turning into a touchdown. And let’s not lose sight of this: WVU got knocked down and blocked out of the play quite a bit on the perimeter Saturday. Some of that or even a lot of that is Texas Tech. But Baylor manipulates the perimeter as well as any team going. WVU can’t have a repeat performance outside and see its linebackers and cornerbacks and safeties get knocked down as much as that happened Saturday. (Aside: Worley is the exception. I thought he had a good time getting off blocks and finding his way to the action.)

Bad: Thiiiiin
On the field on this play: Shaq Riddick, Darrien Howard, Eric Kinsey, Tonkery, Al-Rasheed Benton, Muldrow, Worley, Banks, Christian, Joseph, Henry. WVU played a lot of guys and had some bad moments. Texas Tech’s pace took a toll, which happens against Texas Tech. There are only three teams in America running more plays than WVU. The best is Baylor. Christian Brown and/or Dontrill Hyman might be back, and the attrition is nowhere near as important anywhere else as it is on the line. That second string, and all the second stringers, must be strong, or else.

Good: This guy, sheesh
Show me three Big 12 linebackers playing better than Kwiatkoski. I don’t think you can. I don’t know that he’s an All-American, but I’m not sure he isn’t playing an that kind of level. He’s clearly an all-conference kind of guy right now. The clip has three reasons why. In the first — and I was circling this play right away — WVU backs out and shows a soft box on third-and-3, which, as you know, invites a run. Kwiatkoski doesn’t care and ends it. On the second, Texas Tech goes with a six-man line, which happened only a handful of times, and then ran to the weak side even as the fullback angled right. That could have been a mistake, for all I know, but Kwiatkoski doesn’t care. He filled, dipped and drove to win that down and get off the field on fourth down to start the second half. That seemed like a big play, too. The biggest play, though, is probably the third one. It’s a great design and a great call by Texas Tech. All the action is going right, and Webb, if he wanted to, could have shot one to Grant as he came open outside. But the play has a throwback option and no one suspected Rodney Hall to get his first touch of the season. But Kwiatkoski doesn’t care and makes the play. I’d also like to acknowledge Joseph for sacrificing himself on this play. He baited 6-foot-6, 315-pound Le’Raven Clark to the sideline, took a deep breath and accepted the inevitable ending, and that robbed Hall of a lead blocker and a way to keep Kwiatkoski from making this play. (I also think Hall set up to deep on the route, but, again, first touch of the season.)

Good: Coming attraction?
Dana said on the Big 12 coaches teleconference Monday Alford didn’t have a good game and doesn’t do well when he’s covered closely, which is probably easy to see on film, but still hard to say or hear, right? The timing is interesting because, I think, teams are going to and may have to play WVU the way Texas Tech, Kansas and Maryland did, unless they have superior personnel, like Oklahoma or Alabama. I don’t think those opponents exist the rest of the way, though. Anyhow, let’s remember this play. I believe I’ve told you this before, but when WVU, or any offense really, has three receivers to one side and one to the other, that one is almost never the primary option and sometimes isn’t even in the play. Alford is in this play and looks like a main option, if not the main option. And why does this matter? One, it’s a wrinkle that can surprise teams that don’t expect the one receiver to be involved, especially early. Two, Alford is fast enough to take an angle off the snap and beat the coverage to get into this route. Circle it!

Bad: This ought to change, too
This is odd, right? That’s three or four yards deep, and the nation’s No. 3 kick returner isn’t even thinking about returning it.

Good: Clinic
I think my favorite Text From Game Day this week was the one where the guy’s wife called the touchdown here when she saw the safeties drop back. Defenses have to be wary of Bolivia — I guess … do they? — but this is a baby’s candy here. I think you have to avoid this outcome on defense and ask your cornerbacks to survive, or ask one cornerback to survive and give the other a safety.

Good: Speaking of candy
Here’s a treat for Cody Clay. First. Career. Carry. And he had an alley! He’s playing out of his mind lately. Clay has been terrific for two straight games, and that was after a bad night against Oklahoma, so here’s credit where it’s due. What’s most interesting is how he’s all over the field. H-back, fullback, tight end, inside receiver, close quarters, on the line, in space, on the move, in a stance. Whatever he is, he does it well.

Good: It’s
Lambert had, what, five more yards on that? And there was no leaning or nudging to bend it back in or fade it back out to make sure it goes through. It was dead on from the boot. He knew it, and then he let everyone else know it.

Good: First words and the last word, all at once
There are walk-off kicks and there are walk-off one-liners. Young man got ’em both Saturday.

pic.twitter.com/JJka3LpLq2 He finally talked to me!!!! Lol #Winning

— Josh Lambert (@J_LambertWVU) October 11, 2014

 

P.S.
Special thanks, again, to therealbbbb for the videos. And do me a favor? This is clearly settled in as the second-most preferred feature on the blog. Tell your friends.

P.P.S.
Speaking of friends, Chuck McGill is covering football this week. I’m in Kansas City the next two days for Big 12 basketball media day. The Wednesday Walkthrough will go on as scheduled, but there’s no chat Thursday since I’ll be in the air.