I think this is the earliest the texters have called a game. There were also heavy traces of resignation to certain fates and acceptance of various truths. I don’t know if WVU had this one coming. That seems harsh, and we can debate that and whether trends were bending the wrong way and were bound to break. I’d also point out that everything went and was wrong.

WVU wasn’t taken to task for just bad run defense or just bad passing offense or just bad third-down execution or just bad management or just bad special teams play or just bad energy or just about anything else you can throw out there this morning. A lot of things came together at once, and you’d like to think the team that was able to hang with and even beat teams with a flaw or two or maybe more would have been able to do the same against Texas … if the bads hadn’t so far outnumbered the goods.

No, I’m more convinced, and concerned, that the Mountaineers earned that one.

Very rarely have I witnessed a team not show up and then not combat that allegation afterward. They’re too proud or angry, or the accusation is too unfair or misguided. I feel like “They weren’t ready!” or “They didn’t want it enough!” is a bit lazy and frequently misplaced. And honestly, you have to credit the team for having a little verve after halftime, especially on defense, and you could understand players and coaches leaning against that as they resisted the implication they weren’t ready for Texas and didn’t want it enough.

Didn’t happen. With one exception, every player or coach admitted the team was flat and unprepared, which is to say every player or coach but one admitted the apparent. That was weird, to me, but if you’re not terribly competitive at the start of a game, why then would you be after it?

Look, I run this line around here every so often when I say that no matter how complicated players and coaches make it seem, football isn’t that complex. But football’s hard, and there’s a difference between what I mean when I say that and what players and coaches go through during a season. I hope we recognize the difference in those two points. Six games in six weeks is not easy. Alternating home and away those six weeks is tough. Changing the writing in the book that’s out on you takes more time and effort than an expiring season provides. Beating the 10 count after TCU is obviously damn difficult.

But to talk all week about TCU was in the past and everyone was putting everything into the Texas game, and to come out and play like that — “Like how, Caz?” Like this: “We wanted it to be easy and it was really hard,” Dana Holgorsen said. — comes with a price. WVU paid with a 33-16 loss that makes the Mountaineers a meddling Big 12 team again, and that doesn’t seem right, does it? Two weeks ago we were unrolling scenarios, plausible scenarios, in which the team could win the league. I have them, in my head, as the fifth team in the Big 12’s Pecking Order … and watch out for bowl eligible Texas taking that spot and pushing WVU to sixth … and watch out for Iowa State fighting for its coach’s job at home in the final game of the regular season. Because sometimes teams play for something.

Speak with criminal slang, begin like a violin. End like Leviathan, it’s deep, well, let me text again. My edits are in [brackets].

3:39:
First pass interference against Kevin White. Who had 11 seconds in?

3:39:
Glad to see White didn’t forget how to play

3:41:
Clock Troll will never tell whether that FG attempt was legit or if he planned a delay all along

3:42:
Was he trying a 58 yarder into that wind? Was he trying to get an offsides? Was he getting room for O’Toole? Why is special teams so hard?

3:44:
I can’t really handle watching a game anymore with 2 teams wearing their regular uniforms.

3:45:
I can’t get over that delay of game except that it worries me.

3:46:
335 struggling against off tackle running plays in recent weeks

3:48:
Re established, my [hat].

3:51:
Tight End. Imagine that.

3:59:
Where was this White targeting last week?

4:04:
Goal line fade audible. Terrible waste of a play.

4:07:
100k fans, 11 players, 8 refs & a replay [joy]stick vs our 11. Tall order.

4:08:
WVU finds inventive ways every week to get [punched] in the [face]

4:09:
Your pregame tweet about fanboy refs wasn’t foreboding at all. Not a bit. Nope.

4:09:
Already annoyed! Annoyed with the refs, annoyed with the offense…going to be a long day! Going to need many drinks!

4:10:
This officiating crew come to the stadium in cowboy boots and hats?

4:17:
Don’t hook ’em, Josh

4:18:
O-Line…come on, now…gotta have Trickett’s back!

4:20:
Buie Longhorn slayer

4:20:
These boys are acting really skiddish. Case of bad nerves.

4:35:
Offense needs some iron…they are anemic.

4:36:
D playing like pansies

4:36:
Reverting to ankle diving.

4:36:
A few more missed tackles and I’m just going to turn this off and save my time

4:37:
Heads down at the ground instead of tackling anybody

4:38:
WVU beginning to understand why Texas is loathed in Big 12. Always the recipient of timely replay when they need an advantage.

4:39:
I’m not looking forward to playing “good” Texas teams.

4:42:
14-3, surely no one thought Charley wouldn’t show how to win a game or two.

4:43:
No pf on texas? I see you b12 refs. I see you.

4:43:
Awful spot

4:44:
Texas house refs mark that juuust shy, boy

4:47:
How was that Longhorn not flagged for grabbing Smallwood’s helmet and taunting him? In front of the official.

4:47:
Another key non-call

4:49:
Espn’s 9th tier announce team will be bragging on that Baylor win by 6-6 WVU in the Whogivesa[fowl] Bowl in December at this rate.

4:50:
dawgs

4:51:
Talent matters.

4:52:
I’m grateful you didn’t write the “But is WVU any good?” col because it let me enjoy this season for two additional weeks. But I’m done.

4:51:
Bend, bend, BROKE

4:51:
TCU is winning 2 games today

4:53:
That was offensive. And on the offense.

4:54:
Ball game

4:54:
Exposed

4:54:
The Mounties get their hangover before they start drinking.

4:54:
NEW SHIRT: PUPPIEZ!

4:55:
Inability to convert short third downs is like pissing on your own shoes. Demoralizing, and there’s nobody else to blame.

4:56:
WVU playin’ defense like it’s 2013!

4:57:
Dana has clearly given up…sad.

4:58:
Okay, for my own well being, I’m gonna have to go into emotional divestment mode.

4:58:
Can we trade all those unused timeouts for an extra defender?

4:59:
A WVU opponent missed a field goal!!

5:00:
If they don’t get points before halftime, they can just get on the plane now

5:00:
Check please.

5:00:
More like Clint Pick-ett, amirite?

5:01:
Really Balotelli’d that

5:01:
Good thing I divested emotionally.

5:01:
100k plus saw that throw coming

5:01:
I haven’t seen a staredown that bad since Fatal Attraction

5:02:
No pressure on the worst qb in the conference? Give me 20 seconds and I’ll find an open receiver

5:02:
WVU will only win one more game…Iowa State. Still not quite ready to compete for the long haul…

5:03:
That’s why you pressure the worst QB in the conference

5:12:
I hate football.

5:15:
At least notre dame is getting stomped too

5:17:
Alas Clint Icarus – he flew too close to the Sun

5:17:
Seriously. Trick is dazed. Again.

5:22:
We’re a second half club.

5:23:
Never, ever leave your wingman!

5:29:
Was it over when Flutie has us down 20-6 at the half in ’84?

5:30:
Was it over when UL had us down a bunch at the half in ’05?

5:42:
Hanky Pankey always good for a false start.

5:42:
The linesman looks like he’ shoplifting every time he spots the ball a yard short….mango farmer

5:45:
Emotional divestment fever: Catch it!

6:01:
Field goal is useless there. Still need three possessions.

6:02:
Even emotionally divested me is shaking his head a little.

6:06:
Thank goodness UT does not have a QB

6:07:
What would be a WVU game without adventures in punt returning?

6:12:
Not sure how that’s not hands to the face.

6:12:
ABOUT THAT PREGAME TWEET, MR. BOWLSBY…

6:16:
Helmet flies ten yards. Refs think it’s magic

6:16:
My wife just informed me that our real team was abducted by aliens. Now we know.

6:19:
Missing those missed FG opps right about now #teamgoforit #teamattemptafreakinglongfieldgoal

6:22:
Lambert – who’s Lou Groza?

6:27:
¯\_(0Ä)_/¯

6:31:
Heard next to me in a Morgantown bar: “Do you want me to go all Jerry Springer on her [standpoint]?”

6:41:
Mike C surly after punt downing?

6:41:
Game. Set. Match.

6:42:
#teamwhatsfieldposition. Onside kick from 20?

6:42:
Lacking the element of surprise just a little when the guy fair catches it.

6:43:
Dreamius #teamrunit

6:52:
Surprisingly – there is time (but we have to play perfect)

6:52:
Dana’s gonna get clubbed for that fourth down to start the half … incorrectly, I believe.

6:53:
Texas has played basically all zone and Trickett has seemingly made a point to run through each progression.

6:53:
It’s robotic, not natural. He doesn’t look comfortable doing that (with that line, why would he?) so he’s not good at it.

6:54:
Oh…Clint. Sigh.

6:56:
Saturday Night Lights out

6:58:
In all honesty…this team is who I thought it was.

6:58:
6-5 is coming.

6:58:
6-2. Why do I drink the koolaid?

7:00:
I’ll make this week easy on you. G&B is a picture of Lucas and Pankey posed like McGwire and Canseco. That’s all. Take the week off.

7:01:
Dana explain the benefit of having visited this venue two years ago

7:01:
Curse of Geno

7:01:
The postgame smug will be palpable. So palpable.

7:01:
Maybe you do need more than 5 offensive plays even if you run them from different formations.

7:05:
Save those timeouts

7:07:
Honestly what if Valenti was a WVU fan?

7:08:
My goodness,that old guy Dann sure can pick them, can’t he?

7:09:
Maybe we now know why Hal Mumme is the head coach at Bellhaven University.