K.J. Dillon is one of probably two players who is not supposed to make the tackle on this. I’d count him and cornerback Daryl Worley, who’s covering the wide receiver to Dillon’s right. Now, you don’t know this before the snap. Technically, all 11 guys can make the play before the snap, but once the play gets rolling certain players are logically eliminated. Running back Aaron Wimberly, to the left of the quarterback, gets this handoff and runs to his right. The defensive line, the linebackers, the other cornerback and the two safeties should make this play before Dillon and Worley.

And Dillon makes the tackle at the X. It was a wow play on a day when Dillon made a few.

Now, one of the reasons he’s not supposed to make the play is because of his assignment. He’s covering a receiver in the slot and he’s got a long way to run to get there. Someone else is supposed to make the tackle first, even a deep safety who can see the run and get there without having to deal with a receiver assigned to him. The other reason Dillon shouldn’t make this play is because, you know, someone should block him. That never happened and Dillon was locked in for about 20 yards before he slugged Wimberly.

This is all especially interesting because of the way Dillon was after the Kansas State game. It was tremendous.

“We stopped the run. They got some passes in, but I didn’t really like what they were doing. For them to beat us, they scored one touchdown. Everything else was a field goal. So we played pretty good defense in my eyes.”

Let’s not dissect that too much. But let’s understand that’s a guy who hates losing and hates it even more when he doesn’t feel like he’s been beaten. He just refused to give the Wildcats credit for the offense, which had 401 yards — 1 on the ground and 400 in the air. Tyler Lockett, who WVU spent more than a week talking about, caught 10 passes for 196 yards. Dillon didn’t like what they were doing, OK?

One of only a few defensive players who spoke after the game, Dillon was asked about Lockett’s night.

“I ain’t even see Lockett out there, for real. Next question.”

Certainly Dillon saw Lockett. But he was not about to relent, which I admire. I tried to convince my wife years ago that every time a basketball player made a basket or blocked a shot or took a charge or whatever against WVU and shouted “Let’s go!” that it was a jab at the (“Let’s go!”) Mountaineers. She was suspicious, and soon knew I was full of it, but I would not relent. Anyhow, there were a few more questions, and reporters came and went, and one of the late arrivals asked about Lockett. Dillon exhaled, and though clearly frustrated, he calmly replied.

“We did prepare for Lockett. I guess he almost had  200 yards, but I didn’t really see him out there. For that, I don’t have any answers. I don’t want to take any questions about him.”

I know some people who caught that, either on the radio or on videos online, and asked me about it. He didn’t SEE Lockett? He doesn’t want to talk about the guy who’s killed them for three years? Were you pissed? I guess I could  have been bent since he came out to talk and didn’t talk, but I wasn’t. First, he answered my stuff. Second, that’s Dillon. Remember Flagrant Striking? He doesn’t run the mill. He was mad and I don’t think he felt like his hands weren’t dirty. For all I know, he might have kept some bad things in, which is better than letting them go. Whatever. My takeaway was he still said something by not saying something.

And of course, actions have a greater volume, and Dillon was turned all the way up Saturday. I have little doubt the way he felt after Kansas State and the way he played against Iowa State were connected. He was terrific. Best I’ve seen him play. He made 11 tackles. Five were solo. Six were assists, and each was indicative of how he played. He ran around like crazy and made plays or helped make plays. The 11 and six were career highs.

And he danced!

West Virginia’s defense submitted another one of those shape-shifting performances that have come to define this season. Those Mountaineers dominated third downs, the run game and the pass game for about 40 minutes, and Dillon was a big reason why. How did we get here? Let’s find out by taking a look at the Good and the Bad of WVU v. Iowa State.

Good: Trice!
Iowa State isn’t terribly good, but isn’t terrible, either. There are a lot of underclassmen and there were a lot of major, major injuries this season. The coach isn’t going anywhere, but some things have to change. The crowds have dwindled and the support has waned, which is bad because that’s one of the elements that has in the past distinguished Iowa State. That stadium Saturday was not the place people fear to venture into when something important is on the line. There’s a certain audacity that goes along with saying 50,058 were in the building for that game. But when it’s that empty, the players can hear the stadium audio and can strum air guitar to Thunderstruck. (Side Bad: The Cyclones were outscored 30-3 from that point forward. 7NA!)

Good: $&@# yeah
Stick/draw! I promise! This is the trick and the treat with Skyler Howard behind center. WVU loves the stick/draw only a little bit less than you and I do, and it’s a very clever and constructive play that can set a tone by dictating to the defense. We’re used to seeing a quarterback pause and hand it off to the running back, or throw the quick pass if it’s there and/or if the defense covers the draw. Howard is essentially the quarterback and the running back here. All the routes are there for him to choose, but he runs the draw here and it’s beautiful. WVU ran this a few more times and Howard mixed in throws and runs. Wrinkles!

Good: More wrinkles!
How about the power read? There are two types of read plays the Mountaineers run: zone read and power read. You know the zone read: Zone blocking where an offensive lineman takes the defender who crosses his face, and the quarterback reads the defensive end to make the give-take decision. The power read was was a new feature this week. WVU runs a lot of power plays where a guard pulls back and sweeps behind the center to become a lead blocker for the running back. This is the same action, except there’s a give-take read behind it that can exploit alleys in the middle. I counted eight power read plays for 50 yards (and one was a 4-yard loss … so think 7-54, and that’s a nice 7-plus yards per attempt). I thought it was blocked well about every time WVU ran it, and not necessarily on the play side. Watch both of those. Look at the gaps on the weak side. All the action to the play side creates that space on the back end, and Howard eventually saw it and made decisions to keep it and run through that gap,  including that 24-yard run on the field goal drive to end the half.

Good: Start
Certainly you have to give attention to what Howard is asked to do in his first start. That was part of the fun and intrigue, right? Well, how about the first three plays, as shown above: Power read (I think he made the right call), zone read (tons of room and a blocker if he keeps) and then a little scramble to the right to complete a pass on third down (there are fun layers here as you see him move a little, not because he really has to, but because he likes to, and then he sets and throws rather than runs, which was promising). There was no easing into the water, though I don’t think that was expected since he played about a half in the last game.

(While we’re here, watch the third play. Adam Pankey does … I don’t know what to call that. Did he have the wrong play? Was he supposed to turn the end loose like that? Is that the gaudiest attempt at a rub play ever, even in the absence of a defender in man coverage? Look at how much the crossing route was rerouted! Anyhow, Howard saw or felt the end and moved right, but that also focused him on the right side and his receiver. All things considered, not bad.)

Good: Decisions
I think the fairest and most accurate thing you can say about Howard is he’s grown and settled in the offense. I thought he moved way too much in the spring, and it was clear he didn’t know the offense. But those are things time and reps can cure, and what we’ve seen so far is he doesn’t move to throw as much as before and that he knows what he’s doing. I’m curious to know how his did changing plays and giving and keeping on read plays, but I thought it at least looked like he got more confident and more comfortable as this game went on, and this is one of those exhibit moments. He has the option to hand it off, keep it and run or throw the slant. He not only makes the right call, but he makes a great throw. Shannon Dawson approved. “The one good thing about him is when he makes a decision, it’s going to come out quick, good, bad or indifferent.”

Good: Teammates
Mario Alford had the sort of game he needed to be having most of this season. We went over this last week, but he’s too good not to be good every game. He gave Iowa State’s cornerbacks all sorts of trouble, whether he was running deep, intermediate or short routes. He got open with a safety on his side or a safety hovering above him and Kevin White. And he made tough catches. Both of his touchdowns were tricky. He complicated the 40-yard catch-and-run, but he made the play. He had a great box-out-the-corner fingertips catch to convert a third down. That was Good Mario, so now I don’t feel as weird about last week. Credit Daikiel Shorts, Jordan Thompson and Cody Clay (!) for helping out, too. This touchdown looks like it’s all on Howard for the movement and then the way he threw Shorts open, but Shorts executed a Plan B. The play is supposed to go right. You can see Howard looking that way, which means Clay was not only the primary option, but that he was actually covered. Howard has orders to shut it down if it’s not there and go left, which he does, and his receivers have orders to get open. It would have been easy for the receivers to end their play and just stand in place or even block for a Howard run. It would have been easy for Howard to run or put one in the stands. The quarterback and his receivers were instead on the same page and were rewarded. (Side Good: Eli Wellman is the tight end on the left and he buries a guy.)

Good Win .. Shout out to @SkylerDonHoward my momma owe you a meal lol

— Daikiel Shorts . (@D_shorts6) November 29, 2014

Good: Momma Shorts
Salute.

Bad: Whiteout
So he’s hurting, and it sounded like he has been for a while, which may or may not explain the way his numbers have dipped. It’s definitely the second straight season he’s limped near the finish. Dawson said White was “pretty limited”  against the Cyclones, and plays like this show why. He didn’t have any burst to run himself open or go up and get a ball like he did when he was at his best. The three straight fades were interesting, but I think the coaches were trying to see if they could wake him up and get something going. No dice. And I’m glad the Cyclones weren’t credited for game planning White. He wasn’t double teamed like he has been in the past. Oh, it happened, because that’s what you do to WVU, but the larger issue was he couldn’t get open or make plays, and Howard didn’t facilitate him as well as Clint Trickett had in the past.

Good: No whiteout
Rushel Shell is healthy again, and this run, with the vision, the cut and the reset, proved it to me more than the touchdown run. He’s their best back. We’re clear on that, right?

Bad: Fumble
I love Dreamius Smith’s line: 1 carry, 8 yards, long run of 5 yards. This is his one touch, and he’ll spend the next month working his way back up from the bottom. But if the coaches were reluctant to use him before, what about now? (I have two asides here, and one is a slight defense of Smith. This play is Howard’s call, I think, because the receivers are running routes. Smith doesn’t know if Howard will give or take. Trickett almost never kept. I think there’s some room for error there that the players were not yet used to. Smith got the ball in a weird spot and never secured it, which ultimately is his fault. No one else fumbled, either. The second aside: Watch the slot receiver. If Howard play fakes … yikes.)

Good: The very next WVU snap
It’s important to remember the well has water.

Good: Numbers
Howard finished 21 for 40 for 285 yards and three scores. Again, I thought he got better making decisions as the game progressed, but I thought he missed a couple throws. A few of them came toward the end of the 40, so maybe he was a little tired. But he had some accuracy issues, he completed barely better than half his passes and he averaged 7 yards per completion. The only argument, really, for starting him in the bowl over a healthy Trickett is as a way to prepare for the future, which is sort of silly. Howard isn’t and wasn’t bad, and he does get you a little excited about next season, but he didn’t play his way into the starting spot right now or months from now. But having said that, seven of Howard’s incomplete passes were to the limited White and three were Howard’s decisions to sail one out of bounds. That’s 10 incomplete passes. They still count, but he was more above average than just average, and the offense had more constant energy and explosion the past six quarters than it did the six (eight? nine?) before that.

Bad: Don’t forget
The Mountaineers looked unmistakably beatable at times in this game. I sort of thought the Cyclones had a loose grip on the game and a fumble-less offense could get back into things, but Iowa State was at home and crazy things happen in those situations. So WVU was in danger at times, for sure. As good as the performance was coming back in the first half, it was almost wasted by the third quarter, which was really poor. It was the fifth scoreless quarter and the seventh touchdown-less quarter in the past 16 for WVU.

Good: Speaking of being back …
Jordan Thompson has had a nice season, one that’s good enough to make you forget how scary he was as the punt returner … and the fact everyone else has struggled there conspires to acquit him some, no? The end around he ran out of the option action earlier was fun to watch, and he finally nailed the hot potato play here. Thompson has never looked as fast and as dangerous as he does now, and he’s clearly confident and trusts his skills, which is something his coaches have asked from him for three seasons.

Bad: Screens
We’re again puzzled by what the Mountaineers once did so very well. Whether to a running back or a receiver, these screen plays haven’t hit in weeks. Let’s look …

I think it’s fair to assume there’s a tell that defenses have picked up on. It might be trips to the field side. Iowa State communicated and adjusted just about every time it saw that, including here. It’s possible WVU knows it’s been figured out and is trying to work with or around that, including here. There’s a screen to White on the right that Iowa State covers, so Howard rolls back to the left and aims for Wendell Smallwood, but there’s nothing there. This may have been the plan all along, or there may have been an if-then clause built into the play, but it doesn’t look as bad as others failed screens have. It’s just a lengthy play that needs time to develop and Howard hadn’t done it in a game. Perhaps this play has a place.

Two receivers to either side, and the third receiver on the left joins from the backfield. The play goes right and, man, White has a chance here. The slot receiver has his defensive back. The right guard and center rally to join the play, and if the right guard goes through and gets the cornerback and the center can get the middle linebacker in time, White’s off. But the right guard has to get the Mike and the center arrives to help. The slot receiver’s defensive back, the Mike and the cornerback are there to make the play. But it’s a 9-yard gain. Let’s not bury that one.

This one was a mess, though. The Cyclones go crazy at the top of the defensive line. The player at the end is in an odd deep stance, which is a pretty good sign he’s twisting inside, but he’s over Pankey. The player to the left of the odd deep stance just erupts off the ball and blows by Pankey and sends the poor guy flailing., The odd deep stance twists inside and thumps center Tyler Orlosky, who was heading out to block for Smallwood. It’s wobbling now. Left guard Tony Matteo can’t block his guy and Orlosky has to rescue him. The blocking is finished and the defenders playing in the zone have all the openings they need to win this down. Jenga!

Good: Offensive line
That’s perfectly blocked by Matteo and Pankey, and it wasn’t easy because of the stunt in front of them. But they maintained the zone and walled guys off inside and outside, and, whoa, Shell beat the safety!  Howard wasn’t sacked and never lost yardage on his seven runs. Shell, Smallwood (Aside: Seven carries!), Smith and Thompson combined for 31 carries. Shell had one negative-yardage run. No one else had any. After weeks of games with false starts, holds and chop blocks, there were 79 snaps and no penalties (one hold was declined). All of this happened with Matteo starting for the first time and playing more than he ever has. Grant Lingafelter played some right guard and Russ Haughton-James played some right tackle. (Side Good: Marquis Lucas. We never said his name. Let’s be fair: He played better than he has. Maybe ceding snaps to Haughton-James helped. Maybe getting pressed by competition helped. But those things matter. Everything matters.) Lots of new and moving parts, but not a lot of trouble alongside a season-high 285 yards rushing.

Good: Defensive line
Wes Tonkery’s sack in the second quarter was WVU’s first since getting one against TCU. You can’t win with zero sacks in two games. The  Mountaineers had three sacks Saturday, but I thought there were two swing plays that weren’t sacks.

The offense was back in the game here, and it felt like Iowa State had exhausted it’s supply of big and surprising plays with the Sam B. Richardson touchdown pass to Tad Ecby. (Aside: Incorrect! Side Bad: Houdini!) The game was trending a way here that suggested Iowa State needed to stay on the field or risk losing the lead. So it’s third-and-10 and defensive coordinator Tony Gibson drops into coverage and asks the defensive line — that defensive line — to do something. And Brandon Golson comes from the bottom of the defensive line and does it. WVU tied the game on its next possession.

WVU’s offense got stuck in the locker room at halftime and looked lost in the third quarter with just 42 yards. The Cyclones, meanwhile, had 103 yards and looked a little feisty. So here we are early in the fourth quarter on third-and-4. I figured Gibson would blitz in that situation and on that spot on the field, but he tasks the defensive line again and is rewarded again. Check Kyle Rose’s spin move! He shoves the center, left guard and running back into a box and is on the quarterback. Richardson was not ready for that. Iowa State punted, Alford bobbled his way to a 40-yard gain and Howard found Shorts in the end zone a few minutes later.

This was one of my favorite plays of the day.

Good: D!
Iowa State finished 7 for 20 on third down after starting 5 for 6. Richardson started 10 for 12 for 138 yards and two touchdowns and finished 26 for 50 for 275 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. WVU allowed 38 passing touchdowns in 2012, 24 in 2013 and 14 this season — and none of those 14 came in the second half. That’s winning defense, and that defense has but four seniors who played a part in that.

Good: Lambert
This is the score that ended the game because there wasn’t time for that Iowa State team to score two touchdowns. And though there was no proclamation in the game, this was history: Lambert’s 15th field goal of 40 or more yards this season set a NCAA record. We’re not sure that WVU knew about that as it happened, but we expect that to be a big part of the late push to help him win the Groza Award. He’s 27 for 36 this season, leads the nation in field goals made and attempted, has set the school record for field goals attempted in a season and is three shy of matching Paul Woodside’s school record for made field goals in a season. Lambert, No. 2 nationally in kicker scoring, is also four shy of tying the NCAA’s FBS record for made field goals in a season and two short of the mark for field goals attempted in a season. What he’s done so far will have to suffice because the votes are due this weekend.

Good: The end
We’re all out of sorts and order here, but I felt like Iowa State was done-done here, never mind the paragraph above. A nice Cyclones drive at the end of the third quarter, highlighted by an energizing and ominous fake field goal, made the Mountaineers look like they were in peril. In the timeout between the third and fourth quarter, and right before this play, Gibson reminded his players the Cyclones like to run corner routes in the red zone. Terrell Chestnut played his part in the zone, but had his mind on the corner route and his eyes on Richardson. That was devastating for Iowas State and the crowd, but especially for Dillon, who wanted that interception so badly.