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You are looking live at the excited and excruciating expressions of West Virginia quarterback Skyler Howard from last week’s win against Missouri. It was an interesting day for the senior. He had this third-best completion percentage in his 16 career starts, but he finished without a touchdown pass for just the second time. (Can you name the other one?)

Howard, of course, was knocked out of the game for four plays/two series. The play in question, believe it or not, was not this one. He lived to run another down, and then that red zone possession ended in a field goal. Howard was hurt, we think, on a botched handoff late in the second quarter. On the fist snap of his career, running back Kennedy McCoy went one way and Howard was under the impression the freshman, heretofore praised for his football intelligence, would go another way.

So Howard bailed and felt some pain and was tackled and got up and went back to the huddle and seemed concussed and took a knee and then needed some help to get off the field.

A fumble and an interception followed in his absence, but Howard, to the surprise of many and to the relief of most, returned in the second half. He played five possessions and led the Mountaineers to three trips into the red zone and 13 points.

On Tuesday, we learned the diagnosis was strained ribs, that he’s not physically limited and that he’s going to be in pain until the pain goes away. It’s not like a fly or a cloud of midges that you can shoo away, an there’s no way to accelerate the recovery. So Howard will play and wince and take short breaths when he tries to huff and puff. It’s a Thing, for sure, and you know Youngstown State knows this.

So, what to do with Howard today? He starts and he plays for as long as he’s needed, but he’s going to take, say, 60 snaps and hand off on 30 of them and throw on 25 and have orders to run or make a call on a run-pass option five times. By that extremely unscientific assessment, he’s open to a hit on 30 plays. You protect the quarterback, right? Do you do something along the lines of eliminating those five quarterback runs/run-pass options and allocate seven to 10 of the 25 passes to the 30 handoffs?

We already know the answer. Howard only ran seven times last week, matching a career low, and none of those came in the second half — not even in the six snaps WVU had inside the Missouri 10-yard line, where Howard is a weapon. There’s a contingency in place today.

“I think it depends on how he’s feeling,” head coach Dana Holgorsen said. “I didn’t run him up in between the tackles in the second half like I did in the first half. It limits us a little bit. You only do that when you really have to with quarterbacks.”

“Limits,” not because the Mountaineers absolutely need Howard to run the ball for the running game to thrive. Rushel Shell and Justin Crawford and probably Eli Wellman and McKoy need to help their quarterback today. But Holgorsen does enjoy calling quarterback counters and quarterback power plays in the red zone. The offense has an extra blocker and Howard only needs a little space to make a big play.

You see, Howard averages 11.3 carries and 39.9 yards per start. This is not like losing Pat White. But Howard’s six career touchdown runs covered 50, 32, 9, 3, 2 and 2 yards, and 30 of his 181 carries as a starter came in the red zone. Howard is a scoring option, and WVU’s red zone woes are known by now.

“He’s been very successful and effective in the run game, and we’re going to make sure that continues to happen, but we’re always going to try to protect that position, as well,” Holgorsen said. “It’s the balance that you kind of have to figure out.”

The Mountaineers would welcome more 23-yard touchdown runs by Shell and maybe even the first catch-and-run touchdown of Daikiel Shorts’ career, but let’s keep an eye on formations and play calls in the red zone today and see if WVU dares to be different or if Howard allows it.