A while back, Ka’Raun White was talking about his performance in the Cactus Bowl, when he caught four passes for 116 yards as part of West Virginia’s Blue Angels Air Show. He mentioned that his older brother, Kevin, thought it was a good game, but he also let his younger brother know that it was just OK and that it would have been a lot cooler if he’d scored. (Aside: Imagine what Kyzir has to deal with with those two.)

Ka’Raun, as you can see, scored a touchdown Saturday.

Shelton Gibson caught two.

Mr. End Zone, Daikiel Shorts, caught one on the outskirts of Quillacollo and a dusty cantina where Mack was alone and miserable at the end of the bar.

And Kennedy McKoy caught one, too, and that was a useful piece of late-game psychology to send the freshman into the locker room with a much different air about himself.

We can — and will! — make more out of McKoy’s score and the fact Shorts is like Moonlight Graham and transforms into a different entity when he crosses the goal line, but let’s instead discuss the big deal on a big day for Skyler Howard: Long passes!

There were scant opportunities to find and embrace them against Missouri, and Youngstown State attempted Saturday to in a similar way and discourage the bombs-away mentality. The trouble, as we discussed in the pregame portion of the live post, was the way the Penguins used their safeties. A lot was put upon their shoulders in that Cover 4 coverage scheme, and they were asked to spy the pass and play the run.

That’s not unusual and it requires skill and discipline and speed and experience. For a while, it was working. WVU’s running game was inexplicably stuck against what was essentially a five-player box, except that one or both of the safeties (and some others) would roll in to help with the run.

But then the Mountaineers slipped in a wrinkle, thanks to a tip from Gibson, whose spying was as valuable as his speed Saturday, and and some flicks from Howard.

“The way they played their guys, they were funneling things to their safeties, and their safeties had to come down and get to the ball in the running game,” Holgorsen said. “We didn’t really make them come down on the run very often, but our play-action was good.”

Three of Howard’s touchdowns and an additional 45-yard pass came on play-action fakes. Each time, the fake gave the safety a reason to pause and look to see if the running back had the ball. Each time, the safety spotted the fake and retreated into the defensive backfield. Each time, it was not enough.

It was all Skyler,” receivers coach Tyron Carrier said. “He did a great job putting his head down and selling the play-fake. The safety would scoot up, but by the time he scooted up, we were even with him. Nobody’s going to catch us from behind.”

So Howard had a large day with big yardage and touchdown totals and good-enough accuracy — again — and the deep passes were there on a day they maybe weren’t supposed to be there. That’s the good news!

The bad? Not much else was better in the second game than it was in the first.

Let’s be real for a moment. This was a concern for the second game. The first was the opener at home for 60,000-plus people and against an SEC opponent. It’s easy to get up for that game and to play with energy and effort from start to finish, from the front of the bench to the back.

The second game was at home with 5,000 fewer fans and against an FCS opponent … that will be back here in two seasons. It’s almost expected that the collective verve will take a step back.

WVU’s coaches liked what they saw in the first game and, knowing they rely on so many first-time players, were optimistic it would be there again in the second.

That did not happen, and that was probably the most significant item from yesterday. WVU was sort of flat for much of the day until it found and flaunted a spark on offense. But on the whole, they were not better in the second game than they were in the first.

No, West Virginia didn’t struggle as much as No. 8 Georgia did versus Nicholls State or No. 2 Clemson did against Troy. It didn’t fall on its head like No. 22 Oklahoma State did against the MAC’s Central Michigan.

Yet the Mountaineers devolved.

“Horrible,” West Virginia defensive coordinator Tony Gibson said of his defense. “Terrible. Can’t tackle. Can’t cover. Bad.”

He continued.

“I apologize to all West Virginia football fans and everybody that’s ever played here on defense for that showing.”

Maybe that’s a bit strong, but Gibson does have cause for concern. Against what was a terrible 2015 Missouri offense, WVU allowed 462 yards to the Tigers in Game One. The surprise there, however, was the Mountaineers only allowed 11 points.

Against Youngstown State, a member of the Missouri Valley Conference, West Virginia gave up 405 yards. This time, though, it translated into 21 points.

The step back wasn’t all on the defense though. Almost to the end of the first half, Youngstown State outplayed its host in all three phases of the game.

The deep ball rescued the Mountaineers — that’s good, by the way, because that’s Howard’s strength, and that WVU could go to it and get it when it was needed has to be of some relief — and now there’s an open week and then a practice week to remind the players what went wrong Saturday and make sure it doesn’t happen against BYU (1-1) on Sept. 24 at FedEx Field.