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The Good and the Bad of WVU v. Oklahoma

November 23, 2016 by Mike Casazza
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This photo is tremendously tremendous. The scene before the start Saturday night was so good. There was anticipation, because Mountaineer Field hadn’t witnessed a game between two top-10 teams since 1993. There was tension, because the two teams played the feud at midfield as they concluded their warmups. There was a buzz, because neither team could wait to get their mittens on one another.

And there’s Dana Holgorsen, catching snowflakes with his tongue. Little did he know an avalanche would follow.

West Virginia played a bad half of football. That’s not unprecedented. It was unusual, especially the totality of it all. All three sides of the ball chipped in, and the team that’s ordinarily tight at the seams came apart in the same spot. The Mountaineers have had bad halves this season, but not with the stakes so high and not against a team of Oklahoma’s caliber. WVU could get away with four turnovers against Texas. It could play from behind against Kansas State. It could come out flat against Youngstown State. Not one of those teams is as good as the Sooners.

I think Oklahoma is humming and playing offense at a level that’s at least as good as anyone else in the country. At home, I think they beat Oklahoma State and give the Big 12 its first unbeaten champion since it went to one division and nine games in 2010. That matters. Barring a little chaos, which certainly seems possible in these next two Saturdays, I don’t think Oklahoma gets or deserves a spot in the College Football Playoff. The “tremendous offense” is offset by a very flawed defense. Having said that, I think Bob Stoops & Co. made it pretty clear at WVU’s expense that they’re going to give the committee plenty to consider. We saw one team flub its lines, and we saw another team do exactly what it had to do over and over again.

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

Bad: Revisionist history

This is crazy. There’s no story to be told or written about the fact the two teams wished one another happy Thanksgiving at midfield before the game — it happens all the time, and the thing you talk or write about is how it unnerved the Mountaineers — until someone says it didn’t happen. Then it’s just silly. Near as I can tell, Stoops is silly. WVU’s players left the field after their warmup and went toward the weight room so that they might return to their locker room. Then the Sooners approached and crowded the Flying WV at midfield and invited the Mountaineers to come and dance. WVU did. It happened. I saw it. You probably saw it. And do you know who else saw it? Stoops!

Bad: Let’s get this out of the way

 

First, some background. A while ago, I intended to write something about Good Skyler. It’s not easy to talk to Skyler Howard. In my opinion, he doesn’t care for the cameras and the crowds, and he doesn’t quite trust that the things he says won’t be twisted or taken out of context. You can get him to talk about things outside of football, but anything that pertains to preparing for, playing or responding to a game is aggressively vanilla. It’s just who he is. But I tried to ask him about his record at home, which at the time was 9-1. His response wasn’t quite what I expected. “I get booed here more than I do at away games,” he said. “It’s — whatever. I’m going to play ball no matter what. For me, to call it a home game, I don’t know if it matters.” (Aside: I don’t know what to think of Howard’s home/road splits.)

Then Saturday rolled around and this happened. I’ve never seen something like that before. I remember Pat White gesturing at the coaching box once, but he was celebrated for that. Howard is responding to boos, which, sure, aren’t exactly encouraging in a spot that could have used a dash of encouragement, but he’s caught up in it. That’s not what you want, and it’s the total opposite of Howard. He’s always professed to be immune to that, and that may be generally true, but it’s hard to believe he was Saturday.

Did it affect him? Who knows, but this was not one of his better games. He hit a hot streak later, but he was off early.

This is one of the weirdest things I’ve seen him do. Howard routinely answers a question about a game plan or a defense by saying he’ll take what’s there. And Howard is ordinarily good about doing just that. He changes to or from passes and runs. He throws short when the safeties are deep and vice versa. Most of the time, he scrambles when he has time and room. He didn’t do that against Texas, and he didn’t here. Strange, and I wondered if he was hurt or hurting and had orders or incentive to be safe. But he scrambled later and carried the ball plenty.

It seemed like he was playing too fast. He had a hard time with plays he often makes, too. He goes too high here, and later he misses a simple hitch play. When players and coaches talk about making simple plays again, they mean not dropping balls, but they mean plays like those two, too.

This is one of the few good breaks the Mountaineers got in the game — and the good fortune that came about by Jordan Evans dropping an interception and probably a pick six was fleeting, believe me. Watch fullback Elijah Wellman and watch the Sooners linebacker who lines up across from the right tackle. Wellman hits the flat. The defender cedes a lot of ground and then tracks Howard’s eyes and covers Daikiel Shorts sweeping across the middle. If Howard throws to Wellman — and if Wellman catches it — it’s a first down.

Skip ahead to the start of the second half.

Same formation. Same play. Wellman is open again and Howard forces it again, and this time Evans makes it count.

Howard’s a success story. He’s an excellent ambassador for the football program. He’s had a good and improved season. Saturday was not all his fault — even the things that seemed to be his fault — but he didn’t unveil a big game or a clean game when he needed to, either. I think what surprised me most was WVU either didn’t or couldn’t go deep. Oklahoma’s had an awful time defending deep throws this season, and their cornerbacks have at times looked clueless with the ball in the air. WVU did take a few chances, but Howard and Shelton Gibson couldn’t connect early in the game despite having the room you expect to have when running with Oklahoma’s corners.

The Mountaineers missed their first three throws before Gibson got behind — maybe too behind — a cornerback for a 61-yard gain. A pass interference penalty came later and then the Mountaineers found the end zone.

That’s a good albeit mandatory play by Ka’Raun White, but that was it for the deep passes. Six throws, and only five were official.

Good: WVU
All is not lost, everybody. WVU played poorly when Oklahoma played superbly, and if you’re into minor victories, the Mountaineers made the Sooners get back in the car and put the foot on the gas pedal. It very nearly got crazy at the end, too. WVU can still win 11 games for the sixth time and 10 games for the ninth time. It can win nine games for the first time in the Big 12. It can win six or seven conference games for the first time since joining in 2012. The Mountaineers have never been better than the fifth pick in the Big 12’s bowl process. They’re most likely going to be third this season and could play Florida State in the Russell Athletic Bowl. There’s a lot left. It’s a bit like Necco Wafers and Mary Janes on Halloween, but it’s still sweet if you want it to be. And if you’d like popcorn balls and a spoonful of pennies, what’s wrong with you?

Holgorsen’s — What do we call this? Job security isn’t apt, job status doesn’t quite do it … job situation? Situation? Situation! — situation is, I guess, back en vogue. I don’t think he did a poor job Saturday — much of it was out of his hands, though I can listen to commentary about how he’s ultimately responsible for a lack of discipline and the sustained presence of miscues — but Saturday did him no favors, either. Exactly what harm it did is subjective, especially where it matters most. No one’s ever said what’s acceptable in the Big 12. Like, what is WVU? What’s the goal? Making a legitimate run at the conference title every so often should be just fine. Avoiding regular losing streaks, losing seasons and embarrassments along the way ought to be required. But should WVU be forced into a habit of beating Oklahoma and Traditional Texas? I don’t know about that. Should there be punitive action for not winning the Big 12? I don’t know about that. But WVU is also 4-14 against ranked teams since joining the Big 12. Holgorsen started 2-0. He’s lost seven in a row. He’s won 13 of 16 overall, but he’s 0-1 against ranked teams in this stretch, and the 13 victims were a combined 16 games below .500 when they took the field.

There’s a lot of gray area, is what I’m saying, but the skies above this season or even above six seasons ought not be so gray solely because of Saturday.

Good: Sooners offense
Fifty-six against WVU’s defense is an achievement. The Mountaineers helped, but four of the five touchdown drives that built a 34-0 lead were 77, 78, 96 and 97 yards. And the Sooners did a lot — a lot — because they can do a lot. Joe Mixon is a weapon in the backfield, and we forget that he’s just as big as Samaje Perine, who’s supposed to be the moose. Perine in the Wildcat in short-yardage and/or goal line sets is a handful, but the Sooners play off of that.

Did you catch this?

That’s a direct snap to Perine with a fake to quarterback Baker Mayfield. (Aside: It was this kind of night for WVU and Oklahoma. The gimmick play nearly backfires, and Perine not only prevents a turnover, but he nearly gets a first down.)

The running game was just about unstoppable in the first half. The fullback was very good blocking inside. The offensive line was moving the line of scrimmage and creating alleys. Guards and tackles pulled and the running backs stayed patient to let the big guys move and cause problems. And when the running backs needed to do something on their own, they were up to the task.

But …

… Oklahoma pulled the damn center on the goal line. Not only that, but the center keys the play. Repeatedly.

The Sooners have so many weapons that it puts pressure on a defense. You need to watch for the formations and the personnel and what running backs are in the game and if a running back is playing quarterback. You’re almost distracted as you defend.

Mixon is to Mayfield’s left and a tight end is to the right tackle’s right. It’s understandable to expect a run to the right. Oklahoma sells it by pulling the left guard and tackle to the right. All eyes are going that way, and cornerback Maurice Fleming at the bottom of the screen lets the receiver inside without much resistance, and there’s no one there to guard the back side of the play. It’s that easy.

At the root, WVU and Oklahoma have similar offenses and, at the same time, different offenses. The Mountaineers use motion and quirky formations and sometimes the kitchen sink to make up for lacking what the Sooners boast: Superior talent. WVU does a lot because it has to do a lot. Oklahoma does a lot because it can do a lot. The main reason that team has has won eight in a row is because it has so many gifts on offense. On Saturday, the Sooners put it all together.

Three receivers. Two Heisman Trophy candidates. One H-back. A receiver in motion, a handoff against the motion, a fake pass to the motioning receiver and a 6-foot-1, 225-pound running back who runs toward the make-or-break block and reads it right and cuts inside and not outside. That’s excellent.

Good: Rasul

He’s going to play in the NFL. He’s going to be first-team all-Big 12. He’s going to make All-America teams. I still think he deserves a look at Big 12 defensive player of the year. He’s got to be on a list with Oklahoma State’s Vincent Taylor, Kansas State’s Jordan Willis, and Oklahoma’s Evans — and Kansas defensive end Dorrance Armstrong is vastly underrated because he plays for Kansas. Taylor is a special force who wrecks what teams do on offense and special teams. Willis is the Big 12’s premier pass rusher for the conference’s best defense. Evans is scoring touchdowns. Armstrong is a terror off the end. But Douglas makes impacts of no less than equal importance, and he does so in far fewer opportunities. Being a game-changing cornerback in this conference is worth a whole lot, and Douglas is a straight jacket with size and technique.

He didn’t hurt his case Saturday. He covered Dede Westbrook, who’s pretty good, all game. Westbrook was targeted four times. Yes, Oklahoma ran the ball at will. Yes, Westbrook had two receptions for 100 yards and a touchdown. I wouldn’t blame Douglas.

This is bad defense. The Mountaineers are in disarray with substitutions and formations, but the coverage up top is broken, and safety Jeremy Tyler sort of wanders into the middle of the field. I suspect the free safety isn’t supposed to follow motion, and defensive coordinator Tony Gibson said WVU “had 10 guys playing one defense and one playing another,” but if it’s man-to-man, then that’s probably Tyler’s guy, and then Jarrod Harper, who’s next to Douglas,  is in the crucible. Whoever the culprit — and it’s not Douglas — this is not on Douglas. (Aside: Westbrook is to offense what Douglas is to defense. One big play a game. He’s got 15 touchdown catches in eight big 12 games. Eleven covered at least 40 yards.)

Westbrook’s second reception is on Douglas, but this is life as a cornerback.

Mayfield has time and space. Douglas has to wonder. He looks around. He doesn’t want to get beat deep. Westbrook hooks his route inside, and the rapport with Mayfield pays a dividend. One catch for 25 yards against Westbrook is quite all right.

Bad: Mistakes
We could devote a lot of space to this topic, but the true error in WVU’s ways was not covering for its miscues. Take the punt return as our first example. I think you’re being dishonest with yourself if you didn’t think the Mountaineers were going to make a mistake and pay for it on a punt return this season. There were two errors Saturday.

This is not all on Gary Jennings. It’s not. He’s doing his part waving his arms and yelling, and that’s supposed to tell his teammates to watch their feet. Could he be more emphatic? It seems that Mark Scott, the special teams coordinator, thinks so. But players need to look for the arms and listen for the shouted cue. It’s not that Nana Kyeremeh isn’t paying attention. It’s that he’s not aware of the situation. He’s too close, and Jennings isn’t wrong to think it hit his teammate and to run up to get the ball. It’s an unlucky bounce, and that compounds the fact this wasn’t a good punt.

But it wasn’t ever going to be a good punt. It was cold, snowy and windy. Jennings is lined up inside his 20. He’s about 55 yards from where the ball is punted. That’s a lot of highway, and his Thing is catching the punt, so it’s reasonable to be surprised he was 10 yards from where the punt hit the ground.

The Sooners take possession, and WVU still has a chance to contain things, but Justin Arndt, who had a rough night getting knocked over and smothered by the Sooners, misses a chance to get Mixon on the ground here.

This is a 2-yard loss. A field goal is a win for WVU. Maybe the Sooners miss it, and 43 or so yards is a trick in that weather. Maybe Oklahoma goes for it and comes up short. We’ll never know.

If you’re keeping score at home, that’s a third-down conversion after a punt. Westook’s touchdown was on third-and-8. Then there was a poetic fourth-down guffaw.

Brutal. And why does WVU rush the punter? Because it can’t return punts. This is not a joke. Here’s Holgorsen from Nov. 8:

We’re very confident in Gary’s ability to catch the ball and all of that, but we’re going after punts. I’d rather go after punts then set returns up, so when you go after them, there’s no blockers. He probably needs to do a little better job of understanding that and catching and getting forward and getting on the ground as opposed to try to make six people miss. That’s not going to happen.

Good: Wrinkle

We’re running out of formations for an empty set. WVU can do a quadruple stack one one side and a triple stack on one side and a double stack on the other, and I think that covers it. This checked all the boxes for WVU. It created space for White. It pulled defenders to the left. It created space for a draw — and watch the deep safety for the Sooners spin back from the top of the screen to the deep middle. He was aware Howard could run, but that’s what gives White room. This has been a fun soap opera.

Good: Justin Crawford
This guy was too hurt to play last week!

This was cool because this 36-yard run happens seconds after a 29-yard run. If WVU gets a long gain, it’s almost always going to run the ball on the next snap. Crawford just so happened to be the long-gainer on both plays. Howard misses a pass and then hits White on the empty set pass, and then Crawford loses a fumble inside the Oklahoma 5.

What a weird night for the 2015 national junior college offensive player of the year, who’s going to toil to a 1,000-yard season. He’s at 930 right now, and that’s third in the Big 12. Consider all of this, though. The 331 yards is the third-highest total — third! — in school history. He didn’t score. The last time a FBS player has as many yards in a loss? When Tavon Austin rang up 344 … against Oklahoma.

And does Crawford play as much if Kennedy McKoy doesn’t get crunched on the first play from scrimmage? If McKoy is healthy, does Crawford get back in after another red zone fumble? On the whole, Crawford looked extraordinary, and let’s see how Justice Hill and Chris Carson exploit this in Bedlam. There’s definitely something there.

Pardon this bit of trenchant analysis, too, but Crawford has to fix his fumbles. He’s in line for lead back reps next season. That’s 200 or so carries. Two fumbles in a season is acceptable, though not ideal. Maybe it’s playing hurt or maybe it’s not practicing. Maybe it’s just two flukes. Maybe it’s defenses getting a look on film late in the season and seeing something, and maybe that’s why Texas held up Crawford. It’s not a debilitating problem, but it can’t become one. He fumbled 15 times and 10 lost in two years in junior college. It looks like he never accounted for Evans on this one. Evans did sort of vanish behind a block, though. That doesn’t acquit Crawford. He needs to predict the unpredictable, but Evans is in and then out and then in this play.

The other thing we — and I really mean that in the sense it may only have been you and I — discussed after Crawford signed and then when he wowed in the preseason? He doesn’t run away from anyone. He has wiggle and he has speed to get into the open field, but do we need to get him a bigger gas tank?

Oklahoma’s No. 31 — Ogbonnia Okoronkwo, if you must — is 6-2 and 245 pounds. He’s almost standing still for a moment in this play, and he catches Crawford. I don’t know, it feels like picking a nit when a player does what Crawford did … except Holgorsen was all over this Monday.

“I have a hard time comparing him to Tavon. Tavon would get out in the open and score. Crawford had 330 yards or whatever he did and zero touchdowns. I don’t even know how that’s even possible. You get out in the open like that, you’d kind of like to see a guy go score. Tavon did that plenty in his career.”

That said, Crawford is the perfect piece of the 2016 offense: Lots of yards, not a lot of points.

Good and Bad: WVU defense
Not great early. Rattled. Disorganized. Ineffective. The Sooners played a very conservative third quarter, but credit the Mountaineers for shutting things down and doing what they had to do to get the ball back to the offense, and then credit the offense for capitalizing. Kyzir White had a very good second half, and he had one of the rare plays when someone on the defense came from the back side of the play, ran up the line and made a tackle. The Mountaineers were a step behind on that as the Sooners were running wild. When that happens while the opponent blocks the front side as well as the Sooners did, good damn luck.

But after Howard’s pick six, the defense went punt, punt, interception, punt. The Sooners snapped the ball 17 times and had two three-and-outs. It was conservative, and that was their choice, but at what point did you think handing the ball to Mixon and Perine was a bad idea? WVU got stops and managed to put the Sooners in one pressure situation.

The Mountaineers needed to make one more play to make things really interesting. Just one. And they had a look at it.

And then Mayield, who had made maybe one play all day — the 25-yard completion to Westbrook we looked at earlier– dug in and did this. He’s getting blitzed. He’s backing up. He strong-arms one into a tight and covered space.

Another third-down conversion and then two more touchdowns followed, but whatever game-within-the-game this evolved into came down to two plays, and the Sooners made one after the Mountaineers missed theirs.