At Media Presser, WVU Thinks The Numbers Don’t Tell The Whole Story
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MORGANTOWN -- During Monday's round of media interviews with West Virginia head coach Neal Brown, his two coordinators and three players dissecting Saturday's discouraging 34-12 loss to Penn State at Milan Puskar Stadium, there were mixed messages being issued about the Mountaineers' performance.
Neither coaches nor players ducked the obvious, which was that WVU did not play well as the score and statistics would indicate and which the nation saw on Fox TV, but if there was one thing that emphasized, it was that they felt they had performed up to expectations in the areas they stress the most.
"We talk about effort, aggression and toughness and I didn't see a lack of any of those things," defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley said, inferring that the problem lay in execution rather than physicality.
Certainly, hours of film study since Saturday led Brown to that conclusion, but to the naked eye it did not seem that way and the ashes of defeat that were gathered on the statistical sheet seemed to discount the physicality that Brown had pushed for throughout the summer and fall camp.
Brown began his analysis by pointing out that statistics sometimes paint a distorted view of what transpired, but within the same sentence turned it into a reverse as he wound up going in another direction.
"From a team perspective, sometimes stats don't tell the story but in this game, they do," Brown said. "Rushing, we averaged 2.7 (yards a carry) and they were 5.3. They rushed for 222 and we rushed for 85."
For WVU to win games, it must run the ball. Period. No argument from anyone there.
Rushing is toughness. It is physicality.
Now it's true that WVU's rushing statistics were skewed by a few crazy negative plays, "something you can't do versus those guys," Brown admitted.
They came on missed snaps, not missed blocks.
"We didn't do as bad a job running the ball as the numbers show," Brown said. "Now, I'm not trying to convince you the numbers are lying, but we had two plays … one a minus-16 on a snap that hit the receiver that was in motion. That was the quarterback's fault. Then we had a hot snap (that went through quarterback Garrett Greene's hands) that was minus-11.
"Then, on the pass play when Garrett fumbled, that was another minus-7 or 8. All that minus yardage and it looks worse than it actually was. Our play up front wasn't as poor as the numbers showed."
Perhaps not, but the sign of physical dominance up front often is found in short-yardage situations. WVU had seven plays for third or fourth down and 2 or less and was all out to gain any yardage.
The quarterback sneak, which was a weapon last season, created little to no space the two times it was run and one fourth-and-1 run by CJ Donaldson was so close it needed two reviews to get the spot right, just past the chain.
There were, as Brown emphasized, other reasons besides physicality or toughness that the run game fell so flat. First there were two physical problems that jumped up and bit WVU.
First, left offensive tackle Wyatt Milum, an All-American candidate, missed the second half when he was overcome with cramps, which also had to have been bothering him in the first half.
Add that to already being without the two powerful offensive linemen from last year, Zach Frazier and Doug Nester, and the horsepower up front was definitely declined.
Then Brown found a way to get Jaheim the ball just eight times for 33 yards in the game. An injury limited his time on the field in the second and third quarters and the score dictated WVU turn to the pass, but Brown admitted he should have gotten the ball into White's hands more often.
"Jahiem, he didn't get enough touches. He got injured and missed a good chunk of the second and third quarter, but I thought he and CJ Donaldson did some good things in the run game. I thought (tight end) Traylon Davis did some good things in the run game," Brown said.
Defensively, it was more of the same. If the run game is indicative of physicality, Penn State ran for 222 yards, but both Brown and Lesley said they were pleased with the physical nature of the defense up front.
"Defensively, our issues were not because they knocked us off the ball," Brown said. "If that was the case, I would come here and say that but they didn't knock us off the ball."
Instead, Brown felt the Mountaineers took themselves out of running plays rather than be blocked out of them. He felt WVU moved too quickly and allowed cutback lanes for the Penn State running backs to create explosive plays.
"For us it's about simplifying what we're trying to do in the run game and making sure our cutback lanes are in better spots," Brown said.
Perhaps the most visible signs of a physical defense come from a pass rush that either sacks the quarterback or disrupts him into bad plays. This just wasn't the case in the game.
"We generated zero pressure," Brown admitted. "(Quarterback Drew Allar) has struggled with pressure and we didn't generate any. That was disappointing. His completion percentage is not good with pressure. They knew that and used a lot of 7-man protections, so he had space to throw. There was never a time in the game where he was uncomfortable."
Allar was never sacked and rushed for 44 yards on six carries. Four of those six carries went for first downs, three of them on third and 7, third and 3 and third and 8.
In addition, Beau Pribula, who split time at quarterback with Allar, carried three times for 25 yards, two of those for first downs.
So it was the quarterbacks combined for 69 yards on nine carries, making six first downs.
"Our rush defense was not good. We gave up explosive runs and a lot of quarterback scrambles. The explosives killed us and the quarterback run game," Brown said.