Arizona State quarterback Jeff Sims dropped back and hit running back Raleek Brown out of the backfield. Brown took off for 33 yards for the touchdown.

Sims and the Sun Devils exposed West Virginia’s secondary, which was a weakness that slightly showed itself a week prior. Against Colorado, the Mountaineers secured the victory, but it was still close because quarterback Julian Lewis and the receivers were pushing the ball downfield. Most of the time, Lewis would chuck it deep, and the receivers would come down with the ball.

It wasn’t as much of a 50/50 against Arizona State, but the secondary let up a lot of big passes. Most of the time, it was to open receivers, who were finding soft spots in coverage. WVU’s defense allowed six passes over 15 yards.

“Lack of discipline,” head coach Rich Rodriguez said. “That goes back to coaching.”

Sims was more of a rusher in ASU’s last game against Iowa State, and rushed for 228 yards. Against WVU, Sims used his arm, dicing up the secondary, and only rushed when he was pressured outside of the pocket for the most part.

WVU made a couple of stops to go up 23-22, giving the defense the opportunity to close out the game. Sims took over. WVU pressured him, but Sims rushed outside the pocket, picking up the yardage to get Arizona State into field goal range.

The field goal was enough to win the game.

“It’s the small details that decide the game,” defensive end Eddie Vesterinen said. “We have to be better with the small details.”

Sims threw for 207 yards on 19-for-28 passing. He’s not known to be the pocket passer, either. ASU’s passer was Sam Leavitt, who was the starter for most of the year before going down with a season-ending injury. Head coach Kenny Dillingham took notes from Rich Rodriguez on how to use a primarily rushing quarterback, and Rodriguez tasted his own medicine.

WVU did make adjustments in the second half. There were fewer big plays, but then Sims hurt the defense with his legs. Sims picked up the field goal yards and still rushed for 81 yards. ASU also turned to the ground with running back Brown. Brown ran for 53 yards on 14 carries.

Then, the same issues came up that have been problems all year. The big plays and then the tackling. WVU missed a couple of tackles late, costing it the game.

“We have to do a better job tackling,” Vesterinen said. “We knew he was a pretty good runner. We got to do a better job with that.”

WVU is now out of bowl contention and has a bye to fix the mistakes before facing the best team in the Big 12, Texas Tech. There’s nothing to play for, but if the Mountaineers somehow upset the Red Raiders, it’ll provide a lot of momentum for Year 2 of Rodriguez.

It’ll start with the defense, fixing the coverage issues and tackling, because a good team like Texas Tech will definitely expose them.

“As a defense, we got to do a better job at staying on top,” Vesterinen said. “Letting it slip away as the game continued.”