MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Through its first three games, West Virginia hadn’t endured much difficulty generating explosive offensive plays.
The Mountaineers had 18 plays cover at least 20 yards during that stretch, though only six went for 30-plus yards.
Yet for as well as West Virginia adhered to its game plan and controlled possession to keep Oklahoma’s offense off the field for much of the first three quarters last Saturday, explosive plays were noticeably missing in the Mountaineers’ 16-13 loss.
In 63 offensive snaps, WVU generated only two plays of 20-plus yards. Had the Mountaineers come up with a few more, they likely would have returned home with a signature win for head coach Neal Brown in his second meeting with the Sooners and 26th game of his West Virginia tenure.
“Schematically, I have to do a better job of getting us in shot plays that can create some explosives,” Brown said.
Jarret Doege’s 28-yard pass to Winston Wright Jr. marked WVU’s longest play in the narrow loss, while Leddie Brown’s 20-yard run was the only other gain of more than 16 yards.
Doege completed eight passes that covered between 10 and 16 yards, including six hauled in by Bryce Ford-Wheaton. Garrett Greene also had a 10-yard pass to Wright.
Against an Oklahoma defensive front likely to be as formidable as any the Mountaineers face this season, WVU opted to take what the defense was giving, which was often intermediate throws.
“It’s such a week to week deal,” Brown said. “We were first or second in the league in explosive plays going into the Oklahoma contest. Explosive plays are tough, because time and place is really important, especially playing against a group where you can’t play from behind the chains.
“We were 3-8 on down the field throws [of 10-plus yards] and you’re a little bit limited, because you have to be careful protection wise in some 1-on-1s against that group Oklahoma has.”
West Virginia’s pass protection held up well for most of the matchup with Oklahoma. The Sooners’ only sack went to Perrion Winfrey, who was credited with one after pressuring Doege into an intentional grounding penalty during the third quarter.
Perhaps the protection was a byproduct of passes being released quicker because they weren’t traveling as far, though Brown says he and the coaching staff need to find a happy medium.
“We have to get the ball in the air 20-plus yards on those explosive plays. That’s where schematically we have to do a little better job,” Brown said. “We’ve done a good job against everybody else, but against that type of pass rush, we have to do some different things protection wise giving us a chance to hold on to the ball a little bit longer, so we can get the ball down the field.”
As West Virginia prepares for Saturday’s Big 12 Conference home opener against Texas Tech, the Mountaineers do so seeking their first 30-point output this season.
Explosive plays need to become more common for point totals to increase. Saturday’s matchup could present a good opportunity against the Red Raiders, who allowed 70 points to Texas last week and have surrendered 18 plays of 20 more yards — four more than what the Mountaineers have given up.
“The reality is shot plays take more time,” said Gerad Parker, WVU’s offensive coordinator/wide receivers coach. “How do you buy more time? Run action, play actions, finding ways to get guys on free runs and matchups. It’s a tireless approach to finding them and then you have to weigh that percentage if we can get the time, it’s certainly worth it. If you’re worried about time or worried about matchups, it’s not, because it’s not worth a sack or worse, a turnover. “
“We have to find ways to manufacture them. We’ll push that envelope as we move forward and try to get our guys in position to create explosives that we found a lot in the first three games.”
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Following the 16-13 setback at Oklahoma, Neal Brown insinuated he felt the Sooners got away with being offsides on multiple occasions.
“I thought they were offsides a bunch, but they didn’t call it, so I have to look,” Brown said. “I’ll have a better feel for it once we watch the film.”
Brown didn’t change his thoughts after film review, though he declined to discuss the matter in more detail.
“In my opinion they were offsides,” he said. In [Big 12 coordinator of football officials] Greg Burks’ opinion, they weren’t. I don’t feel like paying a fine, so I’ll just go with that. But I have some video evidence.”