MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia’s offense did much of what it aspired to in the first half of Saturday’s 41-31 loss to No. 7 TCU.
The final two quarters, however, were a different story, and a key reason why the Mountaineers fell to 3-5 overall and 1-4 in Big 12 play.
“We just didn’t make enough plays in the second half offensively and that’s the side that we’ve really depended on all year,” head coach Neal Brown said. “We didn’t come through in that game.”
Despite trailing 28-21 at halftime, the Mountaineers entered the intermission with 305 total yards, including 142 on the ground despite playing without tailback Tony Mathis, the team’s leading rusher through seven games.
In the second half, the Mountaineers managed only 13 rushing yards and 125 total yards.
Brown credited the Horned Frogs’ defense for its commitment to slow the run.
“They had some answers,” he said. “They came down and played more of an eight-man box. We ran the ball better against them in the first half better than anybody they’ve played this year. Schematically, we did some things differently than what we’ve shown on film, so we had some good answers for them. In the second half they played more of an eight-man box and changed their front for the first time all year.”
Running back CJ Donaldson was unable to finish the game after suffering a lower leg injury Brown described as “bad”, while fellow back Justin Johnson gave it a go despite being questionable throughout the week.
When West Virginia got the ball back with inside 4 minutes to play trailing 34-31 following a Malachi Ruffin interception, Jaylen Anderson, the No. 4 tailback, was the team’s only scholarship running back available.
Anderson has limited experience since arriving at WVU in 2021. The redshirt freshman carried three times for 6 yards against TCU, giving him nine rushes for 39 yards on the season. Each of the other six attempts came in a lopsided Week 3 win over Towson.
“We got away from it a little bit some because our running back room is so beat up,” Brown said. “That’s not critical on [offensive coordinator Graham Harrell]. Justin and CJ practiced a little bit this week, but not a whole lot. CJ gets hurt bad in the second half. Justin was beat up coming into the game and not playing full speed. So our run game in the second half was limited because we didn’t have a whole lot of people.”
On the first play of the series following Ruffin’s pick, Anderson dropped a swing pass. He was then dropped for a 3-yard loss on a run, before Daniels threw an incomplete pass that created fourth-and-13.
Brown opted to punt, and when West Virginia got the ball back again, it trailed by 10 with 20 seconds left.
“We had a couple negative runs in the second half. The one on second-and-10 on the last drive killed us,” Brown said. “We had every intention of going for it on fourth down, but when it gets to fourth and whatever it was, like 14 or 15, it’s not very good odds.”