2023-10-21 08:04:00
West Virginia has standards on defense that the players must meet in order to be successful.
Against Houston, none of those were checked off the sheet. The Mountaineers lacked urgency and didn’t play with the same effort that had defined the previous three games where the defense held the teams to only 41 total points. The Cougars matched that total by themselves.
“We didn’t play well. More disappointed than angry or upset,” coordinator Jordan Lesley said.
West Virginia was down several starters in the game due to injury, but that isn’t an excuse. And it didn’t help matters that the best players on that side of the ball simply didn’t play well.
While many are going to point to the game’s final play which was a walk-off Hail Mary by Houston, Lesley counted 27 different chances on the defensive side throughout the game that could have avoided that play even occurring. A dropped interception, multiple third-down conversions and various others are among that list which was littered with poor fundamentals.
“It’s our responsibility to not put the game in their hands,” he said.
The Cougars scored on five of their final seven drives, with the longest being only six plays. For a unit that has prided itself on strong play that isn’t going to get it done. Especially when the Mountaineers weren’t able to even record a turnover.
Coming out of the bye week, defensive lineman Eddie Vesterinen felt that mentally the unit might have still been stuck in vacation mode. That could have played a role in the lack of overall intensity.
“There’s a lot of things that factor into it,” he said.
There’s no question that moving forward West Virginia needs better play out of their defense especially with the front six where the play has been the strength of the unit. That’s not only in the run game, but in zone drops which cost the Mountaineers with easy throws.
“By far the worst performance of the year. It starts with fundamentals. Our pad level was high, we didn’t shed blocks. We missed a lot of tackles. We need to dominate with our front six and we didn’t,” head coach Neal Brown said. “Our pass coverage wasn’t good enough.”
West Virginia will be challenged to play better on that side of the ball and that begins this week against an Oklahoma State team that has been finding their footing.
One week doesn’t make a season and the West Virginia defense is hoping to prove that.
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