MORGANTOWN — In two week’s worth of college football games, WVU gave up 590 yards against Baylor and 594 more in Saturday’s 48-10 loss against Texas Tech at Jones AT&T Stadium.
The yards and points allowed to the Red Raiders (4-3, 2-2 Big 12), though, WVU head coach Neal Brown said comes with a sort of asterisk.
“Defensively, you look at the numbers and say, “Oh, well, they (gave up a lot),’ ” Brown said. “It’s tough to even evaluate them, because they had to go play after four turnovers. The results are what they are, because they had to play 34 minutes of the game and 100-some plays. Some of that was self-inflicted.”
Using it’s ultra-fast tempo on offense, Texas Tech ran 103 plays and averaged 5.8 yards per play. The Red Raiders held onto the ball for 33 minutes, 51 seconds.
WVU missed some opportunities on defense, beginning with a near-interception that went through the hands of Aubrey Burks on Texas Tech’s first possession.
The game did see the return of defensive back Charles Woods, who has been out since the season opener after ankle surgery.
Woods played sparingly, and Brown said he “got banged up,” and didn’t play as many snaps as projected.
Through four Big 12 games this season, WVU (3-4, 1-3) has allowed 181 points. Only Oklahoma (187) has given up more.
Fourth downs, first downs
Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire’s faith in his offense was evident early on.
The Red Raiders had six fourth-down conversions in the first half, all of them coming before the Mountaineers had picked up six first downs.
“We’ve got to do a better job of challenging it,” Brown said. “Honestly, I thought we had a plan coming in. We just didn’t do a good enough job in setting the edge. They consumed us.”
One of those fourth-down conversions was Behren Morton finding a wide open Mason Tharp wide open in the slot.
Tharp — all 6-foot-9 and 260 pounds of him — then dragged a few WVU defenders with him down to the WVU 1-yard line.
Texas Tech scored two plays later on Tahj Brooks’s run for a 14-0 lead.
Donaldson returns
WVU freshman running back C.J. Donaldson made his return after suffering a scary concussion against Texas on Oct. 1.
He first entered the game with 3:20 remaining in the first quarter, but didn’t get his first carry until early in the second quarter, which went for a loss of five yards.
He had a little more success in the second half and finished with 33 yards on 12 carries with a long of 16. Donaldson also caught two passes for seven yards.
Running backs go down
Donaldson’s return was a major plus, because the Mountaineers lost both Tony Mathis Jr. and Justin Johnson Jr. to injuries in the first half.
Mathis went out after it appeared he took a helmet to his right arm near the WVU sideline. He did not return and had an air cast on the arm in the second half.
“We only had three running backs here,” Brown said. “Those two got hurt and couldn’t play in the second half. It was a zero factor in the outcome, I’ll be real clear on that, but it did effect how we had to call the game in the second half.”
Mathis was the Big 12’s co-offensive player of the week after rushing for 163 yards and two scores last week against Baylor. He finished with 33 yards on seven attempts against Texas Tech.
Texas Tech runs well
The Red Raiders ran for a season-high 239 yards, when they were averaging 119 per game.
Brooks led the way with 107 yards on the ground, and he scored two touchdowns.
“The interior run game, that’s not something that’s been a strength of theirs,” Brown said. “They hit some plays on us that they hadn’t hit against other people.”
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