West Virginia was one Hail Mary away from a 5-1 start to the season. Fast-forward one week and the Mountaineers now sit at a disappointing 4-3.
For the second week in a row, West Virginia gave away a game they were more than capable of winning, losing 48-34 to Oklahoma State at home Saturday evening.
In both losses, the Mountaineers failed to ever seize momentum despite having multiple opportunities to do so and, in the process, have wasted their once-promising start to the season.
Everything was great when WVU was 4-1 just two weeks ago. Fans were excited, the team was on the cusp of entering the top-25 and there was even talk of the Mountaineers having an outside chance of making the Big 12 championship game. That’s all gone now.
Everything the Mountaineers were doing right during their four-game winning streak — playing good defense, avoiding mistakes and not drawing penalties — has disappeared the last two weeks.
The defense has reverted to its 2022 form, when teams scored seemingly at will, and WVU’s special teams have played its worst in five seasons under head coach Neal Brown.
It was a special teams blunder — Andrew Wilson-Lamp running into Preston Fox on a punt return — that flipped Saturday’s game into the Cowboys’ favor Saturday.
WVU was leading 24-20 at the time about to get the ball back. The Cowboys converted that mistake in a score that gave them the lead they never relinquished.
“I can’t explain it, I can’t explain that one,” Brown said. “We work that twice a week, that very situation. That’s a hard one for me to explain.”
The defense crumpled in the fourth quarter, giving up over 100 yards and three touchdowns to OSU running back Ollie Gordon. The Cowboys scored four touchdowns in the fourth quarter, outscoring WVU 28-10.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been a part of a game like that,” Brown said. “This one stings even more than the one last week.”
All the good feelings from the 4-1 start are gone now. The rest of the season will be an up-hill battle for the Mountaineers to win the fanbase back over.
Things are worse for Brown. Even when the team was winning, there were still some fans calling for his job. Those calls will only get louder this week.
“It was really just self-inflicted things we know we could’ve done better,” safety Anthony Wilson said. “We’ve got to clean up, that’s the biggest thing.”
There are still five games left in the season and West Virginia very well could finish the year with a good record and a bowl game appearance. But failing to capitalize on the best start the team has had in years is going to turn a lot of people away from the final five games of this season, whether WVU can clean up its mistakes or not.
